About 6HFM 107.3 FM Heritage FM

6HFM 107.3 FM Heritage FM

Overview

107.3 HFM, broadcasting under the call sign 6HFM and owned by Heritage FM Inc., is a community radio station serving the south-eastern corridor of Perth, Western Australia. From its studios at 43 Mills Road West in Gosnells, the station transmits on 107.3 MHz FM to a licence area covering the City of Gosnells, the City of Canning, the City of Armadale and the Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale. It broadcasts around the clock, seven days a week, with a schedule built almost entirely from programs produced and presented by local volunteers.

The station's output is deliberately broad. Music programming ranges across rock, heavy metal, country, jazz, folk, classical and gospel, sitting alongside specialist talk, community information and culturally specific shows such as its long-running Croatian program. That mix reflects the community broadcasting model under which 6HFM is licensed: rather than chasing a single commercial format, the station is required to serve the range of interests found within its local community, and to give community members a direct pathway onto the airwaves. Heritage FM Inc. is a member of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA), and the station is supported by the Community Broadcasting Foundation.

History

Heritage FM began broadcasting on Australia Day, 26 January 1998. Its first home was in Orchard Avenue, Armadale, and its first frequency was 93.7 MHz FM — a notable starting point, because that frequency later became one of Perth's best-known commercial allocations. The station remained on 93.7 until 2002, when it moved to its current home at 107.3 MHz; the 93.7 frequency is now occupied by Perth commercial station Nova 93.7.

The move to 107.3 settled the station into the Gosnells area, where it has remained a fixture of the local media landscape ever since. In 2007 the station added live internet streaming, extending its signal well beyond the reach of its FM transmitter for the first time. The station's on-air community has deep roots: presenter Keith Morgan, for example, joined as a volunteer in 2003 and made his first broadcast on Australia Day 2004, while Frank Scatchard has been involved with the station since 2007. New presenters continue to come through the ranks by the same volunteer pathway — Joe Mahon, for instance, supported the station as a corporate sponsor from around 2015 before stepping behind the microphone in March 2024. In 2022 the station received national recognition when its hip hop program Beats, Rhymes and Life won Best Program – Music at the CBAA Awards, the community broadcasting sector's national awards. Gavin Crossley, the program's host, is a six-time CBAA Award nominee who has presented on community and commercial stations since 2001.

Programming and Content

The 107.3 HFM program grid is music-led but unusually varied, and many of its shows have run for years. Rockaria, presented by Frank Scatchard, champions local and underground hard rock and heavy metal acts and is the station's longest-running program, reaching its thirteenth year on air. Gavin Crossley hosts the award-winning Beats, Rhymes and Life, devoted to hip hop, as well as the nostalgia strands 90's Til Infinity and 00's Til Infinity.

Other regular programs illustrate the breadth of the schedule. In The Scene, presented by Joe Mahon on Tuesday evenings, plays nothing but Western Australian artists across indie, folk, country, pop and electronic styles. Beyond The Groove, hosted by Nigel Loveless on Wednesday evenings, is a soul show drawn from his personal collection of thousands of vinyl 45 rpm records. Keith Morgan presents Kaleidoscope on Sunday evenings and shares The 4th Dimension with rotating presenters. The Croatian community is served by 2 Cro Girls, presented by Mia Hollingum and Mira Rastegorac on Thursday nights, featuring Croatian music, news and culture; both presenters began in radio at Perth's ethnic broadcaster 6EBA-FM in the 1990s. The station also carries a Writers Circle program showcasing members of the Gosnells and Armadale writing communities, a locally focused magazine program, and Men in Sheds, a program produced with the men's shed movement. News content from The Wire, the community sector's national current affairs service, appears on the station's website and in its information programming.

Away from the studio, the station is a visible presence at local events, presenting outside broadcasts from Anzac Day dawn services, Australia Day celebrations, agricultural shows, youth expos and school wellbeing events across its licence area. Promoting local bands and Australian music in general is a stated aim that runs through the schedule: between Rockaria's championing of the Perth heavy music underground, In The Scene's all-local playlist and the station's support for community arts through programs such as the Writers Circle, 107.3 HFM functions as an entry point to the airwaves for performers and creators in the south-eastern suburbs who might otherwise have no route onto radio.

Audience and Reach

107.3 HFM's core audience is the population of Perth's south-eastern suburbs and peri-urban districts — Gosnells, Canning, Armadale and Serpentine-Jarrahdale — a fast-growing and culturally diverse corridor of the metropolitan area. Like most Australian community stations, 6HFM is not included in the official commercial radio ratings surveys, and it does not publish audited audience figures; no reliable listener count for the station is publicly available. Its reach can instead be described in terms of its FM footprint across the four local government areas in its licence area, supplemented globally by its online stream, which has operated since 2007. The station's programming strategy — heavy emphasis on local artists, local writers, local events and community languages — is aimed squarely at listeners within that footprint rather than at a metropolitan-wide audience.

Digital Presence

The station's digital home is its website at hfm.radio, which carries its live webcast, program and presenter information, local news and community announcements, and a newsletter subscription. 107.3 HFM maintains active social media accounts, including Facebook, X (as @6HFM) and Instagram, used to promote programs and take listener interaction. Some programs, including Men in Sheds, have also been distributed as podcasts through standard podcast platforms. In recent years the station has adopted the Studiio audience-messaging platform to manage listener text messages, with station representatives crediting it with bringing in regular messages from listeners who would be unlikely to phone the studio — part of a broader effort to keep the two-way connection with its audience alive between broadcasts.

Ownership and Organisation

The station is owned and operated by Heritage FM Inc., an incorporated community association, and holds a community broadcasting licence for the Gosnells area. It operates on the volunteer-driven model typical of the sector: its presenters are community volunteers, and its governance rests with an elected committee. The station's chairman is Ryan Honschooten, and its vice chairperson is Frank Scatchard, who combines that role with presenting Rockaria and a long involvement in the station dating back to 2007. Heritage FM Inc. acknowledges on its website that it broadcasts from Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar, the traditional lands of the Whadjuk Noongar people. As a CBAA member supported by the Community Broadcasting Foundation, the station operates under the community broadcasting codes of practice.

Contact and Availability

107.3 HFM broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 107.3 MHz FM across Gosnells, Canning, Armadale and Serpentine-Jarrahdale, and streams live worldwide through its website. The station's studios are located at 43 Mills Road West, Gosnells, Western Australia, and it can be contacted by telephone on (08) 9398 3100. Listeners can also reach the station through its website at hfm.radio and through its Facebook, X and Instagram accounts. Community members interested in volunteering or presenting are invited to make contact through the station directly.