Great articles. Yes indeed it was a busy time on the airwaves in Brisbane. I remember QFM beating B105 to air. Also B105 wasn’t on full power for some reason when it first aired, it was fixed in a few weeks IIRC.
Ironic that 4KQ was worried about revenue due to the FM competition, given only a couple of years later their owners decided to forego an FM conversation at a price that today seems ridiculously cheap. They were the second highest bidder but were offered the conversion after 4BH couldn’t pay.
The name of the new B105 wasn’t broadcast on air until the start of programs. The test loop called the station 4 Triple B, its official call sign - Wayne Goss did the honours.
Yes it was definitely kept hush hush. Apparently they were seriously thinking of calling it just FM105 to directly counter FM104. But then of course FM104 rebranded. They might have still gone with B105 either way, as it is a great name, but FM105 was seriously in contention.
Good times and great rock and roll. Of course we’d also had the launch of Sea FM too (in 1989). I remember they ran a full page ad in the Sunday Sun with a dolphin as their logo the week before they launched.
4BH had also won the right to convert in the first round but reneged, then 4KQ bid for an FM licence in the second round but also couldn’t cough up the cash.
And yeah, by that time Stereo 10/Lite n Easy 1008/4IP were well out of the game.
Since 1990, it has been extremely difficult, if not impossible in some areas, to find an AM station that plays new music. As far as I can tell, the only AM station in Victoria that plays new music is 3KND, but what about in other states?
4WK in Toowoomba (prior to that 4AK until they switched formats). Both commercial stations. 4WK has an FM translator in Toowoomba, but their primary frequency is AM - and in AM stereo!
Switch 1197 in Brisbane is a youth community station. Of course also on DAB
This advertisement must have been from the 70s ,that was when 4IP were most successful in the ratings,no commercial FM competition then . I wasn’t here in Brisbane from 1970 to 1980 (when my family and myself lived in Cairns then Townsville due to Dad’s work)
I first became a radio nut in Cairns in 1973-74 I remember.
Even though the change happened in 1978 did radio stations (such as 4IP) immediately change their branding to reflect their new frequencies as for most stations it was only a slight adjustment to their frequency and with dial tuners in those days there wasn’t really a need to know the precise frequency.
I don’t remember this as it was a year before we moved back here .If I had been living in Brisbane in the mid seventies I would have been listening to 4IP,I’m sure.as they would have been most popular for teenagers,
Just had a check of the “tapes”. At the time of the 9KHz change it seems that 4BH used(its new frequency of 8-80 (ex 13-90), 4BK used 13 hundred in its jingles and 4KQ used 6-9-0 (7 on your transistor).
The use of frequencies in idents was very common, probably the norm. 2UE was well known for 9-50, 3LO Melbourne for 7-70 etc and of course 12-70 2SM.
Yep, I remember listening to “101.9 FOX FM” as a small child.
I’ve heard recordings of 3LO from the 1970’s where they used the slogan “7-70’s Radio” before they were shunted down to 774kHz. I guess it was sort-of clever in a way…
