Nova also had its policy of no more than 2 ads in a row which was a big selling point versus the others.
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Oh, I forgot about that! 
I was in my mid-teens when Nova first launched, in which my listening habits, along with Nova, also included 2MMM, JJJ, WS & C91.3.
The launch of the Sydney station was just the beginning of the eventual expansion of the Nova network, which had expanded into Melbourne in December 2001, Perth in December 2002, Adelaide in August 2004 & Brisbane in April 2005.
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I remember Triple M in Melbourne tried to spoil Nova’s launch by promoting a big competition which was to be launched at the precise time that Nova was to debut 
On the old MS forum, we did discuss the heritage call signs of some legacy regional ABC transmissions which were only launched as Radio National services.
1098 2GU Goulburn (now 2RN)
756 3WA Wangaratta (now 3RN)
But what about these ones… Did they have a legacy call sign before everything got changed to RN? Or were they only launched since RN?
1305 Renmark
1485 Wilcannia
612 Dalwallinu
1269 Busselton (was 1224)
1296 Wagin
All 5 of these locations already have ABC Local on the AM band as well that still has a heritage call sign eg. 5MV 1062 Renmark.
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A quick initial response is that as far as I can tell, 5MV used to be on 1305 but presumably when RN started it moved to 1062.
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Originally posted by Brianc68:
Some interesting points there and quite true about the Sea FM stations in Bundaberg and Maryborough being one and the sane. I disagree though about Breeze being like Mix 103.5. The music is very different, and Mix has so much talking and NRL.
Just curious… What format did 4MB take prior to conversion to FM? Who owned the station? Similar to 4SS on the Sunshine Coast?
This was how The Sydney Morning Herald on 28 March 1988 reported on the pending changeover of 2SM to Lite 'n Easy 1269, including mentioning the Celebration Of A Station program broadcast over the Easter weekend.
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Great article, TVAU.
Funnily enough, in recent years Gareth McCray has returned to 2CH where he’s currently the breakfast presenter!
From the 3rd para"except in the hourly station IDs required by law" - when was this the case?
4IP also changed in 1988 to Lite and Easy.
[quote=“TV.Cynic, post:53, topic:236”]
From the 3rd para"except in the hourly station IDs required by law" - when was this the case?[/quote]
Not sure, but it’s clearly a legal requirement that is long gone.
The article is also a bit misleading in that implying that 3AK had adopted a Nice 'n Easy branding in Melbourne. Not quite. It’s true that it was a slogan used at one point, but it was never in place of the 3AK callsign.
3XY, although following the formats adopted by 2SM and 4IP, went down a slightly different path by calling itself XY Easy Rock.
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[quote=“TelevisionAU, post:54, topic:236, full:true”]
I don’t think that is correct regarding the legal requirement. For example, Radio 10 (laster Stereo 10) never once referred to itself by its legal call sign that was 4IO (changed from 4IP) and I don’t think that Light and Easy 1269 used the 2SM ID every hour.
I’d think that format would still do better than 2SM does currently.
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other stations at that time such as FM104 Brisbane, 96FM Perth and SAFM Adelaide would have also had to do the same and I’m not aware that they ever did use their proper call-signs in conjunction with those brandings. (Although SAFM did begin originally as 5SSA-FM)
I reckon it was some out-dated broadcasting requirement that had been long scrapped but perhaps SMH hadn’t got the memo!
FM104 would probably have mentioned MMM on air but 5SSA - I doubt it.I wonder when the regulation got changed, possibly in the 60s?
1269 recorded with my trusty Sony AM Stereo tuner
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Lite’N’ Easy 1269 sounds incredibly like smooth 95.3
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@Cigarettes-n-alcohol
4MB was quite middle of the road before it became Mix 103.5.
Similar to 4SS but maybe a little ‘older’.
4MB had become quite a decent adult contemporary station in the latter half of the 80s, although still not as modern sounding as 4GY. In the mid-80s they started taking overnight programs from 2UW. They were sold to RG Capital before they went FM, along with sister stations 4RO and 4GR.
@TelevisionAU
As late as 1986/87, FM104 in Brisbane did used to occasionally (although not every hour) say on air “FM104, the home of 4MMM”. As I say it definitely wasn’t every hour but they did used to refer to the call-sign at times - It did sound odd at the time and I remember wondering if it was some sort of requirement. I know in the US stations did/do still have to broadcast their call-signs.
As far as Radio 10/Stereo 10 went, I don’t remember them ever referring to 4IP or 4IO at all - although maybe saying the word ‘ten’ was enough, that might have been the main reason they changed the call-sign to 4IO.
But “ten” is NOT “eye-oh” as the letters imply.
I do realise that Radiohead. However I was wondering if that was considered ‘close enough’ for a broadcasting requirement that was obviously on the way out at the time. Working in the legal profession you see it all the time. We’ve already established that some operators were ignoring it altogether, while others partially complying (FM104, SAFM). Legally there are many shades of grey, and why else would they even bother to change their callsign from IP to IO when they started identifying as Radio 10, especially when they never used 4IO on air.
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Wow ,a news story about radio, you don’t ever see that anymore. I remember when “Lite and Easy” 1008 started about June 1988 I liked the music they were playing back then,I also used to like listening to all those old 80s daggy hits they used to play when they were Radio /Stereo 10,Rick Astley, Bananarama,Mel and Kim,etc.This station had so many name/format changes in the 80s it was hard to remember them all.Sadly they are now gone forever,I still miss them
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