Surprisingly I don’t recall any real outrage or negative reaction when Triple M took over from EON. I suppose there had long been similarities between EON and MMM in terms of branding and programming so it probably wasn’t a giant leap to make to have EON become MMM. For most listeners the change was probably not significant except that they had to re-tune to 105.1.
Some of you may already be familiar to the incomparable online library of broadcasting history site www.americanradiohistory.com
It has full, searchable collections of such magazines as Billboard, Broadcasting, Radio & Records, along with a ton of other engineering, technical and programming items. But it is, as the address suggests, primarily American focused.
However, I post here because it has now expanded to include the Australian magazine “Broadcasting & Television”.
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Broadcasting_and_Television.htm
There is only one issue up so far (from 1960), but hopefully more will be posted soon. And the site’s owner is always on the hunt for more material to post.
djpower7h
Crankymedia:
5RM is a great example, Lameroo and Pinnaroo do not
receive FM 93.1 (Magic) but 5RM’s signal is crystal clear. Same to the
north in the sparse pastoral districts/Barrier Highway.
Same in North West Victoria, I can not pick up 5RM at home due to
local interference but once in the car it comes in at listenable
quality. It would certainly belt into Mildura like a local station
Do any readers recall in the 80’s and 90’s when 5RM used to be quite active in courting the Sunraysia audience?
There was only 5RM and 3MA in the area. No commercial FM, no JJJ, no internet and only one commercial TV licence either side of the border (neither very appealing to watch).
I kind of miss those days in regional radio when a neighbouring station was a kind of rival for the single local station. Growing up in Maryborough Qld in the 70s and 80s with only 4MB , it was nice to have Gympie station 4GY actively target Maryborough audiences. 4GY was much hipper and cooler than 4MB as I recall in the 80s and reception of the AM signal was great during the day but unfortunately hopeless at night.
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make that at any time in last 50 years 
I don’t think 4MB was ever cool.
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4MB’s music was very daggy and skewed old. When 4GR began doing the music log, it gave 4MB a classic/gold format more normally expected in a regional area.
It’s a pity Bill has left 4GY’s coverage to diminish. No engineer based in Gympie, left to local staff to do the best they can.
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@radiohead
I recall a bit of 4WK from the mid to late 80s during visits to Toowoomba. It was nothing to write home about then either. I recall it was very talk-oriented and very old fashioned to my ears. What music they did play was old and included country music. Lots of talk about local issues and farming. In short, not much to appeal to a teenager :).
4AK was the cool pop/rock station that imitated both FM104 and Radio 10 - it sounded like a combination of them and sounded great. Very big city. 4GR was the reliable Hits and Memories station. I’m not too surprised 4WK doesn’t really stand out, at least not from that era.
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4MB was only cool when compared to 4BU. Now they were uncool! 
4IP (or their licence holder) used to own 4WK (plus 4LG, 4LM and 4VL) and they were all top 40 “colour radio stations”. 4GR and 4MB were funtasic" the same 4BC and 2UW - this was in the 70s
Here are some airchecks I made you can find some SEQ ones at 1:16 4BC/4GR 6:25 4AK 9:02 4MB / 4BU
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Thanks for that. I do remember Funtastic 4MB in the 70s.
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Had Gold 104.3 on in the background when my ears pricked up at a particular Paul Simon track. Instantly remembered this video, from 1989:
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2SM/Light & Easy 1269 Sydney also had a version of the ad (thanks to the Frankster for having this on his site a couple of years ago):
As I’m sure we all know, it was relatively common for several stations in different markets to use common branding/advertising even before the days of full-on networking in radio as we know it now.
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Shared branding and shared fates for all three stations - easy rock appears a death knell for AM music stations
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I liked the music they were playing back then 'Lite and Easy ’ 1008,was like Smooth FM is now.Yet another format and name change this station had during the 80s ,The Lite and Easy format lasted about 1-2 years from memory
I wonder if the “Light and Easy” format of the 1980s would’ve been considerably more successful if it was on FM, like Smooth obviously is now in Sydney and Melbourne?
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Yes, I’m pretty sure Lite & Easy would have succeeded on FM in the late 80s/early 90s.
AM was the problem IMO not the format. I used to quite enjoy Lite & Easy 1008 in Brisbane. A bit more of an up-tempo Smooth, sounded a lot like Easy Radio on DAB does now.
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Lite N Easy 1269 was too safe in Sydney. It did not work on AM at a time when 2WS and 2UW were rating on AM. The new sound on 2SM never caught on.
Smooth is not safe - they play music the other stations have ignored for two decades. Thus smooth wins the WS and Triple M listeners who are tired of the same old repeats.
Lite N Easy was safe - Dion Warwick over and over again. At the time it also had an FM competitor in the lighter sounding 2DayFM.
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Love those airchecks TV.Cynic.
4MB used to have one of the Funtastic variety which they played on weekends, must have been mid- to late-70s. It’s forever engrained in my mind I can even remember it word for word. Does anyone recall if was a 4MB only one or if it was on 4BC/4GR as well? The jingle went:
The weekend comes, I’ve got no plans
Time’s my own to make my demands
It’s good to just be free
Funtastic 4MB
It was a corker - 40 years later I remember it!
They might have used it on 4BC because that rhymes with “free” too, but 4GR probably not
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