I too listened to the airchecks on the Frankster Archive, there is some absolute gold, there are 2 airchecks of 2KIX 106 Canberra from 1991 and 1992. They were just as I remembered hearing this station in 1990 on a drive along the Hume Highway. Their music playlist was about 95% new tracks, surprised to hear the Simpsons song “Do The Bartman”, had it been released today no commercial radio station would touch it with a ten foot pole. It was a professional sounding radio station for a “regional” area even though the DJs were trained to talk loud and fast. Too bad they changed to a middle of the road format later on in the 90s. If only there was a radio station like that anywhere today instead of churning out the same old 80s, 90s and 00s tracks on repeat. The ARN, SCA and Nova programmers of today please take notes.
3SUN FM Shepparton was like that too, with a “hot hits” format with predominately new music in a regional area. They even played songs that in the metro areas would have been played exclusively on triple j. I remember SUN FM played on the radio at Fairley’s IGA supermarket in Shepparton North and imagine my surprise as they played Jesus and Mary Chain’s duet with Hope Sandoval from Mazzy Star “Sometimes Always”! Great song and a triple j staple back then. It all went downhill when triple j finally came to Shepp in 1995 and SUN FM was sold to RG Capital later that decade.
email address keeps bouncing back. and a google search just leads me back to the website, business directory shows digi spells media as being pending, as in not currently trading.
These contact details were posted on his Digi Spells media Facebook page back in March this year, I believe he did stop operating for a while due to finance issues, but I’m pretty sure he got back on his feet & is operating again?
Franksters name is Frank Luston, maybe search for his name as contact details.
The email I posted is the only one I know of, he has a phone number posted on the Digital Spells Media Facebook page 0401 519 958, but then I don’t know if that’s still accurate either given the email address doesn’t work?
If you’re on Facebook, definitely search for him by name & contact him through his personal page, he definitely posts on there, last post was 5 days ago, about him putting up audio & video about John Torv on the Frankster Archives site.
I loved Kix106 too, musically it was unique to what Triple M and 2day fm were offering back in the early 90’s. Unfortunately Canberra did not like it, and it never was able to knock off Fm104.7 once they got established. After rating fifth in five or six consecutive surveys they blew up the station and relaunched it as Canberra fm. It then changed names again to the current Mix106.3
In the early 90’s Kix 106 was playing the pop / dance / rap that 2day was playing when they first went CHR, and the new rock that Triple M played at the time, it was a great mix of music.
It was my favorite dx catch in Sydney.
Fm104.7 at the time was mainly playing classic rock mixed with new rock. It sounded closer to Triple M then 2day fm which it shared its network affiliation with. Once Fm104.7 got all the Austereo programming Kix106 was toast.
What is interesting when Fm104.7 became fully part of the Today network in the mid 2000’s when the rock format was dropped, it never rated the same. Mix 106.3 has been more dominant since. I wonder if Canberra is a rock market like Newcastle???
If the Canberra fm VJ were to make drastic changes in Canberra, Hit 104.7 could become Canberra’s Fm104.7 Triple M, and Mix 106.3 KIIS 106, but I cannot see that happening.
Reminds me of when in Brisbane they blended in the heritage callsigns with the network one - thus was known as FM104 Triple M in the late 90s for a few years.
96.5 2WL Wave FM was another attempt after they moved to FM in 1992, but i think this only lasted a few weeks before the 2WL part was removed.
The stickers featuring that logo design were around for years. Can’t recall how long “2WL” was mentioned on air after the switch to FM but it was quite a while.
If SCA had any clue they would still be ID’ing as FM104 Triple M in Brisbane to this day. Mind you, the crap they broadcast on Triple M nowadays is an insult to the heritage of FM104
Tried looking under digi spells facebook, Frankster’s archive facebook, and Frank Luston and this is the only profile that shows up, just an empty facebook account. Phone number is disconnected. Hope he is okay, this isn’t boding well.
https ://www.facebook.com/frank.luston/music
Searching on frank luston’s contact info outside of facebook gave some blank directory listings, and the general search for contacting digi spells media just keeps leading back to the blog noted above. This was as close a match that google would give me.
Frankster here, and many thanks for the kind words and posts re my website and the airchecks etc - it’s very much appreciated!
A friend got in touch and alerted me to here and it seems a few of you have been trying to get in touch. So here’s the deal.
Digi Spells Media is unfortunately no longer trading. There were some financial constraints which weren’t getting better, and it resulted in me having to pull the pin. So any contact information you have on me gleaned via various pages is invalid these days.
The reason why I wasn’t coming up in searches is because my last name is actually Iuston - with an I - so any searches related to Luston won’t show, although it’d be fun to actually have a name in which the first few letters spell Lust! haha!
Despite the financials, the website and transfers are continuing on, and shortly I have a new library of airchecks going up that were dubbed earlier this year from the same source as the 2AY’s, the 2DAY’s and the other airchecks. I’m gonna be winding up the Ken Sparkes reels over the next couple of months, and then from there the new set of airchecks will be up.
If you’d like to stay in touch feel free, hit me up at my personal facebook page of Redirecting... , and for emails, I can be reached at soundz29@optusnet.com.au
Thanks HEAPS for the tremendous support you guys, I really appreciate it!
Excellent to have you on here, @Frankster . I thought your last name was Iuston!
Looking forward to that next set of airchecks as I am not as interested in the showreels/promos etc., but I’m sure they generate a lot of interest too.
Welcome to the forums, funnily enough I didn’t have any problems finding you’re personal Facebook page (before you posted), using a small L, small L’s & capital I’s look the same in some typing & facebook obviously can’t tell the difference.
Was going to be my next suggestion to @anonymousbroadcaster
I thought you’re name started with an I, but when I found the facebook page using a small L I assumed it actually started with an L & just looked like an I when I’d seen it written before, I apologise for that.
THanks all for the help in trying to track down Frank, sometimes I feel like the clumsy detective from a 1940s B Grade Movie, but we all got there in the end. So good to have you here Frank. I’ve just emailed you with a proposal, and hope that you may have a copy of the 1991 Ken Sparks 2SM yearly call outs, they were the best year IDs I’ve ever heard.
Known in Australia for his television shows. The ABC used to run an hour bloc of comedy leading into ABC News in the early '80s. Everett’s show would run before The Goodies. My mother used to lose her mind when she caught me watching “that rubbish” when I was nine or ten years old. Seven ran repeats in the late '80s and I got a better appreciation for him then. Used to piss myself laughing at his stuff. I was heavily into British comedy at that time- The Young Ones, Blackadder.
