Did 2MMM and 3MMM ever share the same MMM FM105 logo?
They sure did.
Yes. From 1988-94 IIRC.
For the Clive Robertson fans.
Forgot he was on 2GB breakfast then (1996). I really enjoyed the clip. There is a younger Andrew Moore. Love his banter. There are other Clive clips in the uploaders channel. I wish I listened more back then. Think I was listening to i98 fm then for breakfast, maybe. I wish we still had two talkback stations in Sydney today, 2sm has promise.
1 Like
2 Likes
Nice sticker. 3GL just before the FM conversion (and owned by Hoyts).
1 Like
Was just thinking that, same ownership as the Ms at that time
As found in a Vinnies store in Penrith funnily enough. I never realised they released branded compilation albums!
6 Likes
Great find! Thatās news to me as well. Seems to be from around the year 2000 judging by the artists featured, so after the alternative rock era which was 1998.
I canāt even find this on Discogs which is a first.
1 Like
Blast from the past. Iād completely forgotten about Leah Haywood. The 9inetySix.1 phase had also slipped to the back of my memory too!
Thank you for sharing.
Hereās a track listing for anyone interested.
It is funny you found it in Penrith. At a Brashs in Brisbane back in 1989 I remember seeing a KIX 106 album and it was the first time Iād seen their cool eagle logo.
3 Likes
Such a better logo than the current CADA one.
1 Like
I had a go at re-drawing it. Without knowledge of whether a coloured version ever existed, itās hard to know how accurate this is, but itās an attempt FWIW. I wonder if any bumper stickers were ever made? I still canāt believe that they used this awful thing!
3 Likes
Iāve no idea re the stickers. I never witnessed any & never saw a coloured version of this awful logo either. I think whatās perhaps clear is that the logo wasnāt around for very long.
On WKRP Venus gets an offer from a rival station, but is somewhat shocked to find it is fully automated. His new boss tells him:
Venus, there are already over 1500 automated stations in the country. Do you realise that if you buy your news from a national service, you could run an entire station with no people? No people, think of that one!
This was 1980.
When we think about automation these days we probably consider it a modern phenomenon, but there is nothing new under the sun. I wonder how many Australian stations were running automated programming back in those days? Surely as a major network, Macquarie would have been doing some automation? Particularly mid-dawns.
1 Like
Back in the '80s Macquarie was doing Australia Overnight talkback across its network, which I think even included 4BH which was a music station back then.
But IIRC, 2SM was almost fully automated for a time in the early 90s. I think it was largely just keeping the station in a holding pattern pending new owners/format, etc.
2 Likes
I remember reading that it was considered too expensive for our stations back in the 80s.
And that we had much smaller networks then too, there was no SCA owning as many station as they didā¦ thus owners couldnāt get the economies of scale needed to make the investment worthwhile.
I also remember reading NOW FM Moree, when it was a standalone back in 1990s, they used CART machines and CD stackers as a form of automation for overnight shifts, as they were the first regional FM station in what is now the Super Radio Network. @hatdj might be able to elaborate on this.
That sounds about right. Post-Lite n Easy, but pre-Gold and Kick-AM days.
Pre-computerisation so stations had to be innovative. I know a station that would get their night announcers to slot in a VHS cassette of pre-recorded music/ads/voice breaks on long play for eight hours over night.
In 1978 The NZBC converted 3ZM Christchurch into āRadio Novaā.
As Radio Heritage describes:
Radio Nova attempting an early version of automated programing with a āBeautiful Musicā format somewhat similar to that of Radio I in Auckland which was having reasonable success in that market as āEasy Listening Iā. Nova like any exploding star, with a brief moment of listener interest before self destruction and reverting to the rock music played on siblings 1ZM and 2ZM. The automation gear now sits forlornly in a corner of a room alongside Vintage Radio 3XP at the Ferrymead Historic Park in Christchurch.
My Dad used to listen to radio NOVA, because he didnāt like radio AVON.
Msybe Avon just did everything backwards to Nova, just like the spelling!
2 Likes
a lot of smaller stations, such as regional ones, probably considered it easier just to shut down overnight rather than go to the expense/trouble of automation overnight. Even ABC (local radio and what is now Radio National) still shut down overnight as recently as the late-1980s.
Networking was another option too.
4HI and 4LG shared nights.
Programz like Nightbeat were available to regionals. Not sure if they inserted local ads or if they received a commission to take a network ad.
Not sure what technology was used eg ISDN or satellite, but that wouldnāt have been cheap either. But perhaps viable then because there was no internet and only 1-2 TV stations for competition.
1 Like