Sometimes it’s heads down and derrières up when the wiring goes haywire at a radio station.
It’s nearly 60 years since the first community radio licences were released — and 30 years since one came to Echuca-Moama.
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And community radio records numbers that should make mainstream commercial radio green with envy — there are more than 20,000 volunteers around the country with a combined monthly audience of 9.5 million.
Kyle and Jackie O eat your heart out.
And our own EMFM — call sign 3GRR, which is the sound some staff have been known to make when things go wrong — is one of the jewels in that community crown.
EMFM is totally managed and operated by volunteers, is owned by Echuca Moama Broadcast Service Inc and with its eclectic gang of on-air presenters and behind-the-scenes programmers it caters for all ages and music tastes.
The once-upon-a-time story stretches back to a chap called John Avis in 1995, who began exploring the possibility of a community radio station for the area.
John even worked with Bendigo/Castlemaine community radio station KLFM to learn what was involved, and for technical expertise leaned on Peter Somers of PCS Sounds.
Radio EMFM started temporary transmission from a studio at the rear of Echuca Workshops in Ogilvie Ave but it wasn’t all peaches and cream — there had been previous (failed) attempts to get the twin towns on air, so John faced a fair bit of initial scepticism.
But he stuck at it and weekend transmissions began on October 25 in 1996.
EMFM was on the air and off and running.
The full licence arrived in 1997, and the local station was now going around the clock, seven days a week.
Being a successful radio station involves lots of wires, dials and thingummybobs to keep the sound coming.
During the day the presenters played designated music styles, mainly from their own collections of vinyls, tapes and CDs.
Overnight a receiver tuned to KLFM was rebroadcast on EMFM and each day the first morning presenter had to pick up the key from Echuca Watching Services to open up and the last evening presenter had to return it on their way home.
The original studio quickly proved too small, so a half warehouse with an office in Matong Rd was rented at a good price, divided into three studios (although only one was equipped — the team was thinking big) a production room, library, green room and transmitter cum storage room.
Overnight was still relayed and two commercial programs (a gardening and a financial program) were relayed on Sunday morning from KLFM.
Former Riverine Herald journalist Adair Winder was an enthusiastic presenter during her time in the twin towns.
Later a large satellite disc was installed to take programs from Deutsche Welt, a German station that broadcast 30- to 60-minute programs across Europe, to fill the night void in Echuca-Moama. The music was great but if you wanted to follow the announcers you needed a good grasp of five or six languages.
Alas, all good things come to an end. The building housing the station was sold and the new owners wanted much, very much, more for the rental, so after almost eight years at Matong Rd, EMFM rolled along to Echuca Bowls Club, where it was crammed into a two-room portable in the grounds of the club.
This building was even broken into and besides CDs, the station’s now unobtainable CD players were also stolen and had to be replaced with DVD players, which are not the best for broadcasting purposes.
Then, in 2006, some officious personage discovered the station was on crown land reserved for sporting activities, and as community radio is not classed as a sporting activity, the station was told to move out or close down.
Fortunately, it was able to access half the disused changing rooms at the Echuca East Recreation Reserve, which were suitably remodelled and the rest is history (with much of the credit for that massive transition going to the hard work of the late Fred Every an EMFM life member), with the current HQ, the state-of-the-art Echuca East studios, officially opened in 2007 by Sunrise weather presenter Monique Wright.
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