Although history may say that in the end, ARN eventually did something with it that worked when they created The Edge back 20 years ago (that long ago, eh?)
…and some of the on air jocks did go on to the Sydney metro market- Richard Mercer, Jason Bouman, Sando, Marcus Paul and a few others whose memory escapes me ATM.
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I appeared on that school wars competition a couple of times. The best win was passes to Laser Skirmish at Blacktown. I even sat in with Ian on the night show once.
our old record player had the radio station call-signs for all of Australia displayed on the console. There were a few random 9xx ones scattered around, probably including the ones listed above. I also seem to recall some other randoms like “1YA, 2YA, 3YA”… on the display. Maybe were these New Zealand call-signs or something?
EDIT: Yes, it seems that’s exactly what they were Radio in New Zealand - Wikipedia
there used to be a comedy series on ABC Radio National, I think it was called Don’t Get Off Your Bike, but it was based around a fictional radio station called 10KU Kalangadoo. Apparently they used to score interviews with some prominent people thinking it was a legitimate radio station and completely being oblivious to “10” not being a valid radio call-sign.
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The YA stations are indeed New Zealand call-signs. The YA network (ie 1YA Auckland, 2YA Wellington, 3YA Christchurch and 4YA Dunedin) were the original government owned National Programme stations in New Zealand’s four main centres.
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Remember when 96.1 tried alternative rock back in 1998? I loved the format as a 11-12 year old. This was way before they tried hip hop/R&B.
This is the only aircheck I have from them during this phase. By 1999 they were back to a more general CHR mix.
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And a logo that is almost identical to Auckland’s 9inety6ixdot1 , which was on air between 1997 and 1999.
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Was a great format. TripleM copied it to some degree with their 90’s & new stuff format in the early 00’s. Commercial friendly alternative is something that is missing today in the Australian market like KROQ or alt987 in LA. At one end you have Mmm’s focusing more on classic rock and Triple J at the more extreme end.
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Definitely better than what they have now … I preferred the original ONE FM over anything they’ve ever done since.
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I remember 9inety6ixdot1 and it was a very good listen, 2day fm and 9inety6ixdot1 were the two stations I listened to the most back then. Triple J was pretty much all Grunge and punk rock and was not to my tastes then.
Maybe this was part of the inspiration for the original Nova.
Coda 961 I will give it a listen when it launches but I am not a fan of hip hop and RnB music. I don’t mind some stuff.but 100% Hip Hop is a no from me.
BTW does anyone know what the second song iin the air check is ???
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Robyn Loau- Sick With Love. Ex member of Girlfriend; it was her only solo hit. Big in 1997/98 but one of those forgotten hits. I played ‘Sell Out’ by Reel Big Fish the other week on The Conga Line, of course I heard it first on 9inety6ix.1.
The alt rock format may have lasted a little way into 1999 from memory. I remember starting high school at St Andrews in 1999 and boasting that I could get 9inety6ix.1 crystal clear from Oatley…some of my classmates who lived in the inner city and the northern suburbs couldn’t. But they definitely flipped back to more CHR during the course of 1999. I think they had the ‘Phattest 500 of the 90s’ at the end of '99.
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I can remember the launch date of 9inety6ix.1; Monday 5 January 1998. On the Saturday night after the launch, the studio playout computers failed and the standby tape at the transmitter kicked in. Only one problem, the tape hadn’t been updated and was the original standby tape from late 1992 complete with “96.1 FM” station ID’s. When it was fixed, the announcer came back on and apologised for the Peter Andre song being played, lol. I don’t think 2WS’s computers were affected as they were in the same building.
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Thanks I do remember that track, Nova 96.9 also gave that track a few spins when they launched in 2001.
When I was a St Andrew’s it was One fm. Listening on my Sony Walkman on the train it was fine until Hurstville station, and then patchy to the city.
At Oatley on my Walkman it was received almost as well as 2day / Triple M from Artarmon.
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Yep- I found Hurstville was the dividing line for good reception on a Walkman also. Where I was in Oatley, One FM/96.1 was cleaner than the Artarmon stations.
I have always wondered what Sydney FM commercials would have been like if they had transmitted from Wentworth Falls as well. 96.1 does pretty well with 5kw. Imagine what 150kw from there towards Sydney would have been like!
I think most of us geeks have pondered that question. 150 kW OD from Wentworth Falls would probably cover most of the ‘NSW’ (Newcastle-Sydney-Wollongong) megalopolis and probably usable down to about Bungendore. There would be shadow areas such as the Illawarra Escarpment and the Northern Beaches.
I stumbled upon this piece of Qld radio history online. Not even sure who to credit for it, but I loved reading it.
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To answer you question it certainly would.
This map is 66duBV/54duBV, you pretty much have Sydney, the Central Coast, Lithgow and the Southern Highlands covered. Shadows around the Northern Beaches, Inner Harbour suburbs, and Port Hacking . 150KW actually fixes the shading around Emu Plains and Lapstone to Rural Grade.
Now this is where it gets interesting with the car coverage.
Consistent coverage Sydney wide. Coverage from Sydney to the southern suburbs of Newcastle, and then again up in the Hunter Valley around Singleton.
Heading west constant coverage to Bathurst and then patchy to Orange.
Coverage in Wollongong unless right up against the escarpment.
Heading through the Southern Highlands consistent coverage to south of Goulburn, Bungendore would probably still receive it on the car radio and through your yagi antenna.
This is based on the 70m antenna height at Wentworth Falls with 150KW OD.
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It’s part of a book put together by Bruce Carty a few years ago now freely available online.
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Pretty much as I expected. 150 kW would romp into Bungendore. CADA 96.1 would be there all the time at semi-listenable levels on the Yagi but for strong XLFM (it only gets over in tropo). On Brooks Hill south of Bungendore- shaded to the south- you can almost always hear a bit of CADA breaking through, same for the hill up to Googong.
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