Today 7HO celebrates it’s 90th Anniversary of being on air. One of Australia’s seven oldest commercial radio stations officially opened on 13 August 1930. It had an original staff of only five.
The call-sign of 7HO stood for three different things: the first two letters in Hobart, “Hobart’s Original” and the first two letters of founder Ron Hope’s surname.
7HO’s total audience when it started was less than 30,000.
The original power of the 7HO was 50 watts and Ron Hope was in charge of the technical side, and he was later joined by Bill Nicholas.
7HO’s original studios were at 80-82 Elizabeth Street in the Findlay’s Building, which was on the corner of Bathurst and Elizabeth Streets Hobart. The transmitter was situated on the roof and the station occupied two rooms, one with the library and studio, the other containing the technical equipment. The studio manager, announcer and typist were all in the one room. A microphone on a clothesline was moved backwards and forwards according to the needs of singer, instrumentalist, announcer, or studio gramophone. When the announcer spoke, any conversation the manager might be having with a potential advertiser would be suspended.
Seems that 7ZL was going to be called 7AA or 7AR when it began broadcasting as a commercial station. It was owned by Associated Radio Co. which also owned 3AR in Melbourne. How it became 7ZL is a mystery.
7ZR which was only ever an ABC station was going to get the callsign 7HN apparently for Hobart National. Maybe they just decided to use the Z theme and called it 7Z-Radio.
I’m sure someone will come up with a better response to this!
our old record player that my parents bought in the 60s had all the old call-signs on it. I used to be fascinated by all the call-signs and seeing how many stations other cities had.
That one must be from the late 60s given the frequency of some stations. It seems to be a very confusing layout as well. Why have 2 Hobart stations listed with Melbourne and omit the ABCs. Also, wasn’t aware that 4QY was a Brisbane station!
I have one recording of 7ZL mentioning its call sign as it signed off for the night. I recorded it around 1985. 7ZL broadcast on 603khz back then. Does anyone know why it moved from 603 to 585khz?
BTW - those old radio dials - you’ll see ABC station 9PA - it was for PNG which was an Australian state at that time.
just looking at the radio heritage site, 9PA broadcast on 1250khz & was started by the Australian military during WW2. It briefly changed call sign to 9AA before reverting back to 9PA. Another station that existed was 9PM.
I wonder if 7ZR and 7RN remain on AM because they need to cover areas like Strathgordon and the Southwest National Park? There are no native FM outlets way down there. 7ZR in particular would need to be receivable as it is the designated emergency broadcaster.
