About Radio EMFM

Radio EMFM

Radio EMFM is a community radio station broadcasting on 104.7 MHz to Echuca-Moama and the surrounding districts on both sides of the Murray River. Operating under the callsign 3GRR and owned by the volunteer-run Echuca Moama Broadcast Service Inc., the station has been on air since 1996, gaining its full community broadcasting licence in 1997. Broadcasting twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week with around 110 hours of live local programming each week, EMFM is staffed entirely by volunteers — from teenage presenters to announcers over sixty — and serves the twin river towns and their hinterland with entertainment, local news, education and community support.

Overview

Radio EMFM broadcasts on 104.7 FM from studios at Sutton Street in the Echuca East Recreation Reserve precinct. Its licence area spans two states: the Shire of Campaspe in Victoria and the Shire of Murray in New South Wales, reflecting the reality of the Echuca-Moama conurbation, where the historic paddle-steamer port of Echuca on the Victorian bank faces Moama across the Murray. The station's own parliamentary submission describes its role as providing entertainment, local news, education, and promotion and support of the community, from primary school children to the aged community.

The station is a pure volunteer operation. In its submission to the House of Representatives inquiry into community broadcasting, EMFM reported a committee of management of ten, more than forty volunteers in total and no paid staff — all work done by volunteer members. Later station newsletters record membership growing from the twenties to more than one hundred, with each day carrying live programs with local content. The station operates around the clock, with approximately 110 hours per week of live-to-air programming and automated music filling the remaining hours.

EMFM's presenters span the generations: station profiles note DJs ranging in age from thirteen to over sixty, playing different genres of music, with hit music featured on Sundays and all other genres across Monday to Saturday. This breadth — teenagers sharing the schedule with veteran broadcasters — is characteristic of the community radio model at its best.

History

3GRR was formed in 1995 and went to air in 1996 on a temporary licence, according to the station's own submission to the federal parliament's community broadcasting inquiry. On 4 November 1997 EMFM was issued a full-time community broadcasting licence, broadcasting twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week on 104.7 MHz — the frequency it still occupies.

The station's early years were nomadic. Its first home was a warehouse office on Matong Road, Echuca, divided into three studios with only one equipped; in those early days some programs were still being relayed from KLFM in Bendigo. After seven or eight years on Matong Road, the station moved to a cramped two-room portable — described by the station as a "dog box" — at the back of the Echuca Bowling Club, where it spent two years with only an on-air studio, no production facilities, limited training capacity and minimal office space. The station was even operating for a time out of a six-by-three-metre site office while it built new studios in the old football change rooms at the Echuca East Recreation Reserve.

The move to purpose-built premises came in December 2006, when EMFM relocated to the Echuca East Recreation Reserve. The Sutton Street studios were officially opened on 12 February 2007 by Monique Wright, then weather presenter on Channel Seven's Sunrise program. The new facility gave the station a sound-proof on-air studio, a library room, an office, a production studio and amenities — a transformation from the portable era. In the early 2020s the station moved again into new purpose-built studios in the Echuca East Community Complex at 56 Sutton Street, a project built with extensive volunteer labour, including cabinetry, electrical work and technical installation by station members and supporters.

Outside broadcasts have always been part of Radio EMFM's identity. With the gift of a caravan from the Echuca Moama Rotary Club, refurbished in 2008, the station gained a permanent mobile studio for live coverage of community events. The OB calendar recorded in station newsletters includes the Moama Market, the Echuca Show, Remembrance Day services, the Girgarre Music Showdown and the Moama Lions Club Carols by Candlelight — the station taking its microphones to the events that define the district's community life.

An early public-service role deserves mention: EMFM's production facilities were used to record the talking newspapers of the then Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind (now Vision Australia) — the Talking Riverine Herald and the Deniliquin Times — serving print-handicapped listeners across the region before the era of digital audio.

Programming

EMFM's weekly schedule is built on live, locally presented programming totalling around 110 hours a week. The music format is deliberately broad: hit music anchors Sundays, while Monday to Saturday carry the full spectrum of genres presented by the station's diverse volunteer DJs. Specialist programs, talk, interviews and community announcements fill out the grid, with local news and information woven through the day.

The station's newsletters give a flavour of its community embeddedness: training sessions for new and existing presenters, membership drives, sponsorship acknowledgements, outside broadcast schedules and life-member honours. The station actively recruits and trains volunteers, recording instructional videos for studio operation and running training programs — the infrastructure of a station that takes volunteer development seriously.

Community service programming extends beyond entertainment. The station's stated scope includes education and the promotion and support of community organisations, from primary schools to aged-care groups. Its outside broadcasts bring live coverage of music, sporting and community events to listeners who cannot attend in person, and its emergency-information role during Murray River floods — a recurring reality for the twin towns — makes it a trusted local voice in times of crisis.

Coverage and Audience

Radio EMFM's 104.7 FM signal serves Echuca and Moama and the surrounding districts of the Shire of Campaspe and the Shire of Murray. The licence area covers the rich irrigated farmland of the Murray valley, the historic port precinct, and the river communities that depend on the twin towns for services. The station streams online and is carried on the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia's app, extending its reach to former residents and visitors.

No independently published audience figures are available for EMFM, and the station makes no listenership claims; community stations of its size are not covered by the commercial ratings system. Its audience is best understood as the engaged community of the Echuca-Moama district — the more than one hundred members, the volunteers, the sponsors whose stickers appear in local shop windows, and the listeners who tune in for the local voices, the Sunday hit music and the live outside broadcasts from the showgrounds and the markets.

Ownership

Radio EMFM is owned and operated by the Echuca Moama Broadcast Service Inc., a not-for-profit incorporated association. There is no commercial owner and no network affiliation. Governance is by an elected board — the committee of management of ten reported in the parliamentary submission — with office-bearers including president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer elected at the annual general meeting, alongside portfolio roles for technical, training and programs, sponsorship, grants, membership and outside broadcasts. The station's newsletters publish board minutes, financial reports and life-member lists, including honours for long-serving volunteers such as Doug Crow (1996), Karen Jenner and Harry Ross (2003), Di Richmond (2015), Ron Wood (2020), Rob Kemp (2021) and John Vincent (2022).

All work at the station is done by volunteers; there are no paid staff. Funding comes from memberships, donations, sponsorships from local businesses and grants — the classic community-radio mix, sustained by the goodwill of the district the station serves.

Digital Presence

Radio EMFM's official website is radioemfm.org.au, where the station publishes its program information, newsletters, membership details and contact information. The station's newsletters — published regularly as PDFs with names like NewsMar:April and NEWSSEPT:OCT — document board elections, studio developments, outside broadcast schedules and community events, providing an unusually transparent record of a community station's life. The station maintains a Facebook presence and Facebook Messenger contact for listener interaction, and its stream is available through the CBAA app for easy listening on mobile devices. Published contact details include 54 Sutton Street, Echuca, phone (03) 5480 2085, text 0434 341 047 and email info@radioemfm.org.au. The website, the newsletters and the social channels together keep the station connected to its community between broadcasts — and to the Echuca-Moama diaspora well beyond the 104.7 signal.