Radio History

Some great memories there,there will never be a station like Stereo 10 again.its a shame they were in the AM band ,FM 104/Triple M were the top rating station back then by far,

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7HO has now been on the air for 87 years. It officially opened on the 13 August 1930 at 8:15pm. S. H. Findlay spoke the first few words, Miss M. Langdon and J. Montford introduced the announcer and entertainer and then called on the then Premier, J. McPhee, to officially open the station.

7HO had an original staff of only five. The call-sign of 7HO stood for three different things: the first two letters in Hobart, “Hobart’s Original” and the first two letters of the original owner Ron Hope’s surname.

Its total audience when it started was less than 30,000.

7HO’s original studios were at 80-82 Elizabeth Street in the Findlay’s Building, which was on the corner of Bathurst and Elizabeth Streets Hobart. The transmitter was situated on the roof and the station occupied two rooms, one with the library and studio, the other containing the technical equipment.

The studio manager, announcer and typist were all in the one room. A microphone on a clothesline was moved backwards and forwards according to the needs of singer, instrumentalist, announcer, or studio gramophone.

When the announcer spoke, any conversation the manager might be having with a potential advertiser would be suspended.

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Seven News ran a story of Stereo 10 as part of one of the flashbacks last week.

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Very interesting. When I was a kid growing up, we had a copy of The Mercury’s 100th anniversary souvenir from 1954 that had been left behind at our place from the previous owners. It included some ads for both 7HO and 7HT at the time including some of the old program lineups. And I’m kicking myself I never kept that magazine. I think my parents threw it out in a spot of spring cleaning :frowning:

But I did find this recently, this promo card showing 7HO’s ratings back in 1987:

Note the change in terminology. “Housewives” in 1987 is now “Grocery Buyers” :wink:

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TK, Terry Kerr of Toowoomba radio fame and with a good career before that in Brisbane and elsewhere has died:

http://newmedia.com.au/index.html

He has been in radio since 1971, working at 4AK and 4GR before starting his own station Power FM with friend and fellow host Geoff Roberts.

More details at Jocks’ Journal above.

Random find from the archive today. Flyer promoting 3BO’s switch from 945 AM to 93.5 FM. (1993)

I reckon 3BO kept the same FM logo from 1993 right up until becoming Triple M last year?

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Pretty much. Thanks for the upload.

Who owned 3BO at time of conversion?

They were an AWA station for a long time but I’m not sure if AWA still owned them by this time.

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According to this document, 3BO was owned by Wesgo, who at the time also owned 2WS, 2SM, 2GO, 2AY, 3MP, 4KQ & KAFM (now 5MMM). Wesgo sold 3BO in August 1993 to Ray Gamble’s Broadcast Media Group (later DMG).

See article: Wesgo sells Bendigo’s station to Gamble (The Age, 18th August 1993)

3BO’s then rival, 3CV, was owned by Cameron Broadcasting Services, which was also later owned by Broadcast Media Group, pairing up with 3BO.

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I remember back in the 80s when Radio/Stereo 10 opened their brand new ‘state of the art’ studio on Coronation Drive here in Brisbane.Boy George from Culture Club was at the opening.Of course back then Culture Club were extremely popular,the video of that day is on You Tube .After the station changed back to 4IP Call sign on late 1989 they 'crashed and burned’:confused:,became 4TAB and moved to TAB headquarters in Albion.The studio remained empty for a few years until it was eventually demolished to make way for apartments.

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Same building, internal demo, refit.

Yeah I remember that studio on Coronation Drive well, with the rotating neon sign with Stereo 10 on it

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As requested by Dxnerd, scans of EON FM’s Music Charts from Aug to Oct 1986…

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I note the slogan change approx. 31 years ago this week.

Apparently it was soft launched with a whisper campaign…

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Great charts from '86. They certainly brought back a lot of memories! I didn’t realise Oh La Mour /Erasure actually made it to No 1 in the charts. Although as the charts were state based maybe it didn’t go so high in Queensland. The rest certainly ring true.

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Awesome, thanks for that. I’ll be using one of those for my retro countdown (on YouTube) next week.

Now there’s some good tunes you don’t hear anymore. I don’t think that Spandau Ballet song has appeared on commercial radio since it left the charts.

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Did 4SS AM 828 Sunshine Coast convert to FM 92.7 (then known as Mix 93) on 31 December 1993?

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In 1994, with the opportunity to convert to FM, 92.7 Mix FM was launched at midnight on New Year’s Eve.

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