The accolade recognises Boyd’s achievements and contribution to the community. 

Rod Boyd JP was born and raised in Melbourne’s west in Brimbank, and with his wife raised their children and grandchildren there. 

Back in ​the 1970s, he served the western suburbs as a member of Victoria Police before moving into other positions, including as a radio announcer, talk-back host and speciality program presenter with Melbourne’s 3UZ.

For the past 21 years he has been General Manager of Western Radio Broadcasters, STEREO 974, where he has nurtured, mentored and increased the ethnic language broadcasting across the station to cater to the needs of the community.

STEREO 974 is one of the longest established Community Broadcasters in Victoria, with a vast demographic and a multicultural division now spread over 12 different languages.

Early in his time at the station, Rod recognised that emerging communities didn’t have a voice, and has tailored STEREO 974 to become the newsletter of the airwaves.

Following the Coode Island fire in 1991 and subsequent inquiries that revealed information was not freely available, he created a warning system at the radio station to convey emergency information over the airwaves.

STEREO 974 was in fact the first Emergency Response Broadcaster in Victoria. The result of Rod’s hard work can now be seen Victoria-wide through the establishment of the Emergency Response Radio Network as a source of immediate information alerting the community to emergency events.

One of the many achievements in Rod’s community service was the implementation of a small business program in the Young Offenders Unit at Port Phillip Prison.

The program he created was called Doin’ Time, and was based on business principles and practices where all inmates took on a range of roles from General Manager to Human Resources. The name Doin’ Time is a registered trademark and the program screen prints t-shirts which are sold with the proceeds going to various charities. To date more than $150,000 has been raised.

Over the past few years Rod has also been actively involved as a community representative for the new Ravenhall Correctional Centre.