After UGFM President Peter Weeks OAM (pictured) was added to the Community Radio Honour Roll earlier this month for his three decades involvement with the Murrindindi community station, the station itself on Saturday October 26 brought 60 current and former broadcasters together to celebrate its 30 years of community radio broadcasting.
Some of UGFM’s past and present presenters and volunteers
UGFM was established in November 1993 gaining a temporary licence. It began broadcasting in November 1994 from studios constructed in the former Headmasters House at Alexandra Secondary College. The station expanded its coverage in 1997 to the Lake Eildon and Alexandra districts with a new transmitter and gained its permanent licence in 1998. Peter Weeks, a long time SES volunteer with an engineering background, helped establish the primary and 4 retransmission sites with emergency power systems.
When Murrindindi Shire formed in 1994, UGFM’s licence area gradually grew to include translators for Yea & Highlands, Marysville & Triangle, Flowerdale and Kinglake Ranges. Additional studios were also built in Marysville, Yea and Kinglake to supplement the original studio which had moved to the former SES CFA headquarters.
Backup mains power generators complemented the station’s ability to stay on air during emergencies and power failures, again Peter Weeks’ influence, with UGFM in 2010 becoming the first community station in Australia to be a state emergency broadcaster.
UGFM broadcasts programs live 7 days a week with local programs for around 16 hours of each day.
The celebrations were attended by local, state and federal members of parliament with a delicious 30th birthday pavlova for attendees.
UGFM’s 30th birthday pavlova
The station also remembered past presenters lost over the past 30 years with a photo memorial to them.