Radio History

I didn’t listen to them on Triple J, but I remember their excruciating ‘comic’ hosting of parts of the Sydney Paralympic Games for ABC television. They were terrible. … I’ve always liked Myf.

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3GG/UL history

Amazing, thanks @Rob_Melb_AU, fantastic contribution. That’s the whole chronology.

Shame about Wesgo getting out of regional radio, I guess this around the time of the merger with Alberts and the formation of ARN?

It’s the 9 year Burl Rose period of local investors that I’m most curious about.

Who were the local investors, what were their reasons for taking a shareholding, why did they sell?

What programming was on 3GG then, who were the main staffers and what content from outside the area was used?

When GG was acquired by RG Capital, it was from a company named Votraint No. 691 Pty. Ltd. This is a shelf company name, I’m curious of this too.

Again, thanks Rob for your detailed contribution!

RG Capital used Voltraint shelf companies for a number of other acquisitions as well.

In the case of 691, it was first registered in 1992, so I would suggest it was used to separate 3GG out of Shepparton Broadcasting Sevices Pty Ltd and become owned by Burl Rose Pty Ltd. This is still the company that owns the 3SEA (hit Gippsland) licence.

The 3GG licence was previously held by Greater Gippsland Radio Pty Ltd (GGR), which was a subsidiary of Shepparton Broadcasting Services Pty Ltd. Rather than sell GGR to Burl Rose Pty Ltd, the licence was instead transferred to Votraint No 691 Pty Ltd, a shelf company acquired by Burl Rose Pty Ltd.

I am guessing that there were various compelling commercial and tax reasons to transfer the licence rather than acquire the company with the licence. Obviously, when RG Capital acquired 3GG they took the approach of buying the company.

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Probably because some of the assets or debts of the company weren’t included in the sale. GGR wasn’t deregistered until 1996 so presumably it took a few years to get rid of whatever was left.

For example, it’s not been uncommon for the land and/or buildings used for studios and/or transmitter sites to be retained by previous station owners, or sold to different parties when stations have been sold. Alternatively, the station may have been owed money by advertisers (or someone else) and the new owners didn’t want to take on the responsibility of collecting those debts.

Does anyone remember the old Austereo/affiliate promos for Breakfast Shows from the early 90’s?

Insert station name_____________would like to apologise for what the Insert show name ________ said this morning

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I remember KROQ in the Gold Coast had that kind of promo for their breakfast show, circa 1992. Rob Elliott hosted it from memory.

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I remember that too @Mechsta, it was a copycat use as SEA had a shareholding from Austereo.

None of it was ever that controversial that apologies were needed, only a lame anti climax.

Does anyone have an FM104 (Brisbane) album? The following are listed on Discogs:

FM104 Oz Rock Classics
Homegrown Vol. 1
Homegrown Vol. 2

I remember someone- perhaps on the old forum- posting an FM104 promotional CD which had ‘Cross That Bridge’ by Ward Brothers among other obscure tracks. I’m assuming these were never
commercially released which would explain their absence on the Discogs database.

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I’ve got an FM104 compilation album but it’s not any of those. It’s a rock classics compilation but with overseas and Australian artists.

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This Nine News story about the 50th anniversary of KFC in Australia features some promotional images including cross promotion with former radio station 3DB.

It looks like the pictures are taken at the “new” Kentucky Fried Chicken on Bell Street, Preston, and KFC (like the Olympic Hotel next door) is still at that site but it’s not the original building.

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I recall that in the early 80s 5SE Mt Gambier was broadcasting on 1296 AM.

At some point, they moved to 963 AM, the logic of which I am trying to work out, given Griffith also has a station on 963 which isn’t too far from Mt Gambier, whereas the nearest stations on 1296 are in Brisbane and Wagin (WA).

The only logic I can come up with for 1296 having to move is to do with having to accommodate Radio National on 1305 AM in Renmark, but that’s all I can think of.

Does anyone know why 5SE changed frequencies?

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I can only add that according to the ABT annual reports it happened in 83/84 and the transmitter power was also increased from 2kw to 5kw, so I am assuming it was at the request of the licensee to address reception difficulties. At the time, the owner was The Advertiser, so if someone has access behind their paywall there probably would have been some articles promoting the change.

Some further info: in 1972 5SE switched from 1370 to 1300 when the transmitter was changed from 500w OD to 2kw DA.

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2kW DA was a unique situation, usually the 2kW commercial sites were/are OD, hence the lower power.

I wonder what was co-channelled or adjacent at the time on 1300?

The freq changes were therefore due to improved tech specs.

In the early 80’s the writing was on the wall that licence areas would be formalised, so the better the coverage, the more turf that could be claimed (and then some, as seen with 4SS into Caboolture Shire).

Wonder if 5SE and 2RG had common owners? Doubtful The Advertiser would have invested in Griffith.

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@TV-Expert, @TelevisionAU, et al - Has anyone been able to find Perth data from this era? While I’ve found older data up to 1983, I’ve not had any success finding any data from 1984 through 1992. All I do know is that 96FM was #1 from 1985 to late 1991.

Yeah I got nothing I’m afraid.

The only remotely relevant thing I could find was this ad from B&T magazine from 1986 for 6PM, but while it talks about being #1 it only refers to cumes not %

(apologies for the sides being cropped. B&T pages were larger than A4 so they don’t fit on the scanner!)

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Not quite complete, but some of the years…

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New upload: 4BK 1296 Classic Hits TV commercial 1988

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That ad must have been doing the rounds:

YouTube: vk3crg

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Wonder how often that would have made it to TV? I don’t think I’ve seen a TV ad for a Geelong station in my lifetime - with most of their advertising being outdoor billboards, and on bumper stickers.