In early 2014, Pat Harrison distributed an article in The Advocate asking fellow Hepburn Shire residents if they would be interested in setting up a community radio station. 

That February, a group of eight interested people met and decided that they would make the idea a reality. 

Two of those people, who no longer live in the shire, had experience with setting up a radio station as they had formerly set up a community radio station in Western Australia.

Founder Pat Harrison said one of the first steps in establishing the station was distributing a survey to the community about what it thought about the idea and what kinds of things it would like to hear a local radio station broadcast. 

Ms Harrison said the idea received a lot of support from the community. 

“The idea of the radio station at that stage was about promoting a sense of community across the whole of Hepburn Shire. 

“[We wanted] two things to happen. Firstly, we would collect news and information from across the shire and disseminate it shire wide. Secondly, we would give people who were living here an opportunity to share their ideas, their music and their interests with the rest of the community,” she said.

The group worked on the project for 18 months and applied for several grants, which they successfully received.

“Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre allowed us to have this space up on the hill, administered to them on behalf of Parks Victoria,” Ms Harrison said.

“They were very supportive of getting the project off the ground.”

The station’s first internet broadcast was recorded in December 2015. 

Hepburn Community Radio station has now been on air for two and a half years. It has been operating continuously throughout that time with a core group of people.

Presenter Trevor Shard said the station goes to air each weekday morning for two hours with an emphasis on local news. 

“We might have a guest in to talk about an event that’s coming up or a community group that is working on some particular initiative,” he said.

“Max also has kids from The Field Trip in to talk about their experiences, what they’re discovering about themselves and what they’re learning during the program each Monday morning.” 

In the past, the station has had guests from Hepburn Shire Council and Hepburn Health talk about initiatives they are proposing and doctors from Springs Medical talking about public health. 

“We try to engage the institutions in the community as well as the individuals so they really get an opportunity to reach out to the community as well,” Ms Harrison said.

As it is internet based, the presenters are not sure how many people are tuning in to each broadcast. 

“We don’t know exactly how many people we are engaging. We know from our TuneIn engagement that about 1000 people are tuning in and out of each broadcast,” Mr Shard said.

Most exciting of all, as it is an internet based station, the station even has some regular international listeners. 

On weekends, the station broadcasts niche, specialist programs like music themed shows, album shows, sports programs, gaming programs and an upcoming technology program to compliment the news related content it broadcasts during the week.

Ms Harrison does not present a show but collects the daily news. She said she enjoys the community focus and meeting new people the most.

“The sense of being connected to the community has been fantastic for me as I now know so much about what is happening across the whole shire,” she said.

Mr Shard said his interest is music. 

“We have a lot of very talented performers and writers in the shire. What I really get a kick out of is giving them a chance to have their music played to a much bigger audience than they would normally have through live performance. The shire has both emerging and well established artists with a lot of talent. I try to get visiting musicians to play live-to-air performances when they’re in town,” he said.

Max Primer said he enjoyed the buzz of being a panel operator, being on air and informing people about news they might not otherwise hear about.

Lee Merzel said she enjoyed looking at history and aligning it with what is happening in the world today. She said she enjoyed leafing through old editions of The Advocate and reading the council meeting minutes, as well as finding out what happened on a specific day 150 years ago to talk about on air. 

The station is currently working on refurbishing and fitting a caravan to use as a mobile radio station with a community grant awarded by Australia Post.

Mr Shard said the caravan would give the station a real physical and visible presence while enabling the presenters to broadcast from annual events like Booktown Festival. It would also mean presenters could pull in passersby for interviews and speak to organisers on site.

“The plan is that by October this year we will be able to take it out on the road, starting with the Sunday Farmers Market,” he said.

The group said they are always encouraging community members to pitch new ideas for a show.

“We have a whole range of different programs because the content of a show depends on a presenter’s interests.

“If we have a range of different people then they all bring their own interests in to it and make it work,” Ms Harrison said.