Radio History

There were ALOT of trees in that area, which doesn’t help of course.

Mallacoota or Marlo would have been much better at least for Tasmanian AM radio, as AM likes the water path.

Just uploaded to @anon36025973:

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You can usually (just) hear the Mount Barrow ABCs from around Marlo. I have not tried it in the middle of winter, though (but watch this space; I too am wanting to head down to VIC for a brief trip in the next couple of months). I will probably call into Bemm River on the way back, to which I’ve never been…and to check on the 104.5 translator.

If you’re feeling adventurous you could go the Bonang Highway from Orbost to Delegate/Bombala and try out the reception there…I can’t imagine there’d be much. Brown Mountain does penetrate weakly into Orbost, though. At Cann you can usually just hear Snow FM.

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May 19 1990 and Regional Australia gets its first S39 Commercial FM Radio Station :radio::notes: Happy Birthday NOW FM (2NOW)

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Great find Mr @hatdj

Touch off-topic, but it was indeed the Cann Valley Highway for a long time on the Victorian side - until it was renamed to match the NSW side in 1996 (the two didn’t connect at one point so different names). So… :thinking:

I don’t mind your suggestion though! Although coming from the Sydney side, the Federal Highway is even worse than the Hume when it comes to that… it’s only 45 minutes from Goulburn to the border but it seems so much more.

A page in the Shepparton Advertiser relating to a report of the opening night in 1937 (found via Trove) suggests it’s possibly related to the chair of The Argus newspaper at the time, that had bought 3SR? I suspect the local paper got his name totally wrong, but (looking at other sources) does Staniforth Ricketson ring a bell perhaps? :thinking: They’d end up owning 3GG 3UL as well as Warrnambool’s 3YB around the same time.

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I recalled the “SR” relates to someone’s initials but I used to know what the name was but now I can only recall it was something unusual, and I reckon Staniforth Ricketson is pretty unusual :slight_smile:

On a similar theme, but off on quiet a tangent, does anyone by any chance know the meaning behind 2WSK (Power FM in Nowra)? It always seemed such a random call-sign and it probably has some significance but I’ve no idea what it was.

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Agree, I used to get it mixed up with 2WZD Wagga Wagga (93.1)

Which makes only slightly more sense as W is Wagga Wagga.

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2WSK stands for Wingecarribee, Shoalhaven and Kiama. The 3 LGA’s that 94.9 Power FM services.

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30 year mystery solved, thank you :smile:

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As the first ever Breakfast Announcer on 2WSK it’s my pleasure

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2WZD I think may have been related to the Wagga license on 93.1 being a seperate auction as opposed to an S39 additional license hence why it it didn’t have 2WGx in the call sign. Think it was a close bid between Riverina Broadcasters and another entity but could be wrong …

Apparently the FM licence was awarded to a separate entity to 2WG, but 2WG appealed the decision and won, leading to launching a supplementary FM service hit93.1 Riverina - Wikipedia

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Here’s some sources other than Wikipedia.

https://web.archive.org/web/20050315081108/http://www.aba.gov.au/abanews/news_releases/1993/NR42-93.htm (14 May 1993)

https://web.archive.org/web/20050315081148/http://www.aba.gov.au/abanews/news_releases/1993/NR72-93.htm (12 October 1993)

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You’re not one of The Bacon Boys perchance? I know Pete Brandtman was one of them. He is still with 2ST!

I got into DXing somewhat in 1994; Power FM was the most distant station I could reliably receive from Oatley on my cheap boombox, and so I listened quite frequently in the 90s. I was only in primary school then so it seemed exotic to be listening to a South Coast station.

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Nah I predate the Bacon Boys by quite a few years. Power FM launched in October 1991, Pete Brandtman and Dave Brown (Bacon Boys) were on Breakfast in the late 90’s.
Pete’s still there, Brownie works on the Central Coast nowadays.

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Is this the same ‘Brownie’ that’s been on the Central Coast/Newcastle dials for years (at least since the early 2000s?) I’ve never made that connection. Small radio world if so.

I wasn’t listening in '91; didn’t really explore the dial beyond the Sydney stations until '94. To be fair I was only 5 in 1991. In 1994 Power FM thrashed songs like ‘American Life In The Summertime’. My memory is that the ‘Bacon Boys’ were on by then but can’t be sure. I did prefer Maroon and Milly on i98…

I remember listening to the opening broadcast of Power fm and the very first song, the Power by Snap. Like @dxnerd I also lived in Oatley and was able to receive the station through my old hifi with a very long wire fm antenna up the wall. The launch day happened to coincide with school holidays so that is how I caught it. The good old days before Rhema CC caused CCI.

@Barry who was your co host, and is she still in radio?

Like most radio these days Power fm is nowhere as good as it was back in the early to mid nighties, when they had that one #1 survey before the launch of i98 and Wave fm. Grant / ARN using the same playlist across Wave and Power fm certainty does not help either.

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Belinda Peake is another one I remember from Power. Not sure if she was the female co-host?

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