Radio History

[tamago_otoko]

And another one from the same account, this time featuring the 3GL football team

Footy Record Rewind (RewindRecord)

From April '89 - this must have been not long before they converted to FM and became K-Rock?

[TelevisionAU]

@tamago_otoko

From April '89 - this must have been not long before they converted to FM and became K-Rock

I think it converted to FM in January 1990, about a month after Bay FM launched?

[crankymedia]

3GL footy coverage, only when it suited them, Saturday games only. Wonder if BAY covered them all before common ownership.

[TelevisionAU]

@crankymedia

3GL footy coverage, only when it suited them, Saturday games only. Wonder if BAY covered them all before common ownership.

I don’t think Bay FM ever covered footy. When they simulcast with 3XY they used to opt out for music while 3XY broadcast football to Melbourne.

[the_xrod]

http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2013/07/23/3809319.htm?site=melbourne
774 ABC Melbourne debate in 2013, feat. Raf Epstein, Libbi Gorr, Red Symons, Jon Faine, Hillary Harper and Richard Stubbs.

[TV-Expert]

@Ant5476

It was 1994 when I remember the Always Great Rock and Roll era of NXfm. Rock music seemed to be the most popular format of the time on commercial radio. Even 92.9 Fm Tamworth was running the same format and Positioner.

From memory the Austero stations at the time all had a hybrid rock top 40 format, 2Day played more soft rock as they were in a slanging match with Triple M and promised no heavy rock. They still played Screaming Jet, and the odd song by the Doors, and Midnight Oil. B105 played more heavier rock and more classic rock then 2Day.
NX Fm and Fm 104.7 were more grungy, and Fm 104.7 was the last to depart from their rock format.

Yes, FM104.7 in Canberra kept their rock-skewed format until around 2005. I remember still hearing plenty of classic rock tracks on there as recent as that time. Here’s an example from part of their Top 500 countdown held in late 2001: https://web.archive.org/web/20011109025349/http://fm1047.com.au:80/top500/301-400.htm

Other former rock-skewed stations in major regional markets that spring to mind include TTT in Hobart, Coast Rock & later Star 104.5 on the Central Coast, Sea FM & KROQ on the Gold Coast, and K-Rock in Geelong.

[Ant5476]

Thanks for moving it to the Radio History forum.

[RFBurns]

In the latest Newcastle radio survey results thread, we got to taking about NXFM of past, & the late 80’s survey results.

Thanks to Guy Ashford, here’s a copy of survey 1, 2 & 3 results from 1995.

Note: Still the same number of stations, so splits are across the same, but in the latest ratings, some listed stations have lost a lot of market share to somewhere else?

NXFM was supposedly bad in '95, but they’re only 2.5% higher now!!

Since 1995, Triple J has picked up a few points, as has ABC Newcastle (2NC), NEWFM is about half what it was, 2HD is less than half of what it was, & KOFM has dropped around 8%.
So as I said in the other thread, the latest survey results are nothing to write home about, especially for SCA with NO competition.

[thesub1]

Now THAT’S healthy competition!

[Ant5476]

Thank you RFBurns and Guy Ashford for the ratings. NX Fm was surely struggling like New Fm is today.
What I noticed that was interesting for NX Fm was one of the highest rating shifts was nights when they went to a CHR format with their hot 30 countdown.
Also was their increase in ratings in drive from Martin Molloy? That show started around 1994 did NX Fm take it from the very start?

When did they flip the format from Always Great Rock & Roll to Hot AC / CHR?

[RFBurns]

@Ant5476

Also was their increase in ratings in drive from Martin Molloy? That show started around 1994 did NXFM take it from the very start?

When did they flip the format from Always Great Rock & Roll to Hot AC / CHR?

I think Martin/Molloy started in '95 but not sure what time of the year?

No, I don’t remember them taking M/M from the start, I think they only took the last 18-24 months, so '97, '98, as NXFM wasn’t an Austereo station when M/M started, & they were proudly local until Austereo took over.

Austereo bought Radio Newcastle (KOFM & NXFM) in about February '96 I think, & they kept the Always Great Rock N Roll format for I guess 6-12 months, by then Austereo had started to bring in management from Sydney, moved a few good people to Sydney or Melbourne, & dropped in some from Sydney who weren’t good enough, & the networking began.

Memory is a bit vague around that period, there was a lot happening in Radio then, times were a changin’ not necessarily for the best either.

[Ant5476]

That timeline seems about right. I remember when Austereo took over and the Always Great Rock & Roll positioner was dropped they went CHR and played nothing older then about 5 years old. They may have later gone with the positioner today’s best music inline with 2Day and the Today network. The playlist was expanded and again started playing some 80’s hits. This is from memory from tropo reception into Sydney.

Re M&M towards the later period of the show it was syndicated and aired on some non Austereo regional stations. It was on Power Fm Nowra / Eagle Fm / Snow fm.
Sea Fm did not take the show as they had their own drive show the benchwarmers.

[TV-Expert]

@Ant5476

Re M&M towards the later period of the show it was syndicated and aired on some non Austereo regional stations. It was on Power Fm Nowra / Eagle Fm / Snow fm.
Sea Fm did not take the show as they had their own drive show the benchwarmers.

No, I remember Sea FM, at least on the Central Coast, taking Martin/Molloy in the late 90s. The Benchwarmers didn’t came in until around the mid-2000s.

[Ant5476]

@TV-Expert

No, I remember Sea FM, at least on the Central Coast, taking Martin/Molloy in the late 90s. The Benchwarmers didn’t came in until around the mid-2000s.

Thanks for clearing that up

[NRN11]

As did Sea FM on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. On Martin/Molloy’s last highlights album “Eat Your Peas” this is the list of stations that took the program.

Aired in Australia on FOX FM Melbourne, 2DAY FM Sydney, B105 Brisbane, SAFM Adelaide, PMFM Perth, FM104.7 Canberra, NXFM Newcastle, B104.9 Albury, POWERFM Nowra/Wollongong, FM105.9 Orange, SEA FM Central Coast / Gosford, HOT 105.5 Coffs Harbour, FM 99.7 Griffith, ROX FM Port Macquarie, KISS 95.3 FM Lithgow, MAX FM Narrabri, FM 93.9 Young, POWERFM Ballarat, MIX FM 101.3 Horsham, MIX FM 106.3 Colac, MIX FM 107.7 Swan Hill, 3HA Hamilton, 3BO Bendigo, 99.5 FM Mildura, 3TR Traralgon Gippsland, SeaFM Sunshine Coast, SeaFM Gold Coast, HOT 100 FM McKay, HOT 103.5 FM Cairns, HOT 103 FM Townsville, HOT HITS 4CC Gladstone, HOT FM Emerald, HOT FM Roma, HOT FM Mt Isa, HOT FM Charters Towers, 93.9 HITZ FM Bundaberg, WEST FM Longreach, Hot100 Darwin, WA FM Karratha, WA FM Port Hedland, HOT FM Bundury, HOT FM Kalgoorlie, HOT FM Albany, HOT FM Northern, HOT FM Merredin, HOT FM Esperance, WA FM Remote, HOT FM Katanning, HOT FM Narrogin, HOT FM Bridgetown, 5AU Port Augusta, FM 96.1 Mt Gambier, 96.5 Geraldton and FM 93 Wagga Wagga

Interesting to note how quickly the syndicated stations grew over a three year period. This is the lists from The Brown Album (1st release) and Poop Chute (2nd release)

Brown Album

All material originally aired live between April and October 1995 on the radio show: Martin/Molly.
Aired in Australia on FOX FM Melbourne, 2DAY FM Sydney, B105 Brisbane, SAFM Adelaide and FM104.7 Canberra.

Poop Chute

All material originally aired live between September 1995 and September 1996 on the radio show: Martin/Molly. Aired in Australia on FOX FM Melbourne, 2DAY FM Sydney, B105 Brisbane, SAFM Adelaide, FM104.7 Canberra, PMFM Perth, TTTFM Hobart, NXFM Newcastle, POWERFM Ballarat, POWERFM Nowra, B104.9 Albury, 2XL Cooma, HOTFM Cairns, 3GG Traralgon, FM93 Wagga Wagga, 105.9 Orange, EagleFM Goulburn, SeaFM Sunshine Coast, SeaFM Gold Coast and Hot100 Darwin.

[AustralianAerial]

@NRN11

MAX FM Narrabri

Presuming this was MAX FM Taree rather than the Narrabri community station?

[NRN11]

The CD case says Narrabri which I wouldn’t doubt as they’ve taken syndicated programming in the past.

[TV-Expert]

@thesub1

Now THAT’S healthy competition!

Around that same period, particularly in the late 90s, Wollongong was more competitive than at present, especially with Power FM getting an 8-10% share, despite being licenced as a Nowra station.

Indeed, as mentioned by NRN11 on his post above, on the back of Martin/Molloy’s “Eat Your Peas” album, Power FM was marketed as a Nowra/Wollongong station.

Look at the shares in 1998-99 for instance:

Survey	i98FM	Wave FM	Power FM
1/1998	23.9	19.2	8.0
2/1998	25.0	20.5	9.3
1/1999	22.4	19.6	10.3

This was the days when i98 & Wave FM were targeting completely different audiences from one another, no doubt helped by the fact that Power FM, as Wave’s sister station, focused on targeting the younger audience, allowing Wave to concentrate on the older audience.

The period from late 2002 to 2009 was also quite competitive too, mainly on just the two stations, as Power FM rated much lower than in the late 90s (ie. around 4-5%), as it focused more towards its own licence area.

Survey	i98FM	Wave FM
2/2002	20.6	21.6
1/2003	19.9	22.0
2/2003	22.8	20.1
1/2004	27.6	22.3
2/2004	26.7	24.5
1/2005	27.3	19.8
2/2005	24.3	18.6
1/2006	22.8	19.8
1/2009	21.1	19.2

Nowadays, over the last few years, i98 is rating well ahead of Wave FM (by nearly 13% in last year’s survey), in which the latter is now barely rating ahead of ABC Illawarra.

[AustralianAerial]

@NRN11

The CD case says Narrabri which I wouldn’t doubt as they’ve taken syndicated programming in the past.

This makes sense - plus I’d forgotten that Taree would’ve been covered by ROX Port Mac anyway

[NRN11]

Max FM in Taree didn’t commence operations until 1997 which was towards the end of their show, and from what I can gather no BOG/Caralis station took Martin Molloy