The EMFM stalwart may not have the on-air presence of her fellow life members, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a person more influential to the station’s long-term success.
Ms Harris joined EMFM when the station had hit rock bottom – it was the mid-2010s, and the station was proverbially on the ropes, with just a handful of presenters, nothing in the bank and broadcasting was from repurposed football change rooms.
Ms Harris had just retired from her job as a teacher at the nearby Echuca East Primary and was looking for something to do.
“I joined to have something meaningful to get involved with after teaching,” she said.
“I used to get copies of The Riv and find all the perfect news stories ‒ things I thought we needed to celebrate ‒ and I’d shorten them so my husband could put them on air.
“Later that year we were elected to the board, and I was made secretary straight away.”
It was the board and her role as a director rather than as her husband’s researcher which saw Ms Harris’ star launched into the airwaves stratosphere as, alongside her fellow members, she oversaw an astonishing turnaround and an unparalleled period of growth.
One of her primary jobs was to find suitable grants for which EMFM could apply because its finances were in dire need of a cash injection.
The self-deprecating economic cornerstone of the station’s recovery and comeback doesn’t want to put a number on the money pulled together to secure the station’s future, but it was big bucks in the sex-figure range by all accounts.
“When I first joined, we really weren’t financially secure,” Ms Harris explained.
“But through a lot of people’s hard work, we’ve done really well and become quite professional with our presentation to the community.”
Part of the shift to becoming a more professional station involved moving to the other side of Echuca East Recreation Reserve and into state-of-the-art facilities.
“The council helped us out with these beautiful purpose built studios,” she said.
“We’ve gone from seven or eight presenters to having around 30 members and being the gem in the crown of Campaspe Shire.”
Despite a shifting media landscape, Ms Harris’ passion for radio remains as strong as ever.
Indeed, she believes the medium serves a purpose few other things in our increasingly digital world do.
“Radio is more important than ever,” she said.
“People want to know what’s going on, what’s happening around them, what their neighbours are doing, and what people in the community are doing.
“Social media is great, but to actually listen to radio and hear our announcers and have some sort of connection with them ‒ the human connection is just so special.”
After more than a decade of work, asking Ms Harris to pick her proudest moment is like telling her to pick a favourite child.
“I’ve just loved being a part of it,” she said.
“Working with the committee has been great, we all have the same philosophy, and we just want to see the station succeed.
“I really enjoyed doing the grants too, but I think the biggest achievement is just seeing how far we’ve come.
“EMFM is something people love, and it helps our region in so many different ways.
“We believe, I believe, there’s a great future for community radio.”
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