Radio History

It’s fair enough to not have the frequency shown these days with smart speakers, DAB+, etc. but it’s odd that 2CH didn’t include their frequency in that ad back then.

Unless it’s from the era when radios had the actual station name rather than frequency on the dial.

That era was well before AM stereo was introduced in 1985.

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@Mechsta @Radiohead @TV.Cynic Some 3UZ and 3AK ones:

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That news theme was used across the VBN. “VBN Network News”.

Andy B may be glad no one at the NLA spotted his… unfortunate… use of the T-slur on the Jingle Shrine:

16 Sep 2004 - pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/39735/20040108-0000/stations/4bk.htm - Trove

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I don’t think Alan Freed would ever have been happy at a station with a strict Top 40 format.

He prided himself on “breaking” new records and turning them into hits. At WABC, his slogan was “we start 'em, the others chart 'em”. My guess is that Freed would have moved to a smaller station (probably an R&B station) that allowed him to play more of what he wanted.

Perhaps Freed, rather than Danny Stiles, would have taken over the late-night hours at WNJR, and been allowed to play records by local and regional doo-wop groups that no other area station was exposing.

99.9% of podcasts are narrowcasting. Very few rise above, maybe, 100 actual listeners (don’t believe them when they tell you it’s lots more. Downloading doesn’t equal actual listening).

What broadcast station can afford to narrow down its format that far and expect any advertiser interest? The threat from online is not any one or two or even 500 podcasts. It’s the entirety of all of them combined. Thousands. On demand. That’s the appeal. We can all be driving to work, each listening to something streaming and not one of us be listening to the same thing. Whatever your obsession you can likely find someone talking about it.

To be honest I listen to more podcasts than I do talk on traditional radio

Some Perth radio history gold in this newspaper column from 1993.


Credit: Western Australia Radio and Television Facebook group.

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Gee 25% for PMFM is a big ratings number. I always liked the PMFM brand actually, wish they’d kept it.

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Wow, so Perth had a Triple M in the 90’s, only for them to get rid of the national brand, only to be resurrected more recently. Didn’t know that.

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It’s the only time I’ve the seen the same brand pop up on two different FM licences in the same city (ie. 6NOW and 6PPM).

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The TAB owning 6PR was new news to me. And doing a better job the Nine, at that. Of course the TAB have their own statewide narrowcast network but I do recall as a kid, racing on Golden West Radio. Even braking in mid song for a race. Racing may also have been on ABC regionals at one point in time.

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Yes, racing was on regional commercial radio here in the 1980s (all day Saturday from 10am to 6pm) and on ABC Regional Radio in the early 90s (they would break in during other coverage for a race).

So much better now that it’s all on TAB Radio so it doesn’t interrupt anything else!

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Looking from my personal research, Southern Cross Broadcasting acquired 6PR in November 1994 from the TAB for $4.68 million. This came after they had bought 6IX a couple months earlier, which had an “easy listening” format at the time.
The divestment of 6PR allowed the TAB to have horse racing coverage moved to their then newly-acquired HPON licence on 1206AM (the old 6KY frequency).

After Southern Cross acquired 6NOW from Austereo in 1998, who rebranded it from Triple M back to its original name of 96fm, they then sold 6IX to a Joint-Venture of Capital Radio Network & Grant Broadcasters.

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Do you know how to do it? pic.twitter.com/KqEdkdRWmI

— I❤️Nostalgia '𝕏' (@il0venostalgia) April 7, 2024
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Stations today play ads and the news at the same time overnight. In terms of progress, we may even be behind that meme.

my parents’ cars didn’t even have FM on the radio. My first car had a push button radio like that one for both AM/FM.

My brother’s first car was an old Toyota that only had AM radio, so he had to make do with Magic 693 which wasn’t much fun!

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I persuaded my parents to get an AM/FM radio in the car at some point. I think it had 3 AM and 2 FM buttons?? The sensitivity to low level signals was significantly better than today’s radios probably helped by a full length antenna.

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Agree, sensitivity was better, but selectivity was worse.

No hope of hearing a signal 0.2 mhz away from a local station on those old radios.

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