After being sold to “Radio Newcastle” in late 1993 they returned to the (2)NX branding as NXFM relocated to Charlestown where KOFM (2KKO) had moved to on October 1992.
The switch from the “All New, All Hit” fast paced format to the “Always Great Rock & Roll” format was smooth, was most noticeable when they started airing a syndicated broadcast overnight.
The last broadcast of X107 FM happened on a Friday (not sure of exact date), and the following two days Saturday and Sunday they just played music, some commercials maybe a little bit of talk. The only sweeper they played was “This is 106.9 FM” and “106.9 FM” they dropped the “X107” and on the Monday bam, here is 106.9 NXFM - Always Great Rock N Roll.
They did have a clever sweeper it wen t something like (An original jingle from 2NX would start, then the song “We Built This City” came on and the VO was like) Through the 80s 2NX built this city on Rock N Roll - Now in the 90s we are NXFM 106.9 Always Great Rock N Roll. Trying to wipe the whole “X107 experiment” out of peoples mind. lol
2KO become one of the first “Top 40” radio stations in Australia.
In 1978/79 all AM stations had to move to a different frequency to free up space, 2NX 1360 changed to 2NX 1341 and 2K0 1410 changed to 2KO 1413.
Regarding 2NX changing the callsign to 2XX, yes it did. I’ve mentioned it around here a few times, & even had a couple of arguments about it, in that it couldn’t be possible, as the Canberra community station had that callsign.
I wish I could find some official documentation of the time, but I no longer have it & can’t find any to prove it, but at the time the Canberra station had callsign 1XX, (now 1XXR FM).
I can’t remember if Kevin Blyton owned any radio stations in Canberra at that time, but it’s probably where he got the idea of 2XX (with on air call X13) from for his Newcastle station?
As @AndiCee mentioned, they changed the callsign officially from 2NX to 2XX late Friday afternoon & ran an offical test broadcast for 2 days over the weekend with nothing but music, starting as X13 at 6am Monday morning.
That’s the weekend I’ve said many times that the great 2NX died, even though it’s been named NX since it’s never been the same or had glory days like it was as 2NX.
KO had been at Charlestown for years, but yes X107 moved in with them at Charlestown not long after Keven Blyton sold the station, & as John McGahen was KO GM, & became X107 GM, he renamed the station back to it’s historic NXFM (as he was GM at 2NX many years before), & changed the format to “Always Great Rock & Roll”.
Even though I’d visited radio stations prior (2GO, Coast Rock, Triple M Sydney to name a few), I did 2 weeks work experience at KO/NXFM after the name change back to NXFM (October school holidays in 94), I took holidays from my electrical apprenticeship to do it, & thats where my career in radio started, (was probably the best 2 weeks of my life), I was given a NXFM t-Shirt & stickers as I was there when they arrived at the studios from the printers, & I went out in the Promotions car with Don Dawkins a few times handing out the stickers, etc.
Later (6 months I guess) Radio Newcastle had moved everything they wanted out of the old 770 Hunter St Newcastle West 2NX Studios, & so auctioned off everything left over on site, dad & myself went to the auction & dad bought some office furniture for his business, I wish I could’ve got some more stuff including maybe one of the X13 & X107 signs that was on the front of the building, but alas was outbid.
I’ve posted this story before, & it lives on somewhere, I’ll see if I can find it & post the link.
When New FM launched April 1989 it almost instantly went to number one, and stayed the number one station for it’s first 4 years.
There’s actually very little data available in regards to the ratings.
New FM hovered around 28-29 percent of audience for it’s first four years.
X107 was put to rest I think late 1993? After being sold and re-branded to NXFM.
In 1999 New FM was sold and the new owner really made a mess of the station.
And that’s when NXFM started to catch up to New FM in the ratings but it wasn’t until late 2000, maybe 2001 or early 2003 NXFM hit the number one station spot. But I don’t think it stayed number one for long.
A lot of that is educated guesses. But it wouldn’t be far off I think.
WOW… Sound World, haven’t seen that name for a long time. A friend was manager at the Hunter Street Mall store. And that site has some great info. Shame it doesn’t have some audio. Gonna give it a good read.
With Keven Blyton owning X107 Newcastle and 2XL at the time explained why both stations shared the same positioner “The Beat of the 90’s, All New All Hits… and almost identical playlists.
He would have been copying Kix 106 Canberra for the Cooma market which was then introduced to Newcastle.
Why did he sell X107, was the station loosing money???
Radio Newcastle” which was just a group of local business men, purchased 2KO in mid 1990. They thought it was better to manage multiple stations at once instead of just the one so they purchased X107 FM in early 1993. I think they were going to buy 2GO next, after several board meetings and around mid 90s there was a fair bit of uncertainty of the future of radio so the board decided not to buy 2GO and they sold NXFM and 2KO (which was now KOFM). Early 96 they sold their company Radio Newcastle along with the stations to Austereo Network.
I know it maybe a bit irrelevant here, but there was an X1071 in the US. I got my hands on their complete jingles package and re-worked them into X1071 Sydney (Where I live now lol).
The first one I used the jingle for a digital radio station called “90s 90s” Sounds kinda like our X107 jingle. lol I made about 200 of these. lol
I actually loved it at first, because it was different. It was like nothing Newcastle had heard before. But yes, it did get old after a few months. And that’s why I think they went back to the (2)NX branding.
So… I was bored yesterday. And finding this forum (again) after awhile hadn’t been here it inspired me to produce a mock promo- air-check of what the “106.9 NXFM” branding may sound like in 2020 (not the "Always Great Rock N Roll format), lt’s my interpretation.
Features a familiar voice, familiar names, liners as used on 2NX, NEWFM & X107
Not sure which thread to put this in, but apparently narrowcast FM station Classic Hits 87.8FM will become “Newy 87.8FM” in the coming weeks after splitting from the Classic Hits (narrowcast) Network and merging with Hunter TV.
The Drive program with Darren McErlain (as mentioned in this thread when it began back in May) is expected to continue.