Here’s the playlist of the first hour of 2WS-FM that @SydneyCityTV posted back in August 2016: Radio Stations - Music Logs
2 Likes
7QT officially commenced broadcasting on the 29 May 1937 as a station to serve Queenstown Tasmania.
In 1939, 7QT operated with only three permanent employees and it boasted a “Chum’s Club” of nearly one thousand.
In 1987 7QT was renamed 7XS because an FM translator was installed on Mt. Read to serve Rosebery, Zeehan, Tullah, Waratah and Savage River. It was considered at the time inappropriate to continue with the 7QT call-sign which effectively labelled it as just a Queenstown station.
In 1994 7XS installed an additional FM translator in Strahan.
4 Likes
Coffs and Kempsey stations prior to acquisition by DMG, were they in common ownership by an earlier ownership consortium including the Gamble family, other Riverina families and Macquarie Bank?
Not sure who owned 2MC/ROX and 2CS/FM105.5 back then.
According to this link, both 2CS & 2MC were locally owned separately in 1993-94. At around 1995-96, Rod Gamble’s Broadcast Media Group had purchased 2CS, in which the company was then bought out by DMG in late 1996. In 1997, DMG then purchased 2MC/Rox FM (who remained locally owned up until that point) and by 1999, both FM105.5 & Rox FM were rebranded as Star FM. In early 2000, both 2MC & 2CS moved to the FM band.
Under DMG’s ownership, 2MC & 2CS had a identical music format with “The Best Songs of All Time”. At present, due to the significant overspill of the Mid North Coast stations from Kempsey, SCA allowed Triple M Coffs Coast to have a different format to that of its Mid North Coast station, in which the former has the “Greatest Hits from the 70s to Now” format, whilst the latter has the “Classic Hits” format.
3 Likes
Thanks for that post about NSW Mid North Coast radio history, quite interesting reading as always TV_E! 
I’m guessing that before the local solus broadcaster launched their FM station in 1997, 105.5FM from Coffs Harbour was (and probably still is - along with 106.3 once that came online - knowing the quality of commercial radio in Grafton) quite popular with Graftonians?
2 Likes
Correct, it was Hot in that era. Coverage was good enough into Grafton then, I wonder why.
On the subject of commercial radio in Grafton, 2GF (and New 104.7 when it came on-air in late 1997) was locally owned by the Dougherty family until they sold it to Caralis in 1999, which is within the same year that Caralis acquired 2HD/New FM in Newcastle & later 2SM in Sydney.
2 Likes
I recall 2GF/FM104.7 being owned by Westlawn Investments just prior to the sale to Caralis - not sure if they are the same as the Dougherty family…
FM 105.5 started testing in July 1997. I was on holidays at Sawtell at the time and remember it appearing on the dial out of the blue one afternoon. I was very fond of the old Rox FM, too- a great ‘holiday station’.
4 Likes
Yes, Westlawn is the Dougherty family. Not quite Warren Buffet but they’ve done well with their investment business. Bill offered a good price & despite them capably operating the station, it was considered worthwhile to reinvest.
Rather Bill buying than it become another zombie franchise of the bigger ownerships.
2 Likes
I can remember listening to Rox FM on my way up to Coffs for holidays on New Years Day 1994, completely unaware at the time that they had only just started the day before and also unaware that they were run by 2MC. Back then they only had the 105.1 transmitter, with 102.3 starting about 6 months later. I could tell that the transmitter was at Mount Yarrahappini because when we approached, the stereo indicator on my Sony Walkman appeared without the headphones (which acted as the FM antenna)
3 Likes
Yes, August 1994 is when 102.3 started.
Not sure why there was a delay to get 102.3 to air.
Pretty sure it was power supply issues from ramblings I’ve read online
1 Like
I definitely remember Rox in July 1994; they were thrashing the heck out of Electric Hippies- Greedy People at the time. It’s a great song and one I’ll always associate with the station and region. The Mechie Show continues this legacy on the B’s.
2 Likes
It was a great station. “The Coast’s Music Leader” was their first positioner as I remember it and ran for about 4 years before it was replaced with “The Coast’s Better Variety”. They had different positioners on each frequency to state “105.1 ROX FM” or “102.3 ROX FM”.
The “Streetbeat” community announcements were also different on 102.3 and 105.1.
2 Likes
What sort of logo did Hot/Rox have? Similar to what the Star FM logo was or something different?
I don’t know about Hot, but here’s a few images of Rox FM 102.3/105.1 logos (Thanks @TV-Expert for posting these earlier in the thread! 
smile:):
5 Likes
It was a great station. “The Coast’s Music Leader” was their first positioner as I remember it and ran for about 4 years before it was replaced with “The Coast’s Better Variety”
I definitely remember the ‘Coast’s Music Leader’ positioner; variants on the ‘music leader’ theme were popular among regional commercial FM stations at that time (I think Power FM Nowra might have used it, too).
3 Likes
I have fond memories of the old RoxFM too. I can distinctly remember them playing Kate Ceberano - Pash when on the way to Peppermint Park.
In the early Star FM days around 01-03 it was a decent station I’d look forward to hearing when up that way, by then the log was of course shared across the Star FM network. It featured plenty of 80s (back then the 80s was only 12-22 years old) as well as top 40. They’d play Phil Collins next to Nickleback. In 2003 they did an Easter 400 which @TV-Expert may still have the log of that I enjoyed at the time.
I’m not sure about right at the start, but 105.5 Coffs was indeed “Hot FM” prior to Star FM. I can recall for a short time after fm conversion that 639am aired a recorded loop saying “2CS has now moved to FM 106.3”
Very interesting that there is a legacy of each frequency airing independent content. I was listening to “Hit” when up there last weekend, 2MC/MMM had footy on the whole time. Their local ad break timing didn’t line up with the network so either two things played or dead-air and subsequent back up music after each break (quiet annoying after a while). What I noticed is that 105.1 switched to the backup first after about only 10sec of silence, 102.3 took longer. Listening closely, I also noticed 105.1 and 102.3 sound different to each other audio wise (slightly different processing). I believe the RDS is different on each one also. This must mean 102.3 and 105.1 still have independent broadcast chains which would allow separate content to air on each.
SCA seem to be throwing a fair bit of coin at their regionals so whats the bet when/if Port Mac is upgraded, they get rolled into one.
Yes I used to use this method for locating transmitters too.
Can’t find one for Hot FM Coffs Harbour unfortunately. I’d be interested to see also.
Interestingly when looking at archive.org I did discover that the domain starfm.com.au was originally for star106.9 Ipswich until around 05 before it changed hands to Starfm regionals.
3 Likes