Ron E Sparks - an absolute legend of Australian radio- has died. Im in shock at this news. A hero of mine for many years. Vale Ron E
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Another great tribute to Ron E by Graham Mott. Article is a lovely summary of part of Ronâs time at 2UW which is where i had some contact with Sparxie.
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Source: Stream Out of the 3UZ archives music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud
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Is it just me thinking too much into it, or does it seem somewhat inappropriate and distasteful for an article to use RIP and not R.I.P.?
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Interchangeable really. Not disrespectful. Grammatically incorrect yes.
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Itâs just that online, RIP is used casually, but is never something Iâd use in a âformal settingâ I guess you could call it.
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Web headlines are clickbait, not really a formal setting.
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I guess itâs at least more formal than not using capitals at all LOL.
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Doing some further digging as far as the youtube situation, and it seems it was the radio antenna who had all those airchecks up on youtube. Either the channel was bleeped out from a mass copyright violation, or the owner just decided to pull all the content. When checking back through my history, it was a 3KZ AM Stereo aircheck with Peter (canât remember last name), and for whatever reason, there is no more sign of it anywhere on the internet. The video itself had a late 80s rainbow 3KZ Hits and memories logo on a black background.
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I know this post is rather old, but had to put my two bob in. As far as I can remember, 2Day FM turned into a top 40 radio station as soon as Austereo bought them out in April 1989. The New 104.1 2Day FM started on 1st July 1989 with a very tight top 40 playlist, with Mike hammond, Rob McCasker, Keith Williams and Nick Bennett. As far as I can remember, it was that way until I never listened to them anymore by January 1992. The few occasions I DXed past them in the 1990s, they were always considered a top 40 station to me, the same old song, at the same bloody time everyday. Quite a contrast to the great station they were once in the early 1980s.
PS: All tales have a happy end, a big thank you to the 3KZ facebook for sharing the 3KZ 1989 aircheck with me. Thank you guys. 
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I was in and around Sydney from July 9-15 1989 on a uni camp and yes 2DAY FM did play lots of top 40 type music, and it sounded pretty slick, but they only played the same sort of songs they played beforehand, just more of the newer ones and none that were too old. So they would play rock, plus more adult oriented pop/dance songs by Kate Ceberano, Fine Young Cannibals and Transvision Vamp, but they wouldnât play many pop/dance artists that appeared in the top 40 (e.g. Madonna, Prince, Kylie Minogue, many others), which would also appear in the Top 8 at 8 on Melbourne/s Triple M. You know, the ones that Molly Meldrum complained that radio stations wouldnât play. Sydneyâs Triple M was similar in that way when I was there, though this may have only been on the weekends (Friday drivetime to Sunday night inclusive). They also had a Top 8 at 8, but the songs were much safer (e.g. Kate Ceberano made it onto the Top 8).
Meanwhile in Melbourne, Triple M and FOX FM would play the same sort of current, top 40-ish music with the same inclusions and exclusions, but only on certain weekends (Friday drive to Sunday nights). At other times theyâd play the older music like before. Maybe the weekends chosen were ratings related. The only time they played many pop/dance songs was on countdown shows (including Triple Mâs Top 8 at 8).
When I was back there in December 1989, things had changed. Triple Mâs Top 8 at 8 played the same pop/dance songs that Triple M Melbourne would play on its Top 8 at 8.
I canât remember if 2DAY FM was similar after 7PM weeknights but itâs possible.
When I was back there in December 1990, things had changed again. 2DAY FM would play some safer pop/dance songs e.g. by major artists like Madonna but only here and there. On Saturday night, both 2DAY and Triple M played lots of this music and maybe even on Sunday nights (or just the night I was there). Something similar happened on FOX FM in Melbourne and they played lots of this music 7pm-midnight every night and they stopped playing any really old stuff even during the day.
All of this may have started later in December 1989 or January 1990. This was several months after Triple J launched in Melbourne and the first commercial stations converted to FM in Melbourne and Brisbane. FOX FM and Triple M Melbourne, Triple M Brisbane and both Gold Coast commercial FM stations would play one or two more adult oriented pop/dance songs by such artists as Lisa Stansfield and Adeva, so I assumed that Sydneyâs commercial stations did the same.
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When breaking it down into the separate genres of music, youâre probably right, the music that 2Day and Triple M played was more rock orientated steering away from the likes of Madonna, Kylie, Jason Donovan, Banana-rama, and Sonia. They would play, as you said, Kate Ceberano, but more particularly Midnight oil, Hunters and Collectors, Billy Joel, Elton John, Ian Moss, Paul Kelly, and etc who all of which had new albums out at the time. I know the FM stations in Sydney didnât like playing any SAW stuff.
I just know by the time all these changes took place in Sydney radio at the end of 1989 into 1990, much of the 80s pop I grew up with disappeared. Some of it ended up on 2Day FMâs Jukebox from hell, which I always found was just the stationâs Managerâs interpretation of what they personally hated, independent of anybody else. Unfortunately much of the stuff they would mock and have a go at on their jukebox from hell were several of my favourite songs from the 80s. I kind of took that as a nod to say that weâre done with the past,; we now just play top 40 and new stuff, weâre sick of the daggy old shit, which is why I turned them off.
For me, the next station I tuned into at the start of 1991 was 2SM wen they turned into âThe Station you grew up withâ. Ken Sparks and Barry McCathery were part of their line up, and they dug out heaps and heaps of lost classics, absolutely loved them, it was the format from heaven. This was until âThe Churchâ sold them off to WESGO communications (Pre ARN), who then killed 2SM off at the end of June 1992, and turned the station into auto pilot, playing nothing but sleepy kind of âtrite and sleezyâ 50s and 60s easy listening greats. I took that as being the death nail of 2SM, one that poor old 1269 has never recovered from.
Like Austereo putting the wrecking ball through 2Day FM in 1989, Little Bill pretty much has done exactly the same for 2SM, both technically and format wise, there is absolutely nothing left of the old 2SM, the one I remembered from the 1980s, the days of Frank Fursey, Ray Arthur, Julie Bronski, and Club Veg. When the original 2SM was flicked into Trite and Sleezy 1269 on Saturday 2nd April 1988, it was almost like a death of your favourite pop / rock star.
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I have similar recollections to when B105 first launched. They werenât a Top 40 station either. They did play more Top 40 than 4MMM but even their slogan was âNothing but great rock n rollâ when they first launched. They were a lot softer rock than Triple M though and more pop hits. They gradually morphed towards CHR over the decade but still included a lot of âflashbacksâ, mainly 80s hits throughout the first half of the decade.
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2DayFM did switch to a more Top 40 format in 1989 but it was a lot more âmiddle of the roadâ Top 40 than 2SM. As the Rock of the 80s and later when branded as âHot Hitsâ 2SM smashed out a wide range of Top 40 music including many up and coming Australian bands and artists. 2SM âforcedâ 2MMM to also broaden their playlist to include artists such as Duran Duran. With 2SM gone, a lot of variety also vanished.
Between 1989 and 2001 2DayFM was quite cautious with the Top 40 they played (although at night the music was much more adventurous). As such the whole Top 40 become more stale in Sydney. I was hoping that the two new FM conversations may mean the return of real CHR in Sydney but WSFM and MIX were even safer than 2DayFM. HITZ FM was a community station that really shook the commercial stations up with dance and popular music- it was soon forced to close.
https://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/CLCCommsUpd/1996/153.pdf
I remember when Nova launched in 2001 and during the morning shift they were playing 12 inch dance songs and I realised that Sydney again had a commercial radio station that was willing to mix up popular music including dance, indie, rock and ballads. 2DayFM soon followed their lead and was also a genuine CHR station post 2001.
No offence to Deborah Conway, but there were only so many times in the 90s I could listen to âItâs Only the Beginningâ on 2DayFM.
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Hitz was only in Melbourne iirc? In Sydney we had the likes of Wild FM, Radio DEX, Free FM and Out FM competing for the Sydney wide community licences. All of these played dance music in one form or another; Free and Out were LGBTQI+ stations.
I think 96.9 MHz was originally slated for a Sydney wide community licence. Thereâs that whole backstory with Wild FM and its psuedo-commercial operations, which didnât sit well with the powers that be.
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Apologies - I meant Wild FM.
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Is there somewhere I can read more about that? I know there was a huge dust up about how that all went about. Remember hearing them quite a bit when we lived in South Leura (we could get everything up there), but yeah, they disappeared, suspecting they rubbed quite a few folk the wrong way, I suspected anyway.
Yes, yes, yes, and Mellencampâs âCheck it outâ, Deni Hines version of âAinât no sunshineâ, and Jimmy Barnesâs âwhen your love is goneâ. Just to piss the DJs off, I would ring in requesting some of my favourite tracks, Kiki Dee âStarâ, Nolans âIn the mood for dancingâ, Leif Garrettâs âIn the mood for dancingâ, Fiddlerâs Dram âDaytrip to bangorâ, Duran Duran âPlanet earthâ, Rocky Burnette âFalling in loveâ and other similar early 80s tracks. They would say that they didnât have those songs, only for me to say, âwell, I heard 30 secs of that song in that stupid dag quizâ, and they would hang up. I knew I was taking the piss and moved on, but it was fun for a little wile. Ah, the fun of adolescence and itâs innocense, wen you can do stupidly crazy shit like that.
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In answering my own question, found this rather interesting article.
And also this transcript from a past Media Watch episode, with it being designated as a community radio station license, the then ABA would not have looked to kindly. With the amount of profit Anthony and his side company were making, it would have rubbed quite a few people the wrong way. Not great when youâre trying to get a license.
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Yes I used to remember âdag quizâ on EON FM/Triple M Melbourneâs D-Generation breakfast show in the 80s and early 90s, it was a âname that tuneâ competition. Usually a one hit wonder from the seventies. The prizes were usually a 7" single of a dag song such as Day Trip To Bangor etc. and $105. Then Tony Martin did a profile on the artist featured, some of them were very funny, I remember âThere have been many famous Lawrences, there was D.H. Lawrence, writer of Lady Chatterleyâs Lover, Lawrie Lawrence the swimming coach, and then there was Vicki Lawrence, (and goes on an on about her brief music career), Vicki Lawrence, another page in the annals of dag rock and roll!â. It was the highlight of my mornings! Then Maynard F# Crabbes came to JJJ and sometimes played dag songs (he sometimes plays off-key harmonica over the top of it) on his breakfast show, and had a âdag quizâ segment more like a game show with three contestants called âDag for a Dayâ.
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