Radio Eastern FM was formed in 1974. The station transmitted test broadcasts until a licence was granted in late 1990. Full time broadcasts began on 23 February, 1991.
The studios are located at the Wyreena Community Arts Centre. We have three full time on-air studios, a separate production studio and mobile communication equipment used for interviews at community events. The station has a library of music but in the main our presenters bring in music from their own collections to share with the listeners. This gives enormous variety to the music and program formats each week.
Given that many of our presenters have been collecting music for many years, music may be formatted from a variety of sources. LP records are still favoured by many but CD, MP3 and Mini discs may be used. Some presenters may also use their own portable computers as a music source.
Our on-air studios are set up with facilities to put outside broadcasts to air as well as to conduct live interviews via telephone. Some presenters have been known to have artists in the studios playing live to air.
Two of our on-air studios are large enough to accommodate several guests and this happens regularly in some shows such as “Australian Made”, “Café Classics”, “Thursday Around Noon”, “Town Talk” and “Crossroads”.
We have also produced a number of radio plays featuring our presenters.
We serve the community of the Outer East in the following ways:
- We have established a close relationship with Maroondah Council and other local councils and conduct regular interviews with the Mayors or other councillors.
- Each week we have a program that reviews local theatre productions
- We are strongly committed to supporting new local artists. We often interview them and we play their recordings.
- We broadcast Eastern Football League games during the season and we canvass many local sports activities on “Eastern Community Sport” on Saturday morning.
A benchmark of our policy is to serve the community and to be “Your Voice in the Outer East”