Radio History

Fair enough, I didn’t think the ‘1’ prefix was introduced to the Canberra call-signs until much later. Up until then they were just ‘2’ call-signs by default. As you say they can use either 1 or 2 now.

Just edited my post, re-read it regarding 2XX. :slight_smile:

And you have that around the wrong way, Canberra was always “1” by default, the “2” was available later on.

I remember around 1983 - 85 or so listening at night from Maryborough Qld I would often listen to “NX - NM”.

The other stations at the time that I recall were “linked” at night were 4HI - LG overnight. Actually 4HI Emerald was a pretty happening station in those days playing a lot of current hits overnight. 4MK was another long-distance favourite I could pick up a lot back then overnight.

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No I don’t think it was. I have the ABT Annual Report of 1991 which shows all the ACT stations with ‘2’ callsigns.

And this from the Australian Broadcasting and Control Board report 1975-76:

The Canberra stations had always identified with ‘2’ callsigns. 2KIX (“KIX106”) changed to 1CBR when the on-air brand changed to “Canberra FM 106.3”.

Pretty sure the ‘1’ was only introduced later for new stations and it became an option for any existing station to adopt it if they chose (such as 1CBR).

Although it is interesting to see 2CN is listed as operating 168 hours per week which is 24/7, when no other ABC stations except new stations 2JJ and ABCFM, were doing so at that time. Maybe 2CN was broadcasting 2JJ overnight?

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Yeah, actually you might be right, sorry.

2XX must have changed their callsign to 1XX during the early 90’s, before 2NX changed their’s to 2XX?

My radio books are packed up in storage, so I can’t go & check what it’s callsign was in 1990-1991.

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Yes - the original AM stations were always prefixed with 2. The older listings I have show the 2XX call sign on AM as well but the RPH station’s call sign was listed as 1PPP on 1125. On FM there was 1ACT on 98.9.

All good. Yeah I didn’t realise 2XX in Canberra may have adopted 1XX before switching to FM. (It is now 1XXR on the FM band but still IDs on-air as “2XX”. No wonder I got confused there!)

Yes, my recollection is that the “2” prefix was the standard up until about 2000 for all ACT stations.

Then the ABA at the time decided any new stations and any existing stations wanted to change their call sign had to adopt the “1” prefix. But existing stations were not required to change theirs.

Hence why we now have a mixture of eg. 2CA, 1MIX and all community licences that were allocated/converted around that time begin with the “1” eg. 1WAY, 1XXR.

ICall signs that have disappeared from Brisbane airwaves in the last 30 years:
4BK/B105 now Hit 105
4BH/ Magic 882 now Talking Lifestyle :confused:
4IP/Radio 10/Stereo 10/Lite and Easy 1008/then back to 4IP/4TAB now Radio TAB
QFM 106.9 /now River 94.9 -yes it’s an Ipswich station but I’ll include it anyway
4MMM-FM 104 now Triple M
New stations since then:
97.3 FM (since September 2001)
Nova 106.9(since about 2006

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I think I can recall 4CA, 4TO and 4MK sharing night time programming back in the mid 80s?

I remember that also

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1PPP (RPH) was running in 1993 and listening back to tapes it ID’s as Radio One.

This is a couple of years old now (2015) but this is a list of Canberra stations with call-signs except for the HPON stations on 1008 (the old 2XX AM spot) and 1323 which I don’t think are assigned callsigns. So I don’t know what those stations are…

2CN 666 National V OD 5k -35 13 10 149 7 10 1198316
2RN 846 National V OD 10k -35 13 6 149 7 9 1198321
1008 HPON V OD 300 -35 13 4 149 7 30 1170202
2CA 1053 Commercial V DA 5k -35 13 18 149 8 48 1384966
1RPH 1125 Community V DA 2k -35 12 57 149 6 58 172880
2CC 1206 Commercial V DA 5k -35 13 5 149 7 25 1384967
1323 HPON V DA 400 -35 13 49 149 7 8 1186849
1SBS 1440 National V OD 2k -35 13 10 149 7 10 1144546

1CMS 91.1 Community M OD 20k -35 16 37 149 5 47 1170316
1WAY 91.9 Community M OD 20k -35 16 25 149 17 49 1170310
1ART 92.7 Community M OD 20k -35 16 25 149 17 49 1171651
1XXR 98.3 Community M OD 20k -35 16 25 149 17 49 1155601
2JJJ 101.5 National M OD 80k -35 16 37 149 5 47 1198286
2ABCFM 102.3 National M OD 80k -35 16 37 149 5 47 1198319
2PB 103.9 National M OD 80k -35 16 37 149 5 47 1159538
2ROC 104.7 Commercial M OD 20k -35 16 37 149 5 47 1153461
2SBSFM 105.5 National M OD 80k -35 16 37 149 5 47 1153105
1CBR 106.3 Commercial M OD 20k -35 16 37 149 5 47 1384866

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1008 is Racing Radio

And I think 1323 started out playing Country Music, but now looks like it’s an English/Chinese station.

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A low powered AM stereo transmitter, yielding excellent results. Also notable is the presence of an AM stereo pilot on 2WG/Triple M Wagga Wagga.

By my calculations, Brisbane has the same number of commercial music station now that it had 30 years ago in 1987.

1987:
FM104
4BK
4IP/RADIO 10
4KQ
4BH

Now:
TRIPLE M (debatable it’s a music station)
HIT
97.3
NOVA
4KQ

How is this possible when the population has doubled? The new stations (Nova and 97.3) have simply replaced other music stations we’ve lost (4IP, 4BH).

Sure there are more community stations but this doesn’t seem right to me.

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And the quality of the music stations has gone backwards as well. There’s nothing even remotely approaching the quality of say FM104 in its heyday.

Technology has certainly had a major impact in many ways on both sides of the equation eg. listeners having more non-radio entertainment options and radio having cheaper ways of making its product.

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When I was a kid in Timaru New Zealand in 1987 we had one radio station - Radio Caroline. They played music but did everything else as well. Fortunately at nights between 7-8 they’d play a nightly top ten.

I envied people who lived in Brisbane at the time who had so much more choice.

Fast-forward to 2017 (and let’s exclude all other media)… but if listening to FM… Timaru now has more music stations than Brisbane.

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Yep I know. It’s crazy.

There was a live overnight program called North Queensland Overnight & it was pretty damn good (y)

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