Triple M and Gold do cover some of this genre, but not as dedicated stations though.
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If only Promo Radio Pty Ltd who has the 1629am Frequency in Melbourne could Listen.
So in my time back at home over Christmas I discovered a stack of old cassette tapes my parents and I had recorded years ago. While a lot of them were filled with crap, there were some gems that I allowed to run uninterrupted, meaning some old radio IDs were recorded. I’ve now had a chance to record and upload a few of them:
101.1 TT-FM ‘Time Warp Weekend’, most likely from the late 90s (exact date unsure)
FM 95.5 K-Rock ‘Awesome 80s Music Marathon’, again late 90s I believe but can’t confirm the date
The K-Rock one is certainly a bit older, as they still called themselves ‘FM 95 point 5’, they dropped the point in the early 2000s. But how awesome is it to have an announcer on a Saturday night, complete with a full gig guide for the pubs and clubs, as well as six hours ad-free music! Radio isn’t quite the same any more
There’s a few more I still have to upload, sadly there could be so much more if a younger me had appreciated the value in letting the tape run, rather than cutting all the IDs off
Anyway, hope there’s some enjoyment for some of you in these clips
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Some great finds here!
To be taken with a grain of salt, but Wikipedia suggests that Richard Stubbs joined the station in 2000, and hosted the breakfast shift in 2003 (after the Mix rebrand I believe) before departing.
Edit: Discussed in this article from 2008
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They do mention “Titanic star” in the movie promo. Titanic came out in 1998.
Great post Egg Man.
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I’m pretty lucky in that my relationship with radio as a listener started at a time when there was some great radio around and some great things happening… (the introduction of FM and (cough) AM stereo)… I was 13 in 1983 and that was probably the first time I started listening to radio on my own (I’d been listening to my own records prior to that but mostly it was just zoning into the same music that Dad had in his record collection and the same stations my parents listened to - 3YA, 3ZB and 3ZC.)
I felt quite a rebel when I’d change the radio in the car or kitchen to 3ZM or Radio Avon. I’d get a clip round the ear and have to change it back swiftly…
There was a dodgy old valve radio in the basement I started listening to that at night.
In addition to ZM I soon found (to my great delight) that once the sun went down my radio took on a life of it’s own… and amidst the crackle would boom stations like Hauraki, 1ZM, 77ZK…
And then to cap it all… the excitement then of hearing the Rock of the 80s - 2SM. Mark Gillard. Then Julie Brodsky.
Wow. I was gob-smacked, The music was so new and fresh, the announcers slick, and the excitement of hearing Australian ads!.. 1341 2NX soon also became a fave… Magic 11 2UW… Stereo 10… also 1422 3XY - Hot Hit! Shirl and Irvine…
I moved to Brisbane in 1988… which was the best of times and the worst of times…
There was good music around but it was also the year Australia became a CHR-free zone. FM104 was a great station… but their no repeat workday used to annoy me.
Fine with no repeats if it was Toto and Rosanna - good song - quite happy to only hear that once… but other songs that were big at the time… such as the Venetians ‘So much for love’ you knew you were going to have to wait ages till you heard it again… Martha Davis - Don’t tell me the time (Don’t tell me the time I’m going to have to wait till I hear this great track again today?) You’d regret if you heard it earlier in the day - just meant you had to wait much longer to hear it! FM104 had no problem playing ‘Simply Irresistable’ at 8.45, then 4.45 then again at 5.45… and so on through the night…
And as for 4BK… only one song in three was a new track… so good old Fleetwood Mac and Doobie Brothers dominated… From the joys of CHR radio in 1984, I’d come to a wasteland…
Where 1988 will always be remembered for hearing more from the Rumours album than any single ‘single’ from the latter half of that year.
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To be taken with a grain of salt, but Wikipedia suggests that Richard Stubbs joined the station in 2000, and hosted the breakfast shift in 2003 (after the Mix rebrand I believe) before departing.
Thanks, around 2000 would probably make sense. Sadly I have no notes on the cassette itself so it’s all guesswork
I wonder if sharing these recordings with the radio stations themselves would assist, or whether they’d have little interest in indulging a nerdy hobbyist like me. Could be worth a shot?
Great post Egg Man.
You’re most welcome Mr Vection
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That’s an interesting read…
Which made me wonder…
Did you have any commercial FM radio stations in Christchurch (or anywhere in New Zealand) back in the 1980s?
Reminds me of a song “I’d Rather Jack than Fleetwood Mac” written and produced by Stock Aitken and Waterman and performed by the Reynolds Girls taking a dig at commercial radio playing more classic rock than top 40 music.
Youtube: PWL (Stock Aitken and Waterman’s company)
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I’d never seen that track before… but it sums up the time in radio history perfectly.
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Yeah it was a very strange time in '88/'89 when CHR radio disappeared for a couple of years. But for me it coincided with a couple of pretty cr#p years in top 40 music - coincidence? Not sure. But the best of the 80s music was over by the end of '87 by some margin. '88 to the start of '90 was a very forgettable period for pop. Yeah of course a couple of exceptions but not many. Music seemed to be transitioning from classic 80s into the grunge and other genres that emerged in the 90s.
I also remember 4BK during this time playing a lot of Fleetwood Mac! Also a lot of Billy Joel too. The new songs they did play were very safe and usually only played them months after they came out.
I found 4SS was probably the most “hit music” station in SEQ at that time. Even good old 4MB sounded a bit “hip and now” during those years, at night anyway 
I was glued to FM104 and just loved it - although I still missed Stereo 10.
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From experience they don’t give a rats. I have had better luck with community stations (who actually engage with the listener).
Good question… Our first taste of FM came with a pop-up during the A & P show in 82/83 run by Radio Avon (featuring ads)… Christchurch didn’t get its first full-time FMs till 1986 when 3ZM and Canterbury FM (C93FM) won the two licenses. Radio Avon failed with their bid (for Music 90FM)…
Auckland had previously led the way obviously… with both Magic 91FM and 89 Stereo FM launching in 1983…
Magic was a bit more CHR while 89 was a bit more alternate/AOR (they adopted the Triple M moniker a year later). They had more attitude… summed up perfectly by Dave Dobbyn giving the finger to the po-po
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Thanks for posting!
That Triple M logo looks quite odd (to me) with the number 89 in it… Looks good though!
Probably kind of how it may have looked in Melbourne had they stayed at 92.3.
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Keith Williams on MMM 89FM… (1ROQ became 1MMM).
Admittedly sounding very CHR…
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Interesting thing…
Late at night (even in the South Island) we used to get ads for Triple M on TV.
The ad had lots of strobe effects and flashing. There were mass complaints that the TVC had the potential to cause epileptic fits.
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The ad over in Australia had strobing too.
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Yeah I figured as much, I have some (limited) samples from community radio but mostly commercial
Speaking of, I also found this one, from after the rebrand to Mix 101.1 - there’s every chance this may have been only months later than the previous TT-FM recordings, but again it’s hard to verify
For the benefit of those who didn’t grow up in earshot of Melbourne, those Medownick Laser Eye Clinic and Clive Peeters ads were staples of Melbourne TV/radio during that era. One of those companies is still in business, I believe
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Meadownick ads are still on the telly
Clive Peeters got taken over by Harvey Norman IIRC
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Yeah I thought they went under Brashs-style and Harvey Norman might have bought out a couple of their more profitable stores