Bay FM’s owner bought the XY licence and shifted its operations to Geelong, so I suppose technically Bay FM adopted XY and just broadcast the same program across both stations. It identified on-air as “93.9 Bay FM / 1422 3XY”
I seem to recall it did cause some fuss around the other stations as this was around the time stations like 3KZ were committing $30 million to get an FM licence (while 3AK had a defaulted bid of $22m and 3TT $11m) , so for 3XY to sort of creep in to FM through the back door (by being bought for a song by the new Geelong FM) I guess upset the others. Although how well 93.9 covered across Melbourne was probably debatable. I know my reception of it was very patchy.
And then they split Bay FM and 3XY to separate program streams anyway, with Bay FM taking a more lighter music mix (instead of fighting it out with K-Rock with a similar format) and 3XY sticking with top 40. Both stations still based out at Geelong.
Some familiar names there in the guide. TTFM’s breakfast hosts of Kevin John and Jane Holmes are now both at 3AW. Also I recognised the name Jill Pagnoccolo on 3MP breakfast and I recall she later went on to TTFM breakfast in the mid-90s with Kevin John, replacing Jane Holmes.
Other than the voice of Telstra for many years now, I’m not sure what else Jane did in the 90s. I recall she went on to Magic 693 or 3MP (or both?) breakfast in the early 2000s.
Being in NSW, I remember Jane Holmes from The Great TV Game Show so I wondered how much she had worked with Richard Stubbs on radio seeing as they had great chemistry on that show. It turns out she worked with both Stubbs brothers. There’s a bit of information in this Radioinfo article about her career.
Yep they all worked together on the XY Zoo which I guess was one of the first “morning crew” shows in Melbourne. Before then most breakfast shows had only a single presenter or maybe a double.
Jane Holmes’ father was Lennie Holmes who was a performer back in the 1950s or thereabouts. He worked for a time at 3AK so it was fitting that Jane found her way to that station some decades later
Very interesting article. I don’t think I’d read that before. I didn’t know she had previously worked at 3DB and at 3AW before then. There can’t be many Melbourne radio callsigns she hasn’t worked for
Mentioned on 4KQ today that Bert Robertson “Bird Brain Bert” passed away on the weekend. Worked in NSW including 2UW then moved to Queensland worked at 4BC on breakfast and later 4GG. Recorded ads for Errol Stewarts and Super A Mart.
Today, 1 April, marks the 30th anniversary of the last day of 3DB.
1 April 1988 was Good Friday so the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal took up much of the day’s programming. 3DB then became 3TT at 5.00am on Saturday 2 April.
This was the station’s news theme as it went to air at 5.00pm on Good Friday. The station’s last news bulletin aired at 1.00am on Saturday morning.
So today 30 years ago was the launch of Classic Hits 3TT
And in Sydney a similar change was taking place as 2SM was no longer to be 2SM on-air but rather “Lite N Easy 1269”. The station took 2SM out with a bang with a dig through the archives over the Easter weekend
Sadly for them Lite N Easy was not to take off. The format was probably ahead of its time as it bore a resemblance to what we now have much more successfully as Smooth FM.
I wonder why something like ‘Smooth’ wasn’t considered as the name, especially as SMooth… Though on the other hand if you scroll down a digital radio in Melbourne you can listen to “Light” and “Easy”, so maybe they were on to something.
Did the “Lite n’ easy” microwave/diet meals exist at the time?
I don’t really recall except that I think it was much the same as the news service on 3DB. They were still doing the pips on the hour and starting the news on the hour, in particular because country stations like 3CV were relaying the news so it had to be on time. I imagine most of the personnel from the 3DB newsroom stayed in the transition to 3TT. (Still from the same newsroom in the basement of the Herald and Weekly Times building) I do remember though that they were still doing news on the hour in the evenings but it was a networked bulletin, presumably from 2UW in Sydney.
interesting connection with the call-sign! Perhaps they just hadn’t thought of that. But the Lite N Easy name was also in common with the revamped 4IP in Brisbane which went through the same format change.
It’s been disgraceful, the first area for cuts even in NEWS talk stations has been newsrooms.
Contrary to the rubbish SCA and others will try to convince you with, people want meaningful bulletins of detail, substance and not generic national filler or another weak ‘Hollywood goss’ story.
News is radio’s immediacy, tune to one hour of 3AW and listen to the immediacy that is then fed back into the bulletins. 5AA too. That is how you do news because this is radio’s strong suit, immediacy to the masses that the internet has not yet surpassed.
Completely agree. Compare the news service that our talk stations put out with what BBC Radio puts out on its pop FM stations (Radio 1 and 2). It’s depressing.
Here is a recording of the signing off of 3DB then the beginning of 3TT at 5.00am Saturday 2 April 1988, although the voice over gives the date as “Easter Saturday April 22”.
The recording also seems to be sped up somewhat.
Soundcloud: Johanngrivet (former 3DB announcer John Vertigan)
I wasn’t a listener to their show at the time, but I do remember Merrick & Rosso presenting the breakfast show on Nova 96.9. They were probably the #1 program at breakfast on Sydney FM radio during the brief era of 2DayFM really struggling in the ratings between the demise of “The Morning Crew” in the Early 2000s and the decision to move K&JO from drive to breakfast?
