My understanding was that when AWA bought 3XY, it came with a multi-year AFL broadcasting agreement - when BayFM and 3XY were simulcasting, they would diverge for the AFL. Eddie Macguire was 3XY’s main caller, whereas I think 3EE “The Breeze” used Kevin Bartlett (not as confident on this one)…and the 3EE requirement and team carried over to Magic.
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IIRC, Ian Major (ex 3KZ) was chief caller for 3EE but i don’t know what happened when 3MP took over 693 with the simulcast. Did 693 continue with the football separate from 3MP?
I seemed to remember their once being an AFL match broadcast on Magic 1278, which was the first time that Magic had broadcast AFL in many years. This was because there was something like four games all on a Saturday afternoon in Melbourne and Geelong…and it was AFL media rights renewal time.
Anyway some possibly legitimate cross referencing to wikipedia that refers to Magic 693 not having their AFL rights renewed in 1999:
And an even worse link identifying that Kevin Bartlett was at some point, the main man at Magic 693 Footy…
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It was a match at York Park- and since 6PR was already there to call that game for Perth, they took that call.
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York Park makes absolute sense. As I barrack for the Hawks, I was almost going to say it was a Hawthorn match (why else would I remember this??)…but didn’t want to put my foot in it…coz we’re a happy team at Hawthorn…
The Age Green Guide’s article on the approaching launch of 3EE – acknowledging the station had to postpone its debut at the last minute
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Not quite the no “fly by night” and “we’ll suffer the losses” operation promised by AWA.
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Thanks for the first page, what’s on the next page? (yes, there’s always one who asks!)
I love the “Green Guide”.
Whenever I’m in Melbourne, I always make sure I get the Thursday edition of “The Age” just to read that.
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I didn’t have a scan of that page. I’ll see if i can find the original
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This is the story of 3XY’s fall from grace, in a nutshell:
1988: 3XY gradually changed its format from “hot hits” CHR to a more adult sound, by November it was positioned as “Easy Rock”. It nosedived rapidly in the ratings.
1989: Bay FM launched in Geelong. It bought 3XY’s licence and the CHR format (which Bay FM had at the time) returned to 3XY. Eventually it was a 24 hour simulcast between Bay FM and 3XY.
1991: Bay FM changed format to easy listening, 3XY stopped simulcasting with Bay FM and was a stand alone station transmitting from Bay FM’s studios in Geelong. 3XY was sold to AWA Media which closed the station in September. Bay FM still continues to this day on 93.9FM in Geelong.
1992: 3XY returned to the airwaves with a new frequency 693 kHz, a new easy listening and lifestyle format, a new callsign of 3EE and a new slogan "The Breeze"
1993: 3EE tanked in the ratings, AWA sold the station to Wesgo (owner of 3MP), they began simulcasting 3MP on 693 kHz, taking advantage of its weak signal on 1377 kHz to the north and west of Melbourne (the 693 kHz transmitter was located at Mt Cottrell in Melbourne’s west).
1994: The Australian Broadcasting Authority ordered Wesgo to stop simulcasting 3MP, hence creating a new station “Magic” on 3EE’s 693 frequency. Later that year Greek Media Group bought a narrowcast licence for the 1422 kHz frequency, and bought the rights to the 3XY name, they were known as “3XY Radio Hellas”. They are still on air on this frequency today.
1995: Southern Cross Broadcasting acquires 3MP and Magic, but to comply with media ownership laws they sold 3MP and 3AK and kept Magic.
2006: Southern Cross Broadcasting swaps the frequencies of 3AW and Magic, 3AW moves from 1278 to 693 and Magic from 693 to 1278.
2010: Pacific Star Network launches digital DAB+ station “Koool” playing hits of the 70s and 80s that would have been played on 3XY at that time. A sort of tribute you can say.
2017: Magic 1278 becomes Talking Lifestyle with a lifestyle/advertorial format. Ratings plummetted.
2018: After a 0.3% rating in Melbourne, Talking Lifestyle will relaunch as a sports radio station. Who knows if it’s a success or not.
The successors of 3XY:
- Talking Lifestyle/new sports format - 1278 kHz (current owners of the 3XY licence)
- Bay FM Geelong - 93.9 MHz FM (simulcasted with 3XY from 1989-91 - it was so cool to hear 3XY in FM stereo sound!)
- 3MP Classic Rock radio - 1377 kHz (simulcasted with 3EE from 1993-4)
- 3XY Radio Hellas - 1422 kHz (current owners of the 3XY name)
- Koool - DAB+ (station playing songs from the 3XY playlist)
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"A cheap to run music format ‘All Time Greats’ proved successful last half 1985/first half 1986(it actually brought back old 2UE listeners). "
Does anyone remember this? I got this from a comment . The comments are the best part of the article. 
.
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Looking at the old Sydney radio ratings from that era, 2UE got around an 8% share, in which they were outrating both 2UW & 2SM. This was also when 2CH, which had a “Beautiful Music” format, was the 3rd most popular station behind 2GB & 2MMM.
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I think I remember hearing a jingle for an “All Time Great” music format in one of the medleys 2UE had on their website for the 90th birthday celebrations.
But since that programing format happened before my time, I don’t really know much about it (even though I’d really like to! ) or how long it lasted, etc.
I was trying to find some audio on YouTube . No luck so far.
I got some recent Clive on 2ue and 3aw. I really miss Clives show. When I listen, I get frustrated a little how they messed 2ue up and let go of people like Clive. He rated pretty good from memory too.
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Found it! 15 years after scanning the first page 
and here is the radio program guide for the first day of 3EE, Friday 2 July 1992:
Source: The Age Green Guide
From memory, the 9 O’Clock Special and Helen Reeves were networked from 2CH?
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2CH has (or had) a long-running program called “The 9 O’clock Special” so it’s quite possible.
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I used to keep a diary just for random notes and stuff and I remember there was a page sometime in January 1990 that I’d written that I’d started listening to 3XY again after ditching them during the XY Easy Rock days. They must have returned to their hot hits-type format by then.
I never really got good enough reception of Bay FM so I never got to hear 3XY in stereo as such. I did have a tape recording somewhere of my brother calling up the Bay FM/3XY request line but we would have been listening to 1422. Must have been 1990. He’d try calling other stations but never got through but I guess Bay FM and 3XY didn’t have enough listeners to jam their switchboard 
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Yes, I remember getting a bit of night skip reception on 1422 in 1990 north of Newcastle, and their music format seemed like “active rock”’ then as they were playing stuff like Def Leppard and Metallica.
I remember their ID being quite long… FM93.9 and 1422 3XY.
So it was the 3XY program on BAY FM?