According to Wikipedia, the first few seconds of the song was intentionally played at the wrong speed, as the DJ’s way of getting back at the studio manager, who had been barking orders at him all day. Unfortunately there’s no grabs of it on YouTube (I would love to hear this)
I thought it was Since I Left You? (also by The Avalanches)
I recall reading at the time it was “For One Day” by Evermore.
According to Wikipedia, it was “Never Before” by Cold Chisel.
And my own contribution:
SAFM’s first song was Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits
Not sure about launch, but 3ZE Ashburton had “Communication Breakdown” queued at the Transmitter for the inevitable breakdown in communications. You could tell when the link to the studio had failed!
Not sure what Wiki article you’re reading but the triple J wiki article, plus the doco ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ both mention Gay Guys was the first song on 2JJJ-FM
And I have the audio cassette somewhere where ‘Bevan’ pushed the button to launch 106.9. Evermore were live in the (yet to be finished) studio however.
First song played on Sun FM Shepparton in 1990: “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles. It was also the first song after they changed frequency from 107.7 to 96.9 a few years later.
First song on Kix 106 Canberra when it launched in 1988: “Kick” by INXS
It wasn’t really a new station as such, but when 3AK ditched Beautiful Music and became “The New 3AK” the first song was Freeway Of Love by Aretha Franklin
Seeing as we’ve had plenty of “firsts” but how about any “last” songs?
A few have been mentioned already when the same song served as both a first and last on a station… but does anyone have any farewell songs that stand out?
3XY when it became XY Easy Rock went out with We Built This City by Starship.
Then when 3XY went off-air completely their last playlisted song was I’ll Be Gone by Spectrum, but the last song to go to air was ACDC’s It’s A Long Way To The Top which played at the end of a one-hour music tribute hosted by Glenn A Baker apparently as an ‘official’ send-off by the broadcasting authority.