Radio History

[SydneyCityTV]

The Show Radio website seems to be reset every year (and unfortunately I don’t think the 2014 version is accessible via archive.org), but I distinctively remember a photo gallery being online to celebrate 20 Years of Show Radio with 90.9, 96.9 and 100.5 among the frequencies in some of the old pics. Hopefully something similar will come online if AFTRS plans to celebrate 25 years of Show Radio this year or next.

Didn’t know about 95.3 being used for Show Radio before DMG won the licence to transmit their-then new commercial radio station on the frequency, but it’d definitely make sense if it was.

@dxnerd

2CR Chinese Radio also tested on 95.3 from time to time in the late 90s/early 2000s.

Since 2CR still do temporary broadcasts on 91.6FM for Chinese New Year to this day and (I think) have a narrowcast licence somewhere around 152mHz, I wonder if they ever made bids for a permanent licence in Sydney on the wider broadcast band?

@dxnerd

Out FM, a LGBTIQA station, used 94.5 quite often in the late 90s/early 2000s. 96.9 had the most aspirants with Wild FM, Radio Dex, Free FM among others.

Not sure about the overall programming but Free FM’s promo spots & IDs (judging by the clips that are on YouTube) sounded fairly professionally presented for the time.

[dxnerd]

@SydneyCityTV

Since 2CR still do temporary broadcasts on 91.6FM for Chinese New Year to this day and (I think) have a narrowcast licence somewhere around 152mHz, I wonder if they ever made bids for a permanent licence in Sydney on the wider broadcast band?

I believe they did. I have read the licence inquiries into the Sydney wide community licence allocations in ~2000 but I’m not sure if they’re available online.

[TV-Expert]

An interesting post about Geraldton commercial FM stations in the 90s, which were the first in WA outside of Perth.

@Informer

Testing my memory here, but both Triple G and 98fm both had similar 35+ playlists and programs in the beginning. Quite good listening actually. Makes me think they had separate owners competing for the same audience. Not 100% sure.

From what I read, Triple G & 98FM were competing with each other for much of the 90s.

In around 1997, both stations came under the same ownership according to this document: http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/CLCCommsUpd/1998/4.pdf

This following document dated from 1994 is worth a read, particularly detailing about commercial FM radio in Geraldton: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1622&context=theses_hons

[Informer]

Very interesting! I’ve often wondered how not 1, but 2 FM licences where issued in Geraldton, almost simultaneously. Thanks for digging these documents up.

With hindsight, we can say the Broadcasting Tribunal at the time got this wrong. Staggering the time between the 2 stations launching may have allowed them time to find there target audience better. Or issuing the licences to the same owner, to share resources, costs and not to compete with each other. Of course, such media ownership reforms where some years away.

On air they sounded very smooth. ‘After hours’ programs where a mess! Adult contemporary music during the day would change to a top 40 countdown on relay from Perth, at night. Complete with static fade outs (obviously feed taken straight off the air from Perth) and fill music and the end of local ad breaks that would run over the program when it returned. The modern day automated radio station technology eventually replaced this program arrangement.

2 commercial FM stations feels right for today’s market, not 20+ years ago. I guess SevenWest media as the current owners now has the funds that a local owner would never have had to put into the station. AFL box tickets for advertising businesses is 1 perk I have heard!

Interesting comments from ECU regarding Bunbury commercial FM. Same situation now as written about 20 years ago! Plus the FM band in Bunbury has been cleared 5 years ago. Can we assume the ACMA is protecting the broadcaster and local content to stop a repeat of Geraldton radio in the 90s???

[Radiohead]

@Informer

Complete with static fade outs (obviously feed taken straight off the air from Perth)

Oh my, that’s bad… Relying on an off air FM signal from 400 kms away is NOT a good idea

[TelevisionAU]

@Brianc68

I’ve heard it was very difficult to get it changed from 4IP to 4TAB

You wonder why they bothered? It was evident even then that the official call-sign did not have to be used on-air.

[Radiohead]

Perhaps they didn’t want to be associated with 4IP, and they probably didn’t envisage having the issues that they did.

[Radiohead]

@Informer

Very interesting! I’ve often wondered how not 1, but 2 FM licences where issued in Geraldton, almost simultaneously.

I meant to ask, did 6GE become 6GGG or did it become 98FM? I’m guessing it was 6GGG.

[TelevisionAU]

@Radiohead

I meant to ask, did 6GE become 6GGG

It did

[Brettski_1234]

Here’s an interesting Facebook post by 7AD, a Sunday schedule for both 7AD and 7BU from 1966

7AD

[TV.Cynic]

As noted in the ABC topic “Today we marked 60 years of the ABC broadcasting in the Illawarra.”

I have the station that is now 2RN 1431 starting March 1959. So this is probably the anniversary being referred to?

ABC operations

[TV-Expert]

@TV.Cynic

I have the station that is now 2RN 1431 starting March 1959. So this is probably the anniversary being referred to?

Yes. It was known as 2WN before it moved to the FM band in 1991 as 97.3 ABC Illawarra, now ABC Illawarra.

[TV.Cynic]

An previously on 1580 kHz

[Radiohead]

It was 30 years ago today that NEW FM Newcastle first began test transmissions.

Full time transmissions commenced on Friday 21st April 1989 at 5pm.

[TV-Expert]

Also, NEW FM was the first commercial FM station in NSW outside of Sydney. This was followed by NOW FM in Moree in May 1990, Coast Rock FM (now Sea FM) on the Central Coast in September 1990 & Power FM in Nowra in October 1991.

[Laoma]

It was amazing it took until 1989 before going outside Sydney. I think we were a bit backwards from a radio point of view?

[TV-Expert]

The first non-capital city commercial FM stations was Sea FM & 4GGG (converted from AM as 4GG) on the Gold Coast, which launched in March 1989. Prior to the Canberra commercial FM stations launching in February 1988, the only commercial FM stations were found in the 5 biggest cities.

Hobart didn’t get their first commercial FM station until July 1990 when TTT was launched, with 7HO converting to FM as HOFM only 4 months later. Darwin didn’t get their first commercial FM station until July 1991 with the launch of Hot 100FM.

[Frankie]

Interesting, a gas powered radio.

[Radiohead]

Very appropriate given the air heads we get posing as DJs these days.

[TelevisionAU]

@Laoma

I think we were a bit backwards from a radio point of view?

The industry had a much different view of FM in the 70s and earlier. Didn’t see it as commercially useful and only for “specialist” stuff like classical music. So there was a lot of catching up to do in the 80s when they suddenly realised, as per the rest of the world, FM is not such a bad idea afterall.

The government putting TV services on the FM band (channels 3-5) didn’t help the development of FM either, particularly in regional areas