It was a weekend of community radio milestones with stations towards the top and down near the bottom of the east coast of Australia both celebrating their 40th birthdays.

4CCR, now Cairns FM 89.1 (their team pictured above) launched on February 8, 1985, the first radio station in the region on the FM band. The station aired from the Raintrees Shopping Centre for more than 30 years before a new home on the grounds of the Cairns TAFE.

Cairns FM89.1 runs a 24 hours a day, 7 days per week with their volunteers presenting multiple genres of music including 30 hours a week of Indigenous and multicultural programming.

A long way further south, in Upwey Victoria, after the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires a group came together to find a better emergency system for the people in the Dandenongs. At that meeting were founding members of 3MDR, Peter Colenso, Ron Harmer, Simon and Greta Ferguson, and Robert Fogarty.

3MDR started on 89.9 FM, and in 1990 settled at 97.1 FM when their full broadcasting licence was granted. The station’s home has been beside the Cockatoo water tower, in a bus, a milkbar in Belgrave, above the Mechanic’s Hall in Emerald before moving to the historic Forest Park Homestead at the start of 2018 where they broadcast from today.

They celebrated their 40th with an open day and party on Sunday February 9 for their volunteers, partners and the community.