Came across this on Mixcloud
The logo is very familiar. It seems Power FM Nowra may have borrowed it for their launch in 1991!
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I still think thatâs a nice logo, if a little retro looking these days.
I dont think Grants borrowed this logo⌠The poster seems to have borrowed the logo for his posting
WBPR Florida was on 97.7 even thou it was called Power 98
Today its callsign is WWXM and called Mix 97.7
Speaking of radio stations called Power.. if you want to hear a really great story of a AM radio station that slaughtered their competiton playing dance & hiphop in the early 90s .. Power 1490
watch this
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Yesterday I posted an article in the Random TV History thread from a long-gone Melbourne-based entertainment magazine called A-Z.
This is an article from another edition of said magazine, AM vs FM, from A-Z, 1 November 1984, just as AM was getting ready for Stereo.
Though 3XY was a bit cheeky promoting its Stereo AM in the same issue â a few months before the âofficialâ launch which IIRC was to be in February 1985.
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Reminds me of the 3XY ads that were in the Countdown magazines back in the mid 80s.
There was a melted boombox radio/cassette with the words â3XY Hot Hits - Even Hotter in Stereoâ.
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Hard to believe that when FM started, the conversation was that no-one had an FM radio, including in cars and that there were very few available to purchase.
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Yes there were certainly not that many FM receivers in cars, but there were a lot in homes. I remember even in the 70s our home stereo had FM, and so did many portable radio/cassette systems.
When FM started in Melbourne in 1975, we already had an AM/FM cassette radio player at home because my parents had bought it overseas a few years earlier, but we never listened to it because the FM stations only played classical music. That said, by mid 1976, we had bought a Hi-Fi record player with an AM/FM receiver. By 1977 several of my parents friends had an AM/FM or AM/SW/FM radio, and my parents also bought an AM/FM clock radio and a portable AM/FM/SW radio (which we may have bought in 1976). AM/FM radios were being advertised and promoted on TV.
Neither my parents or their friends listened to FM stations (They were of an older generation who would listen to beautiful music stations like 3AK) but they still had and bought FM capable radios for other reasons. For example, my parents bought the cassette player for recording or listening to cassettes, the record player for listening to records, and the clock radio for the clock (and possibly the AM radio). Itâs possible that they bought FM radios for the future, but they never said anything about it.
I also remember an ad for ABC FM but canât remember if it was 1976 or 1978.
The point is that AM/FM radios were widely available fairly soon after FM radio launched (and maybe beforehand) and people were getting them even if it was for every reason other than to listen to FM radio.
There was one exception. Some or many new cars (not sure what proportion), even some better quality ones, came with AM only radios even into the early 80âs.
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my parents replaced their old radiogram with a record-cassette stereo unit sometime in the early 80s, which had an FM-AM tuner, though we never listened to FM although dad might have listened to the occasional ABC TV and FM simulcast. But our general radio listening was still AM well into the mid- late 1980s.
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Cheeky, but maybe not.
AM Stereo in Australia actually started much earlier than '85, like the US many stations here picked it up around '83 - early '84 (under âtestingâ) & broadcast using all 4 systems of AM Stereo like the USA, before Australia officially chose & took the Motorola C-QUAM system to be the standard & to be officially used from March '85.
I used to have a list of what Australian stations used what AM Stereo systems (prior to '85), but I canât find it now, I also used to have an audio file of air checks of each of the Sydney stations & how the AM Stereo sounded using the different systems, but I canât find that now either (it might be somewhere on YouTube, Iâll search for it later).
If memory serves me well, 2SM used the Harris system (I think the current 2SM backup transmitter is the one that wouldâve run this AM Stereo system back then, the current main transmitter is of about 1990 vintage, both of them being Harris transmitters).
2UW used the Motorola C-QUAM system, 2CH also used the Motorola C-QUAM system, 2UE used the Kahn-Hazeltine system & 2GB used the Magnavox system, though I could have some of those around the wrong way, Melbourne had a similar variation of AM Stereo systems across stations until the Motorola C-QUAM System became the standard, obviously those who used other systems had to get a new C-QUAM AM Stereo Exciter for their transmitter after it became the standard & before the âofficialâ AM Stereo start in Australia in March '85.
The Harris system wasnât too much different from the Motorola system & reasonably easily morphed into the C-QUAM system after Harris decided to drop their system & back the Motorola system, once they saw it was becoming very popular, even before it was chosen as the AM Stereo standard both here & in the USA.
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I suppose in the same way that TV stations were broadcasting colour in 1974 ahead of the official launch of colour TV in March 1975, AM stations were broadcasting stereo before the Government gave the defined launch date of 1 February 1985
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Hey there folks!
Just checking in for a bit. Iâm wondering if anyone can help me source a DAT player please (Digital Audio Tape). Some awesome Australian radio material and other bits n pieces have landed on this format and I would love to dub it all and get it online for you folks to listen to!
If you can help, please get in touch - Iâll be forever thankful. frankiuston2@gmail.com
Cheers!
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The only one I remember from Melbourne was that 3AW tested the Khan-Hazeltine system.
I also remember reading about a chip that was designed that would decode all four systems. That chip was supposed to solve the problems in the US where they let all 4 systems fight it out in the market, but they still settled on the C-QUAM system eventually.
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The Age Green Guideâs listing for the premiere of The Science Show
Source: The Age - Google News Archive Search
And the Sydney Morning Heraldâs preview of the new program
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That billboard is in the background from a scene from Hunters and Collectorsâ 1986 video âSay Goodbyeâ
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Well spotted!
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I recognised it from back in the day, the billboard is on Kororoit Creek Road, Altona North near the then-Geelong (now Werribee) train line.
If only Street View went back that far!
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I was working at an AM station in Sydney in 1985. I still have my two Sony AM Stereo Walkmans. Hearing the Rock of the 80s in stereo was incredible. Even 2UE had some great jingles set around the âIn Touch - when you need to know - 2UE Stereo 954â positioner. Such energy. Good times.
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I have the exact same WM-F16 Walkman. Itâs in a cupboard at home. Not sure if it still works and I donât even have any cassettes any more but I just canât get rid of it. 
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