I don’t recall that. According to Wikipedia (which i know can be flawed) 3BA didn’t convert to FM until 1998. This WRTVHB is dated 1996?
Earlier versions of WRTH also have 92.9 listed as a 10kw future planned supplemental FM licence for 3BA Ballarat.
Obviously got changed somewhere along the line unbeknownst to WRTH. The powers that be must have figured it was too close to 3ABC 92.7 Bendigo and/or 3SBS 93.1 Melbourne, and went with 102.3 instead.
Edit: I also have the 1998 WRTH edition and 3BA is listed as 92.9 in that too.
Others in that list that I never knew were planned or on air
2ST on 102.7 at 40kw
2UUU on 105.5 at what appears to be Nowra (is 104.5)
3MFM on 106.1 at what appears to be either Phillip Island or Foster (since 88.1 is listed). That would have been too close to 3ABC Melbourne 105.9.
The liner notes say “FM service March 1996”. The problem though is, that did indeed go through, as the supplementary licence (as 3BBA, albeit in April) - but “3BA FM” (as the RRL still calls it) is actually the service that is now Power FM on 103.1.
The current “3BA”-branded service (call-signed 3RBA) on 102.3 came in in 1998, probably with a similar story to how 3SR in Shepparton (the current Triple M) sold its licence to expand Sport 927 - that it was an entirely new licence rather than an AM conversion, with the latter sold off to the nags.
There was also a variation to the Ballarat LAP that came in in August 1997. Perhaps Power FM was going to spend its time originally on 92.9, before ending up on 103.1 instead?
92.9 is currently a Vision Christian Radio LPON in Ararat; that got put in in 2002 by the looks of it.
The 88.1 entry liner has notes of “repeaters on 89.1 and 89.5” so it’s not that. The 106.1 entry has a different liner number that doesn’t even exist (would’ve existed in an earlier yearbook I guess).
A hopelessly unsourced page online listing 1988 FM frequencies (so high grain of salt!) suggested 106.1 was its original Leongatha frequency, which would’ve meant 88.1 was a direct swap - they would’ve needed the lesser power and the repeaters though because the 88 FM region could’ve easily been impacted by ABNT 3 out of Launceston, especially closer to the water. But then it also listed ABC-FM Melbourne as being on 105.7 and Swan Hill on 105.9. Now they are, indeed, 105.9 Melbourne while Swan Hill’s comes out of 103.7.
2ST Highlands at that power level would’ve been an absolute blowtorch; I wonder if they were figuring that they’d be able to use one transmitter to replace 999/1215 instead of the three they do now. Perhaps common sense prevailed and it let them keep their Highlands-specific stuff for a while.
I can imagine there would have been a lot of these, listing so many stations from so many different places, in a period where sending updates would’ve been cumbersome. I imagine 90% of it would be up to speed but some changes (eg. still referring to ABC Classic as “ABC-FM/Fine Music” in that book, which changed in 1994) and particularly removals would’ve been missed I’m sure.
I believe 3ABCFM in the culture capital was indeed on 105.7 originally, which would have allowed the use of 106.1 at Leongatha. A lot of the ABCFMs changed frequency in the late 80s and early 90s, in part due to the cessation of some Band II tv services which freed up more FM channels.
Good to see 4BC celebrating the station’s 93rd birthday this morning in a time when even milestone birthdays are overlooked. Heard a couple of old jingles.
Logo from the short-lived Triple M Auckland. The station was part of the Triple M Network from 1984 until it was dropped in 1988 and became simply 89FM.
In February 1993, Radio NZ shut down what was by then 89X and uses the frequency for Newstalk ZB.
Best MMM logo ever!
Brilliant history there. Was their positioner, “Auckland’s Best Rock”?
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.
‘Triple M Rocks Auckland.’
Probably should have been “We were a great Sydney radio brand back then, look how we trashed it 40 years later”.
2MMM were probably still in the “Triple Your Music” phase at that point, and at least one aircheck has Keith Williams on MMM Auckland using that, dated 1986.
That slogan of course bled over to EON FM/3MMM after Hoyts took it over… I’m reminded of the second of the D-Generation’s “Five in a Row” skits in 1990 (who were indeed on 3MMM at the time) and they parodied the MMM whisper at the start with a slogan of “Slightly More Music”
Great finds there for 3XY and 3FOX!
So Triple M didn’t invent Rocktober?
No, 2SM had Rocktober as well.
Rocktober started in the 1970’s before MMM was even thought of on stations 4IP, 2SM and 3XY etc. So far back it was still 1270 2SM. Here’s a couple of idents including one sung by Norman Gunston from 1975 (reception isn’t ideal as recorded from Brisbane).
Every 2nd car in Melbourne had a “1422 3XY Rocks Melbourne” sticker. There were many variations eg. “3XY Rocks (insert name of suburb)”.