There was also the Breeze 3EE 693 which commenced transmission by XY’s new owners AWA nine months after XY closed, it wasn’t a success because its Easy Listening format was very close to 3MP’s. They also carried football (with Eddie McGuire as chief caller) and “The Good Life” with Ross Campbell which used to be on 3AW.
And AWA sold 3EE to 3MP which used it to relay the 3MP signal on 693, the then ABA wasn’t impressed so they had to run a different format on it, hence Magic was born.
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Was there a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s when KIX106FM in Canberra was arguably the only CHR/Top 40 station in Australia?
Tune into 106.3 on the FM band!!! Haha… I’m surprised they didn’t throw the word ‘wireless’ in there as well 
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The Breeze was a weird hybrid of 3AW and 3MP and as a result suited nobody.
Was it like an older version of Vega?
Well, it’s not exactly what you’re after, but the logo style is still the same:
This was taken from a Coffs Harbour visitors guide from 2002, which quite strangely advertised the Mid North Coast version instead of the local Coffs Harbour version.
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Thanks!
Different colour scheme to the ones I remember seeing, but that’s close enough!
You got one of my favourite ones too, I was always fond of 102.3 / 105.1 due its ROX FM heritage.
…
And I think the Mid North Coast station may have been more popular for a little while around Coffs since 105.1 (launched 31 Dec 1993) got a 3.5 year start on 105.5 (launched Aug 1997 I think).
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Speaking of which, an article from an older Coffs Harbour visitors guide from the mid-late 90s about the station (along with 2MC):
And an ad from a Port Macquarie tourist map circa 1998, advertising its 102.3 service:
And I found another logo for Star FM, taken from another Port Macquarie tourist map circa 1999:
That is true. In fact, 2CS wasn’t launched until late 1985, which meant 2MC was the only local commercial station for Coffs.
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thank you, thank you, thank you!
I would “like” that post 10 times if I could.
I think I remember reading that article too in a Coffs magazine.
Now downloaded for prosperity 
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Something that was missed last month, 45 years of 2GO:
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During the 80s weekend last weekend, 2GO were making a few references to their AM 1323 and 801 days.
I still find it a bit odd that 2GO only spent just over 5 years on 801, given it involved a transmitter site relocation, which wouldn’t have been cheap.
I guess the lure of FM was too much to ignore
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Yeah, it probably wasn’t a known factor at the time, that FM would come up so soon afterwards.
Here’s a quick snapshot of what was making radio news in Melbourne this week in 1986, from the pages of TV Scene:
Margaret Peacock, then the wife of Andrew Peacock, was staying put at 3MP despite rumours of her moving over to 3AW.
Bert Newton was scaling back some of his on-air commitments at 3DB while concentrating on being the station’s general manager.
Derryn Hinch announces he’s hired a new producer for 1987 but says he himself won’t be on 3AW for the whole of the year. As it turns out he was announced late in 1987 to be moving to a TV hosting role at Channel 7.
If the government hadn’t offered FM conversions, what might have happened to 3TT and 3KZ?
Interesting question, assuming FOX and EON/Triple M were still the only commercial FM stations - so that for instance Smooth 91.5 couldn’t have gone Classic Hits on FM and taken 3KZ’s audience.
I think in that case 3KZ may have sounded a bit more like 4KQ in Brisbane, with more 70s music, and still done okay, just not as good as what Gold104.3 is doing now though.
And I think 3TT may have been lite music with a bit of pop, different enough from FOX to not be competing with them (or 3MP or Magic 1278).
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If the government hadn’t offered FM conversions (and the later licences to DMG/Nova), I’d imagine that the original FM stations would’ve become extremely dominant in the ratings. Here in Sydney, I think 2DayFM and Triple M each probably would’ve very regularly gotten 10%+ ratings during the 1990s if 2WS and 2UW/Mix were never allowed to convert to FM.
Although realistically, I do think that it was inevitable that the major capital cities would have more than two commercial FM radio stations. Presuming that 2DayFM & Triple M still got a common owner and the current trend away from local content in favour of more networked programing still happened, Sydney radio probably would been even more homogenised and boring than it is now with only two commercial FM stations!
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AM stereo would probably be a widespread thing still - with there being enough demand for receivers to exist.
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When 2day fm relaunched in 1990 to compete with Triple M,they started targeting a younger audience and adopted a CHR format that mainly played dance music and RNB music which was similar to Kix 106.
Kix 106’s playlist was more adventurous then 2day fm with a dance / rock skew to compete with fm 104.7 who was the market leader at the time.
You would have heard songs such as Epic by Faith No More, I like it like that my Kylie Minouge, Erotica by Madonna on Kix 106 but not on 2day fm, or part of their regular playlist anyway.
I use to dx Kix 106 from my home at Oatley at the time and was receivable on the car radio as there was no Mix 106.5 / KIIS 106.5.
This was when Canberra radio was great.
2day could not topple Triple M with this format so changed format and become hot AC which then allowed them to become market leader.
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They had a few relaunches back then.
They also tried going head to head with Triple M as “Good Times and Great Rock And Roll”, that must have been a year earlier then? (1989?)