Some regional South Australian FM launch history.
FM 96.1 Mt Gambier - this from the ‘Border Watch’ 15 May 1998
And the Port Lincoln Times 30 November 1999 - the issues with the 5CCC test broadcasts (which initially launched as Star FM, rather than Magic FM, which I did not know) made front page news there due to TV interference issues.
Fiching on holiday again?
Why fich when you can Micra fish…
Yep, spent a couple of hours at the SA State Library whilst in Adelaide last week.
They have heaps of newspapers on microfilm there, but some are not very well labelled eg just says “The Argus” but doesn’t say where it’s from.
Slowly being processed but the 2001 ABC Celebration of Radio CD:
https://archive.org/details/abc-celebration-of-radio
And a car radio from a 1983 MBF ad:
The year was 1986 and Blackie on Hauraki produced this. You can’t beat a plastic fantastic. Now the plastic fantastic became a national obsession. KZ-7 ‘Kiwi Magic’. The B-side is Blackie’s hair disaster.
Truly a part of Australian radio history.
Don’t you mean Aotearoa radio history?
Or he’s considering you guys a state (as you should be) 
/s
Have rescued hours of footage shot at 3UZ from late 80s into early 90s.
Will slowly be placing them up on my YT channel
A rare ‘Newcastle FM’ logo, which was used as the sponsor in this ad for 1927 tour in April 1989.
This was published in the ‘Newcastle Herald’ 2 days before test transmissions started (so 12 April).
Initially for the first month or two, NEW FM ran some IDs that said ‘Newcastle FM’ rather than ‘NEW FM’ (which was also used in some IDs too), though NEW FM quickly became the dominant brand
This logo was also the first hint I had at NEW FM’s frequency, which I had no idea of what it would be until I saw this ad. For some reason, I think I had convinced myself that NEW FM would be 102.1 (‘NEW 102’ just sounded good!).
Here’s something I’ve been working on in recent times in between running the business, putting together The Mechie Show and being a Dad. A comparative list of the AM and FM radio services in operation in June 1985 and now. There are bound to be some errors in this so apologies in advance if anything is incorrect. In the meantime, enjoy.
AM radio
FM Radio
Looks like I cannot access the files.
To make it public, please go to Manage Access and in the General access tab change the option from Restricted to Anyone with the link.
or just request access like the screen shot shows?
OK then, just did that. In any case should I remove my previous post?
I’ve changed the settings so anyone with the link can access it. I have granted access to those who requested it earlier.
This week brings with it an interesting little piece of Australian radio history. It’s now 35 years since the launch of Coast Rock FM.
Serving the New South Wales Central Coast, Coast Rock FM was first broadcast from newly-built studios in Mann Street, Gosford.
The on-air line-up included Duncan Campbell, who would go on to become Chief Content Officer at ARN.
Start Me Up by The Rolling Stones was the very first song to go to air.
I remember discovering Coast Rock FM completely by accident back in 1990, and being impressed by the fact that a Gosford based station could be easily received at my location at the time (Richmond).
I knew it was coming, as the issues with the initial tests on 100.5 got coverage in my local “Newcastle Herald” (I think I’ve uploaded this article before). I tuned in for the 8am launch on 15 Sept 1990.
I still remember hearing the first song i heard on their 101.3 tests - Billy Idol’s “Cradle Of Love”. I still think of Coast Rock FM whenever I hear that song these days.
Great work!
Just got around to having a look.. there were some FM allocations (mostly ABC) back then that I didn’t know existed!
I had been trying to find something that lists the power levels of stations under the old “Aerial Power” measurement (as opposed to ERP that is now used), found the ABC radio ones on Trove (is this what you used for your list?).
(nb. the commercial/community station lists / power level is listed from Page 114 in the file below)
Sadly the ABT had stopped printing full commercial/community lists by 1989.
It’s a shame they had progressively reduced the detail in those annual reports. Loved the breakdowns of who owned what. Never did it for the radio stations to the same extent they did for the television stations.
