Echuca made its name as Australia's largest inland port, a paddle steamer boom town on the Murray River founded in the 1850s by ex-convict Henry Hopwood. That river trade faded once rail took over, but the twin towns of Echuca and Moama, sitting across the water from each other on the Victoria-New South Wales border, kept building community institutions long after the wharves went quiet. EMFM 104.7 is one of them, run entirely by volunteers since the 1990s.
The station's roots go back to 1995 under the call sign 3GRR, broadcasting on a temporary licence before earning a full Community Broadcasting Licence in 1997. On November 4 of that year, EMFM began transmitting 24 hours a day at 104.7 MHz, a schedule the volunteer-run station has kept ever since. The station has moved twice since then, first into the old football changing rooms at Echuca East Oval in 2007, then into purpose-built studios at the Echuca East Recreation Centre in 2022.
What EMFM broadcasts reflects the towns it serves. The signal reaches well past Echuca-Moama itself, out to Mathoura, Torrumbarry, Lockington, Elmore and Kyabram, and the schedule leans on local voices rather than syndicated content, with shows like Kirky's Hits & Memories, hosted by Roger Kirchhofer, and The Road Less Travelled with Andrew Cameron. Listeners can text in song requests directly, a small detail that says a lot about how closely the station stays tied to the people actually tuning in.
Funded by memberships, sponsorships, government grants and donations rather than a corporate parent, EMFM marks its 30th year on air in 2026, with a birthday celebration planned for October featuring live music and tours of the station. For a region that built its identity on a river trade that no longer runs, EMFM has quietly become the kind of institution that outlasts the thing that first put the towns on the map.