Jets FM - fly high with Jets FM
Knight FM - for a great radio station all day AND all Knight…Knight FM
Can only be in Newcastle of course, hint to SCA, you couldn’t do much better than any of these. At least you can’t put an S in front it to adequately describe your stations programming (S-Hit FM 106.9).
When 3GL in Geelong converted to FM it took on the call-sign 3CAT, named after the Geelong Cats AFL team. But for whatever reason they chose not to use “CAT” name on-air and went with K-Rock
There’s stations like KATT in the US that use ‘Cat’ branding, so it wouldn’t have been crazy. Plus it at least doesn’t imply a format to the station like the ‘K-Rock’ branding did - though obviously that hasn’t stopped them.
There is also Power FM, which in Ballarat was actually renamed Bulldogs FM for a day when Bulldogs played the Power in the first ever AFL game in Ballarat last year.
The Cat would be a great name for a radio station in Geelong, K-rock’s call sign is 3CAT. Melbourne already has The Fox, so Geelong should have been called “The Cat”.
I remember listening that morning! The station was due to open the previous Friday but had to postpone at the last minute. It was reported that some vital piece of equipment was realised to be still sitting at the docks!!
My Dad switched from 3MP briefly but for talk always had 3LO for breakfast, morning and drive or MP for music and gardening on a Saturday morning. I enjoyed their footy coverage and occasionally rang their pre and post match tailback.
The reason why 3EE tanked in the ratings was because it sounded too similar to 3MP (the highest rating station in Melbourne at the time) even though 3EE promoted itself with TV commercials, and its spot on the dial was between ABC Radio National and 3LO (both attracting the same audience as 3EE). People were reluctant to move away from 1377 3MP. When 3MP bought 3EE they simulcasted on both 1377 and 693 taking advantage of the fact that 1377 has a weak signal in the north and west of Melbourne. The Australian Broadcasting Authority stepped in and forced 3MP to stop simulcasting, hence creating Magic 693.
Survey 7/1992 0.7% (3MP was No.1 on 15.0%)
8/1992 1.0%
9/1992 0.9% (for some reason there were 9 surveys in 1992?!)
1/1993 1.2%
2/1993 1.2%
3/1993 1.0%
To give those ratings some context, 3EE was literally at the bottom of the ratings. (3AK doing Radio Italia was not surveyed)
Then 3MP took over simulcast on 3EE from 28 May 1993
Magic 693 launched in March 1994 to a debut rating of 2.5% (Survey 3/1994), then more than doubled to 5.2% the next survey.
The ABA or whoever it was at that stage were probably never known for acting too fast
I do remember over the summer of 93/94 they did what I suppose was a trial for Magic, by having 693 break away from 3MP simulcast after midnight with a program called Magic after Midnight or Memories after Midnight or something like that. I can’t remember the exact title but it probably acted as a pilot for what would become Magic 693.
Possibly did, I’m not familiar enough to know what happened with football broadcasts on 693 in 1993.
Although Magic 693 did launch on the evening of 26 March 1994, just after the station’s Round 1 coverage of the AFL that year. Their first song was Magic Moments by Perry Como… which may or may not have also been the last song played on Magic 693 before it switched to 1278 in 2006.
EDIT: I am informed that it was indeed both the first and last song played on Magic 693