What was the format, who hosted it and from what station?
Who owned the stations during this time?
The same graphic design style was used for 2XL for years after this. Kev Blyton the common thread of course.
4QR
And Iâm thinking the old RN callsign was 4QG ~ âQueensland Governmentâ.
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This goes back to the Willesee days when he owned 4CA, 4TO & 4MK. At the time I heard the program 1026 Melbourne was Off-Air meaning 4MKâs signal had a clear shot south and was quite audible most nights here in North West NSW. Toni Thompson was the host out of 4TO & it was a live music based shift with requests & a reaction line topic every night.
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Wowee, good find especially up there! I remember seeing quite a few of these, with the red and blue logo (that in some sacrilegious fashion looks remarkably like a Footscray footy jumper) plastered on the bumpers of cars around Geelong, even well into the 90s and 2000s.
That post has inspired me to put my More FM Christchurch sticker on my chug-a-bug⌠almost.
29 years ago today at 5.00am Melbourne lost 3DB and gained 3TT.
3DBâs last day was Good Friday which was dominated by the radio component of the Royal Childrenâs Hospital Good Friday Appeal. The station presented its last news bulletin at 1am and then for its last 4 hours on-air the station replayed the 1987 special 3DB The First 60 Years presented by Bert Newton who IIRC did an amended epilogue to the program and then ended with âthis is 3DB signing offâ just before the time pips at 5.00am. Then there was a voice over to introduce 3TT and then the first song Listen To The Music by the Doobie Brothers.
Checking back to the ratings and 3DBâs last survey it scored 6.1% ranking it 7th overall and the 3rd lowest ranked commercial station, with 3UZ (which had just converted to a full-time racing format) on 4.1% and the ailing 3AK on 3.9%.
3TTâs first survey scored 3.9% which placed it as the lowest rated commercial station but it did slowly build to peak at 9.0% before converting to FM in mid-1990 and as TTFM had some very successful years in the 1990s.
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What did the âTâ stand for in 3TT, anything in particular?
The 3TT branding wasnât around for very long before the change to Mix?
3TT was only around from April 1988 to June 1990, and then became TTFM from June 1990 to mid-2001. From then, it became Mix 101.1 until January 2015, when it became KIIS 101.1.
Also happening around this time 29 years ago was 2SM in Sydney becoming Lite & Easy 1269, which occurred on Monday 4th April 1988. That change sent a lot of its younger listeners over to 2MMM, which then incorporated some Top 40 music in amongst the rock that the station became well renowned for in Sydney. Other alternatives for listening to Top 40 music in Sydney include tuning to 2KA from Penrith, 2WL from Wollongong & possibly also 2NX from Newcastle, as well as 3XY from Melbourne via skywave at night until it rebranded to Easy XY by the end of the year.
On another topic, Iâve found some links that lists the ownership of each commercial radio (& TV) stations from 1993 to 2005. It really makes for some interesting reading, which dates before the era of Southern Cross Austereo, Bill Caralis or Grant Broadcasters owning almost every regional commercial radio stations in the country. You can find them here: Communications Update
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TTFM was around for at least 10 years!
Although âTTâ could have stood for âTen Twenty-Sixâ (the frequency), I believe officially there is no significance in the letters âTTâ although it was reported at the time that other call-signs being considered included 3MM and 3BB.
Ah yes Iâd forgotten about that:
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
And this was the ad used to launch 3TT. The ad made its first appearance on the evening of Good Friday, the day before launch:
Source: oztvheritage
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I remember Sam Galea on 2UW, his program was called Sam Galea Gold.
Apologies if you guys are already aware of this, but some interesting news for fans of the old Stereo 10 in Brisbane with an online revival of the station including plans for a 24/7 web stream http://www.stereo10.net/ (beware of auto-play jingles, though)
Source: RadioInfo
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A former 3XY DJ was a contestant during âHot Seatâ this afternoon (Lawrie someone I think? ), and him and Eddie reminisced about the good old days when DJs like Greg Evans and Shirley Strachan ruled the roost at 1422 on the AM dial.
Though the DJ got his years wrong⌠He said that he hosted the "âPowermixâ show on Wednesday and Sunday nights in the late 80s and early 90s playing disco hits from those years and that âit rated the 30sâ.
By then, 3XY was XY Easy Rock, I think he meant to say late 70s - early 80s?
Laurie Atlas maybe? Although he didnât join 3XY until the mid 1980s
EDIT: Actually maybe Laurie Bennett who was at 3XY in the 1970s?
It couldnât be Laurie Bennett, he passed away many years ago.
17 April 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of talkback radio in Australia. Iâm not sure which station was actually first to start with talkback on the day because heaps of stations were supposedly starting to do talkback from the same day⌠I suspect one station may have snuck on with some talkback at the stroke of midnight so they could claim âfirstâ.
From NFSA here is Barry Jones, then a 3DB announcer, introducing âday 2â of talkback on his show on 18 April.
This was from a few weeks earlier, in the Listener In-TV:
An extended aircheck of 2BE Bega from 1986. This one comes courtesy of my correspondent at Cooma; he allowed me to upload it. 2BE is of course now 2EC.
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