They used to a great rugby league call, with Greg Hsrtley (Hollywood) and Peter Peters (Zorba), known on air as “Hollywood and Zorba” with hilarious pieces from comedian Vince Sorrenti.
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They’ve also had Ita Buttrose, John Singleton, Mike ‘Gibbo’ Gibson, Ron Casey…
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I’m surprised Radio 2 never used that phrase.
Although I guess they were more ‘off the dial’.
Probably the station with most claim to use that positioner was:
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4BK was another to refer to dial position with the jingle “on top of Brisbane 4BK” that I assumed referred to their dial position of 1300.
I always wondered - did the Sky Channel branding originate from 2KY?
I too, found the 90’s/00’s matching Sky & 2KY logos to be brilliant brand integration.
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In the early 1980’s, 1206 2KY was the highest frequency AM station in Perth and the whole of Western Australia as far as I knew. I always wished that I could be in Perth back then and tune my portable radio on that part of the dial at night to see what stations it could pick up. Would it pick up up any interstate or international station? Would it pick up absolutely nothing?
I only went to Perth in 2014, by which time there were several stations beyond 1206.
Sky Channel had it first
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I always thought that it was named after Sky Channel in the UK & Europe, but you’re right, I never realised how 2KY sounds a lot like Sky.
I suspect the use of lower AM frequencies was more to do with the poor soil conductivity over there?
I did some AM DXing at night in 2007 whilst at Busselton, I recall getting the following AM stations from the eastern states
774 3LO Melbourne
1260 3SP Shepparton
1269 2SM Sydney (but only just, was barely audible)
1332 3SH Swan Hill
1548 4QD Emerald
But yes, there were a lot of vacant frequencies at night. I got a few overseas stations too, all foreign language, I recall 954 and 1575 were 2 of them.
With noting that in the past many commercial and all ABC stations closed down around midnight that had a similar effect with large chunks of the band potentially empty. On the east coast that opened up SA for 30 minutes until their close and WA for a couple of hours. There was also more opportunity for other countries to be received.
I wonder if Sky purchased 2KY specifically because of its name?
I thought it was to avoid interference with 3GI on 828?
I was not aware of that and I’m surprised if 837 had any impact on 3GI 828 given 837 was on a lower power AFAIK
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Possibly and/or with 7XS Queenstown.
The one I find interesting is 3UL/3GG (531) right next to 7SD (540). A bit close for comfort given the MW friendly properties of Bass Strait.
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Yes that one’s strange, given the channels are 18kHz wide, so that 9kHz in-between those 2 centre frequencies, at somewhere along the lines, always will have both stations signals on top of one another.
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Some allocations in NSW I’ve found quite odd, using 1215, 1224 and 1233 from Bowral to Sydney to Newcastle when they are all so close together, resulting in 1224 needing a sharp null to the north and south to protect both.
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I used to be able to pick up both in Melbourne. And sometimes with 7BU on 558 from Burnie as well. Very crowded down that end of the old dial
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Yep, I was amazed how well 7BU and 7AD came in on my first trip down there in 1999. I recall listening to 7BU rock solid down the GOR in the middle of the day; I don’t think the Colac repeaters existed back then. 7SD and 7LA were there but weaker from memory.
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I’d sit alone and watch your light
My only friend through teenage nights
As a teenager in the 80s I thought that radio was king. We only had two TV stations and for the most part, they were pretty boring to me as a teen.
But I’d flick on the radio and the world would come alive. Sure, all we had locally was a full-service Radio Caroline that tried to be all things to all people, but I set up an aerial and was able to listen to Radio Avon and 3ZM during the day. Playing music that appealed to teenagers.
And then at night, the spectrum came alive. The whole dial lit up. Magic 11, 2SM, 2NX, 3XY. For me, this was radio at its absolute best.
I reckon radio hit its peak in 1984. There was never ever a better time to be a radio listener. Not prior, not since.
It came as a shock to me to realise sometime later that people were already talking about how the best years of radio had already past us by as early as 1982.
When I was listening to 2SM in 1984 I thought that it was the greatest thing I’d ever heard. Turns out, people had already been lamenting the ‘good old days’.
So I don’t know. In radio’s history, when was the best time to be a radio listener?
Certainly not now.
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