About 2TVR 96.3 FM Sounds of the Mountains

2TVR 96.3 FM Sounds of the Mountains

Overview

Sounds of the Mountains is a community radio station based in Tumut, in the Snowy Valleys region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. Broadcasting under the callsign 2TVR, its main signal on 96.3 MHz FM serves Tumut and the Snowy Mountains foothills, while a network of translators carries the same service across one of the most geographically demanding licence areas in the state. The station broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, mixing local voices, music, news, sport and community information for the towns of the Snowy Valleys and Cootamundra-Gundagai council areas.

The station brands itself simply as "the local station", and its defining role in the region is as the recognised local emergency broadcaster. In a landscape of pine plantations, alpine weather and bushfire-prone valleys, Sounds of the Mountains is the electronic medium locals turn to for bushfire alerts, flood information, severe storm warnings and winter snow and road reports. That emergency function, tested severely during the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires, has made the station one of the best-documented examples in Australia of the life-safety role that small community stations can play.

History

2TVR holds the community broadcasting licence for the Tumut RA1 licence area, planned under the Australian Communications and Media Authority's Wagga Wagga radio licence area plan. Over time the single Tumut service grew into a multi-transmitter network as the regulator progressively extended its footprint across the scattered towns of the Snowy Valleys. The station's own site describes four transmitters — and in fact lists six outlets: Tumut and surrounds including the Snowy Mountains on 96.3 FM, Batlow on 96.3 FM, Cabramurra on 96.3 FM, Gundagai on 94.3 FM, Talbingo on 94.3 FM, and Adelong on 94.1 FM. The Adelong service was formalised in 2013, when the ACMA varied the licence area plan to make 94.1 MHz available at Adelong — at a maximum power of just 20 watts — and extended the Tumut licence area to include the town. The service is also relayed into the Upper Murray region via Radio Upper Murray, extending its reach across the state border country.

The defining chapter of the station's history came in the summer of 2019–20, when bushfires devastated the Tumut, Batlow and Tumbarumba districts during the Black Summer crisis. Presenter David Eisenhauer and the station's team broadcast rolling emergency information around the clock. The work was recognised at the highest level: Michael McCormack, then Deputy Prime Minister and the local federal MP, told Parliament that Eisenhauer's broadcasts had saved lives, and returned to the station for regular interviews throughout 2020 as the region recovered. Wagga Wagga's Daily Advertiser published a feature on Eisenhauer and the station's bushfire broadcasting in July 2020. The station's continuing place in the region's civic life was visible again in November 2025, when Snowy Valleys Council considered a variation to the station's lease in its ordinary meeting agenda — a routine but telling sign of an operating broadcaster embedded in its town.

Programming and Content

The program day is built around local presentation. David Eisenhauer is the station's best-known voice, hosting the morning program that features interviews with local representatives, community figures and national politicians; transcripts of his interviews with the local federal member were still being published in October 2024. Saturday Morning Sport, hosted by Pat Ferguson, covers the region's strong local sporting culture, and through the day the station provides a continuous service of community announcements, upcoming events and lost-and-found items, along with regular forums for local schools, churches, interest groups and councils to broadcast their news.

Seasonal programming is a particular specialty. Through the winter months the station provides snow information seven days a week — road reports, snow reports and advice on when chains are required for the alpine routes. In emergencies of any kind, at any time of year, the station switches to rolling coverage, broadcasting live from the studio or from the location of the emergency for as long as the event lasts, covering bushfires, floods, severe thunderstorms and snow-affected highways. Its ANZAC Day coverage in April 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions cancelled public dawn services, showed the same adaptability: the station assembled and broadcast recorded services produced with the Tumut and Gundagai RSL sub-branches so that residents could commemorate at home. For national and state news, the station is an affiliate of the AIR News service, which lists Sounds of the Mountains among the stations taking its bulletins.

Audience and Reach

The station's audience is the population of the Snowy Valleys and neighbouring districts: Tumut, Batlow, Gundagai, Adelong, Talbingo, Cabramurra and Tumbarumba, with the Upper Murray relay extending listening into the Corryong and Walwa country across the Victorian border. These are small towns spread across a large, mountainous area, and the overlapping FM frequencies are designed so that drivers moving through the region can find the service somewhere on the dial wherever they are.

Community stations sit outside the official ratings system, and Sounds of the Mountains publishes no audience figures; its own site instead claims that it has been the number one choice for local voices, entertainment, information and news in its area for well over a decade — a statement of local standing rather than a measured result. The qualitative evidence for that standing is unusually strong: a Deputy Prime Minister repeatedly crediting the station, on the parliamentary record, with saving lives during the Black Summer fires and praising how listeners across Walwa, Corryong, Gundagai, Tumut, Tumbarumba, Batlow and Talbingo value the service. In emergency-management terms, the station is treated by its community as essential infrastructure.

Digital Presence

The station's website, thelocalstation.com.au, provides a live stream, listen-online facilities, station news, announcements and a dedicated emergency information section. It also promotes the Community Radio Plus app, the sector-wide smartphone app through which listeners can stream the station on iOS and Android devices anywhere. Online streaming matters in this licence area: residents who have moved away, seasonal workers and travellers planning trips into the Snowy Mountains can follow local conditions, snow reports and emergency information from outside the FM footprint. The station maintains the site as a practical extension of the broadcast service rather than a promotional brochure, with the emergency information function front and centre — consistent with its role in the region.

Ownership and Organisation

Sounds of the Mountains is a not-for-profit community broadcaster operating under the 2TVR community licence in the Tumut RA1 area. Like all Australian community licensees, it must represent its community interest, operate without a profit motive, follow the community radio codes of practice and encourage community participation in its operations. Its workforce reflects that model: the station is staffed by a combination of paid and volunteer locals, and the volunteers make up over 70 per cent of the team — the contribution that keeps the service on air 24 hours a day. Training courses are run regularly for local volunteers who want to move into presenting and production roles, creating a pathway from listener to broadcaster that is characteristic of the community radio sector. The station's physical presence in Tumut is formalised through its premises arrangements with Snowy Valleys Council, whose November 2025 agenda included a variation of the station's lease.

Contact and Availability

Sounds of the Mountains can be heard on 96.3 FM in Tumut, Batlow and Cabramurra, on 94.3 FM in Gundagai and Talbingo, and on 94.1 FM in Adelong, with the service also relayed into the Upper Murray. It broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and streams live through its website, thelocalstation.com.au, and the Community Radio Plus app. Community groups, schools, churches and councils across the Snowy Valleys and Cootamundra-Gundagai regions can contact the station through the website to arrange announcements and interviews, and prospective volunteers can enquire there about the station's regular training courses.