From TRV, an aircheck of 4KQ Brisbane from May 1988.
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Not much to celebrate about current staffing, PD and second journo made redundant, news not necessarily originating from within the market any longer.
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news is orgintating from within the market during the day
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Glad that decision has been reversed.
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Today marks 40 years since EON FM launched in Melbourne. Via Rosie Walton on Instagram:
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Today wouldâve been 40 years when 2Day & 2MMM in Sydney was originally meant to go to air, but technical problems caused their start-up date to be pushed back to August 1.
Hereâs the SMH article from this day 40 years ago: New FM stations on airâŚBut big rush at last minute
Also on this day 40 years ago, ABC youth station 2JJ converted to FM as 2JJJ in Sydney. The station would be heard on both FM & AM until January 1981, when the latter signal was switched off.
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If you search Peter Grace on Facebook he has posted an interesting history on the birth of EON fm today
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With 3MMM (nee 3EON)'s 40th, thought a timeline would be interesting:
Thereâs a pretty good summary on Wikipedia, so I ainât going to repeat that and just make some observations from my perspective:
- I think of 3MMM as the radio equivalent of a well used ugg boot. Definitely not cool, but has a degree of comfort factor on a wintery Melbourne day in lockdown;
- Compared to others 3MMM/3EON has been relatively consistent in maintaining the rock image - however the new/old mix has been volatile. Nowadays I would not associate 3MMM with new rock;
- The âgolden ageâ is arguably 1985 through 1991 - when they ruled the ratings and the D Gen reigned supreme. I doubt that the replacement of the Melbourne EON name with Triple M would have ever been as successful without the D Gen. A smart lesson when adopting an interstate name - keep the local content strong.
- Its interesting to see that since twinning FOX, 3MMM has never rated as wellâŚmaybe there is a favourite child when it comes to sister stations!
- In recent years, the ratings have been ho-hum, however I wouldnât put that down to the licensing of Nova100 and Vega/Smooth91.5 - 2005âs 11 share clearly shows what is possible with a rock formatâŚtime for management to get their backside into gear.
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A brilliant summary of EON/MMM @Rob_Melb_AU!
Back in the day, I used to collect EONâs Top 40 charts at the local record shop. This is the chart from this week in 1984:
Although this was not necessarily a reflection of its playlist. 3XY was probably more likely to be playing most of these.
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Trying to recall which Caralis bought firstâŚ
Was it 2SM or 2HD/NEW FM⌠I have a feeling 2SM was acquired first because I vaguely recall the FM hub being moved from ZZZ Lismore to Sydney and then to Newcastle after he bought 2HD/NEW.
Is that right?
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Actually, Caralis bought 2HD/NEW FM first in February 1999, before he acquired 2SM in October the same year.
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Iâve been wondering what had happened to Dave Wright, formerly of MIX 106.5 drive and former court announcer for the Sydney Kings, since he appeared to leave the NSW Transport Management Centre and doing traffic reports on Sydney radio.
Well, I discovered that late year he created an Instagram page. He lives in the Camden area on the outskirts of Sydney. He has posted that he does voice work for the US, and does promos for 2CC and 2CA. I admit that I didnât realise that he is the voice of the Capital Radio Network.
One of his recent posts:
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Youâre telling me that is the same guy as this:
http://www.davewright.com.au/aboutdave.php
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Yep!
If you scroll down his Instagram page he has a few older photos there.
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Heads up for those in Sydney.
2RRR 88.5 in Ryde will broadcast a documentary about Sydney radio in the 1950s, as part of the program âThere Goes That Song Againâ, to be aired next Tuesday (21st July) at 3pm & repeated on Friday 24th July at 11am. It will also be available as a podcast after the program has aired.
Source: Radioinfo
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Itâs to my understanding that the âHits & Memoriesâ positioner was launched with the jukebox logo in 1988, while âGreatest Memories, Latest Hitsâ was used prior to that for several years in the 1980s - possibly as far back as 1982/83.
Yeah, I guess that makes sense because the FM 101.7 variant of the âJukeboxâ logo was still in-use for the âDoug Mulray Drive Launchâ TV commercial in April 1998:
Fast forwarding a few years, while trawling through old webpages on archive.org I managed to find a low resolution copy of an old TV commercial for WSFM (that appeared to be dubbed to VHS before making it to the web) which was on their website in Late 2003/Early 2004, although going by the âcalendarâ scene at the start it likely dates back to July 2002:
Link to the video file, for what itâs worth. Animation wise, itâs very safe to say this one is very much a product of its time when viewed with modern eyes!
Iâm pretty sure WSFM (and more likely than not, other Classic Hits stations) also had a TV commercial or two during the Early 2000s which used the same logo animations to those seen at the start/end of the Classic Hits Network Sales Reel from September 2002, although I canât seem to find any evidence of those ads on the internet at the present time.
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WIN/Nine News coverage of the Jolimont Siege that occurred in 1993 at the Jolimont centre that at the time hosted FM104.7 and 2CAâs studios, features interviews with Greg Robson (Now a real estate agent) and Sheridan Stewart (now at ABC Sunshine Coast) of FM104.7 and Mike Larkan (Now at 10 News Melbourne) of 2CA:
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Actually, it goes as far back as September 1981, as this SMH article from that time revealed:
SMH, Monday 7th September 1981
From my personal memory, 2WS changed their logo in late 1998 in the lead-up to the change from âThe Best Songs Of All Timeâ to âClassic Hitsâ.
During 1998 & into early 1999, 2WSâs ratings were falling for 8 consecutive surveys, with Doug Mulray on drive apparently to blame for the stationâs falling ratings. However, by mid-1999, the station did have a bit of a ratings boost, peaking at 9.6% (3rd FM; 4th overall) in S5/1999, but then it fell again, dropping to as low as 5% in S2/2000, beaten by the likes of JJJ, 2CH & 2GB (which was rating low back then)! 
After that, the ratings started to recover towards the end of 2000 & into 2001.
Speaking of which, hereâs the song list for 2WSâs âFavourite 500â countdown that was held over the Easter long weekend in April 2001: https://web.archive.org/web/20010416231540/http://www.2ws.com.au/fav500/fav500.htm
Itâs worth noting that back then, FM104.7 & 2CA were both under common ownership of Austereo. 2CA was sold to Capital Radio Network in 1997 after Austereo bought 50% of Mix 106.3 from ARN, in which they also bought 50% of FM104.7 from Austereo.
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From TRV, an aircheck of Mix 101.1 (now KIIS 101.1) in Melbourne from June 2004.
Some familiar voices there, including Vanessa OâHanlon doing traffic reports & David Brown (was Seven News Melbourne weather presenter at the time, now weather presenter at Seven News Sydney) doing weather.
Musically, by that point, Mix 101.1 remained sounding more upbeat than that of its Sydney sister station, who had softened its music format with its âSmooth Varietyâ positioner in anticipation of the arrival of the new DMG station on 95.3 (initally Vega, now Smooth). Some of the songs played on Mix 101.1 in 2004 wouldnât be too out of place on Gold 104.3 these days.
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Great clip.
âŚand from an overall branding perspective, the âFeel Goodâ relaunch wasnât far away. Wonder if the sound of any Mix stations changed as much as the look did that July? 
I was going to say that similar could probably be said about songs played on the Mix 106.5 of 2004 and the WSFM of 2020, but then realised that current day 101.7 is at times more like the KIIS of a few years ago! 
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