Ian Grace and Charlie Fox were programming 2SM through 1981 - 1986 (the More Music, Power and Rock of the 80s branding) and the station was competitive.
In about 1986 the duo ended up at MMM. I think Doug Mulray’s brother was programming the 2SM and the rating slipped to the 5 per cent range between 1986 - 1987. Some strange decisions were made - Angela Catterns doing a semi-talk show in the mornings on 2SM. Angela is great but 2SM was a music station. In 1988 the shift to Lite N Easy 1269 occurred on the 30th of April. This handed the remainder of 2SM’s under 40 audience to MMM on a platter. Triple M’s share rose to around 17%.
The 1990s rolled on and MMM was branded for a few years as “The Rock of the 90s” as Charlie and Ian continued in their genius of making radio local, slick and music focused.
It’s hard to believe that there was a time when Triple M did not call sporting matches.
I wonder if Lite N Easy 1269 never happened, would it had played out differently?
At the end of the day, AM top 40 formats were dying in that era. To this day, the previous 4AK, Switch Brisbane and some regional Triple M’s are probably the only stations in Australia playing current/semi current music on AM.
“Rock Of The 80s” came after “The Power” era. I think the demise was because of the slickness and stereo sound of the FMs, 3XY and 4IP suffered a very similar fate too.
Yes, I would say it happened a bit faster in Brisbane too. If I recall correctly Stereo 10 was rating fairly poorly by comparison by the mid 80s. FM104 was absolutely dominating. I think even by 83/84. Of course it held on as a great Top 40 station until the Lite and Easy flip, but ratings weren’t good. By 1988 FM104 was rating 30%
I also remember an episode of a US drama series which featured an AM station that sounded a lot like 3XY in terms of their wacky breakfast show DJs. To cut a long story short, they (3XY and the fictitious US station) sounded like that in order to try and stop people switching to FM stations, however it was a losing battle in both cases. One of the memorable quotes from that show was, “Why don’t you listen to FM like everyone else does.” Sorry I can’t remember the name of the show.
I guess I’m trying to say that 3XY (and maybe 2SM ) must have sounded like other US AM stations at the time.
True, although I think AM Top 40 might have held on a little longer in Australia than the US. I don’t think there were too many successful AM Top 40 stations in the US by the mid-80s, maybe a couple.
3 years today since the demise of 4KQ😕the years have gone so fast,but they will always be missed by many.
4BH did their best to become a replacement but didn’t quite do it.
They rebranded a bunch of stations a few years ago. The blue and yellow icon is likely either a “5” or “S” (for SA). It’s almost a sub-network for ARN Regional, tying the stations together (I suppose similarly to how they have the PowerFM network).
On a whim I searched for “ROX FM 102.3” and a random, ancient Anglefire website (still live!) had a link to the old site as well as a few others (like 9inety6ix.1).
I do remember the positioner ‘The Coast’s Music Leader’. I would have been listening to The Rox just after the capture date (June 1997). On that trip, I also caught FM 105.5’s initial test broadcasts at Coffs which was a major fluke. One day I just noticed this new station pop up right next to Rox FM and wondered what the hell it was…
Seeing the addresses of their three (!) ROX FM offices reminded me how they used to promote them on air as part of their community focussed “Streetbeat” announcements, “For more info, get in touch with your local ROX office, they’re in Coffs, Port and Kempsey”… of course, social media didn’t really exist then.
I recall driving through Coffs in mid June 1997, no sign of 105.5 then, but on my next trip through in September 1997, it (and 104.7 Grafton) were both new to the airwaves for me then.
