Yes. For quite a while it was known as just KQ - The Great KQ and The New KQ.
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I think 8HA in Alice Springs was of a similar vintage, e.g. early 1970s.
But AM stations still cropped up in the late 70s and even 80s (commercial FM didnât start until 1980 in the metros, much later elsewhere)
3MP, 2WS, 2JJ, 2CC, 5AA in the 1970s
3ZZ came and went in the late 1970s in Melbourne
Some even later arrivals came with 2CS Coffs Harbour (1985?) and 6MM Mandurah (1988)
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Thereâs also 2OO in Wollongong, which went to air on 1st January 1979, and later converted to FM as i98 in June 1992 (30 years ago next month). On a side note, 2WL converted to FM as Wave FM less than 2 weeks after 2OO in early July that same year.
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Double letter call-signs all the rage by the 1970s 
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4GG was probably the inspiration from 1967.
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5CC Port Lincoln also didnât start until 1985.
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4HI was about 1980 I think?
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If you missed 2GNâs switch from 1368 AM to 107.7 FM this morning, here it is. (Recorded via their internet stream).
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3GG is getting ready for its 85th birthday next week Deaksy on 3GG's 85th birthday: "I'm excited for the future"
For its first 52 years, though, it was known as 3UL.
This was from its 50th anniversary in 1987:
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On the subject of Gippsland radio, who assumed that 3TR stood for Traralgon? Wrong: itâs Trafalgar:
Gippsland's first commercial radio station celebrates 90 years.
Trafalgar is just west of Moe and is one of those places crying out for a bypass.
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Similarly, I assumed 7HO stood for Hobart. Turns it, it didnât. It took its letters from the name of station founder Ron Hope.
I also thought 3SR in Shepparton stood for âShepparton Radioâ, but I vaguely recall that this isnât the case, either?
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And 2HD= Hunter District, right? No: it was named after station founder, Harry Douglas.
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Tareeâs 2RE - started by Reginald Eagling! -
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I did know that, but being a radio nerd who spent a lot of time in Gippsland I guess thatâs not so surprisingâŚ
What is odd is that 3TR (as the AM signal was) is very difficult to receive in its namesake town, and I believe Trafalgar would now be outside the Sale licence area? The signal from Myrtlebank doesnât quite get that far all that well. I wonder if it originally broadcast a little closer to Trafalgar itself?
And I kind of like that those little towns donât have bypasses, theyâre so small that itâs almost a novelty that you have to stop or just slow down for a bit. Beats driving a road like the Hume where itâs 110km/h divided freeway the whole way with nothing to see/stop at, and boring as bat excrement to drive.
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Not the first time I have seen the Sydney-Melbourne drive via the Hume described thus (I agree, too). I do like the drive via Gippsland, more convenient now that I live in the Canberra region too. As an aside, why not rename the Monaro Highway the âCan-Can(n)â Highway?
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Yes i thought it was odd that 3TR is Trafalgar/ Traralgon but the TX is near Sale, about 50 kms further east.
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And the studios are in Traralgon presently, but were in Sale for many years. Gippsland is a huge place; thereâd actually be scope for a service focusing solely on East Gippsland (Bairnsdale and east and up to Omeo) imo. Theyâd also put in repeaters for Cann River and Mallacoota. Let TR focus on central Gippy (Sale) and the Latrobe Valley, and 3GG could cover Warragul and South Gippsland as they currently do.
I am not sure why 3GG hasnât ever switched on a repeater to cover South Gippsland better, particularly down towards the Prom. In South Gippsland 3MFM fills the void quite well.
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Far East Gippsland has got to be up there with one of the more forgotten communities of Victoria, no doubt. Once you get past Lakes Entrance, certainly past Orbost, no one wants to know you. Even Mildura had a TV and radio station at least, most people however probably couldnât find Mallacoota on a map until the bushfires a couple of years back (I however love that part of the world).
To get back to topic, I donât recall ever testing out 1242kHz around there. From memory it was weakish in Orbost so I canât imagine it being much good further east. It certainly struggled in the mountains towards Omeo. So as you say, you wonder why FM translators were never pursued by the incumbent commercial broadcasters for those eastern/southern parts of the region.
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I remember trying some AM DXing on a Tandy Realistic long range radio (pic below - with an in built loop antenna) in 1984 in Cann River and got ⌠absolutely nothing.
I am planning a road trip to Melbourne via Gippsland in early June, so Iâll try it again on my car radio.
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What a unit that is!
I know some of the more hardcore DXers love the coastline around Marlo and surrounds for that reason, the dial is almost completely dead there. Iâd have thought youâd at least get something from Tasmania, back when the northern outlets were still on AM at least, but I wasnât of an age during my time there to use anything more sophisticated than a Walkman to check.
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