4AK is local from 6-9am for breakfast with a mix of 80s to now with 80s to 00s been the main skew… between 9am-10am it is the 9 o’clock rewind where it is all classics from the about 1976-1990.
Rest of the day is a direct sat feed from New FM Newcastle, and they are slipping in a few 1978/79 tracks of late to
Does anyone remember the old 4SUN, which was the predecessor of Rebel FM? I vaguely remember the website but didn’t get to listen to it. The 4SUN txs converted to Rebel some time in the early 2000s (by 2003 at least, 97.1 at Stanthorpe was Rebel). The 4BRZ txs came later.
According to my 1999 ABA book, 4SUN 90.5 was licensed to serve Rathdowney rather than Beaudesert, so I’m guessing they toed the remote area line a little closer than Rebel and Breeze (Rathdowney is in a deep valley).
Yes, I remember it, I was living on the Gold Coast in the late 90s, ID was “Your Station, SUN FM” … the music mix was quite varied, being a solus station… It’s signal on 90.5 was strong in the Beaudesert area, in full stereo on a car radio there.
There also a transmitter for the Hinterland region on 99.5, which had a bit of fortuitous coverage into the Gold Coast metro area for a while, though not to the extent that it was a fully fledged alternative to SEA or GOLD.
Yes I remember. The studios were in Beaudesert. The arcade as far as I’m aware is the ‘Sun FM Arcade’ still and used to have all the STL and dishes on the roof and a large Sun FM logo outside the building.
I found it to have a more Classic Hits format. I think they also got to Chinchilla before the Rebel rebrand.
I thought they were called Rebel originally, then Sun and back to Rebel?
Looking at that list I can see most of these call signs (for Qld radio stations)are now obsolete,sadly 
Sun FM logo. Later logos I believe had ‘South East QLD’ underneath.
Another logo from my collection - The Heat 96.1 now Zinc96
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The Heat 96.1 started off as an S39 licence of 4GY in 1997, and was owned by Bill Caralis’ Broadcast Operations Group. In 2005, BOG sold the station (yes, Caralis actually divested a station!) to AMI, who owned Hot 91 at the time. AMI relaunched The Heat as Zinc 96 in February 2006, targeting an older audience. In 2007, Prime Media Group (owner of Prime TV, now Prime7) bought both Zinc 96 & Hot 91, and then in 2013, both stations were sold to Grant Broadcasters.
On a side note, in exchange of Caralis selling off The Heat, he picked up the three AM stations in Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie & Orange from AMI in return.
Ah yes the ‘Easy Listening’ network. This is the only logo I have from them.
The ‘Easy Listening’ network was created after the AM licences the ‘Heritage’ stations were broadcast in, all of them owned by DMG at the time, moved to the FM band.
The first was 4CA in Cairns, which moved to the FM band in October 1998, leaving the AM licence to become a new station, beginning the formation of the ‘Easy Listening’ network. This was followed by 4MK Mackay in June 1999, then 2GZ Orange & 3CV Bendigo (which became Star FM) in October, 2MC Port Macquarie & 2CS Coffs Harbour in January 2000, and Bunbury in March 2000, which was a brand new commercial AM licence, due to the lack of space on the FM band at the time. The Mildura station, formerly occupied by 3MA & was later relaying Sport 927 (now RSN) after the former moved to FM, was a late addition to the ‘Easy Listening’ network in 2003.
From 2005, the remainder of the ‘Easy Listening’ network (after the three NSW stations were sold to BOG) became Easy Mix. The Bunbury station was later sold to Redwave Media (a subsidiary of Seven West Media) & became part of the Spirit Radio Network in 2007, whilst its Bendigo & Mildura station was sold to Grant Broadcasters, and its Cairns & Mackay stations were sold to Prime Media, in which it was later bought by Grant. In 2009, 4CA & 4MK returned to the AM band, as their former FM licences became Zinc (later Star). Easy Mix in Bendigo & Mildura were later rebranded to Gold Central Victoria & River 1467 respectively.
IIRC, the Easy Listening Network had zero local content on them except for local ads and weather updates.
That’s what I thought too. Did they have any announcers or was it 100% automated music?
Only in Bill’s world would you sell an FM station in return for 3 AM licenses
From my limited memory of the Easy Listening stations (I used to occasionally tune in to 1071 from Maryborough/Bendigo) I think they were automated. Maybe not 100% but I think most of the time anyway.
2GB ad in the SMH, 1 February 1980. Carlton probably wouldn’t do an ad like that now.
Thanks for the Sun logo NRN11.
It looks like it may be incorporating the Nike swoosh. Very close!
I remember The Heat from my first ever trip to the Scumshine Coast (Noosa) in 1998. It was a great listen from memory.
That’s just weird …
Yeah I think he was still annoyed he couldn’t get nearby 103.5 FM going in Maryborough as that was going to be The Heat as well. He then sold to the owners of Sea Maryborough and they converted 4MB to Mix 103.5
It would have been a pretty powerful combo with The Heat in Gympie/Noosa and Maryborough/Hervey Bay
