Yep, I am talking from childhood recollection using nothing but my trusty old walkman, but that was the case back then. Come to think of it though, other than the addition of Sea FM, it probably hasn’t changed much, as TR FM is even weaker to the west than the old AM signal was
And yeah you could be right, but as a kid I certainly wasn’t listening to daggy old 3MP I do however recall having good 3LO reception right into Gippsland to listen to the cricket in summer
I wonder if some in those parts resorted to listening to 7BU and 7AD from across the puddle?
South Gippsland in particular is an iffy spot for FM reception- that’s why 3MFM does so well there with its local focus. But who needs radio when you’ve got a fabulous climate?
This is when 4GG on the Gold Coast converted to FM as 4GGG on 20th March 1989, at around the exact same time when rival station 90.9 Sea FM (now hit90.9) launched. It was the first commercial radio station in Australia to convert from AM to FM, in which its first song on FM was none other than “FM (No Static At All)” by Steely Dan, the very same song that launched 96fm in Perth nearly 9 years earlier. Both 4GGG & Sea FM were also the first commercial FM stations in Australia to go to air in a non-capital city market.
4GGG later became KROQ before it was bought by Sea FM (later RG Capital, then MRR, now SCA) in late 1992, in which it was relaunched as Gold 92.5 with an oldies format, and was later evolved into an AC format. On 8th November 2019, it was rebranded as 92.5 Triple M.
Only you would call that miserable, wind-blown part of the world a fabulous climate
Yeah down further south the options are limited, although in the western parts 3GG/Hit at least provide something (the latter more recently). Far East Gippsland is another one - I’d hazard a guess that BU/AD would have been some of the few signals you’d receive in those parts
Thank you again for sharing these gems. Interesting that 4GGG was using Triple M’s “Triple Your Music” branding - were they under shared ownership at the time?
However, other sources (such as this one) said that it was owned by Grant Broadcasters. Perhaps Hoyts sold KROQ to Grant at around the same time that it sold K-Rock in Geelong, at least before it was bought by Sea FM.
I’d rather Victoria’s wind and rain than the incessant sunshine and bushfires in coastal NSW/SE QLD at the moment. I reckon at least @TV-Expert will agree with me . And when the fires relent, the 20C+ dewpoints will return…
Great airchecks from the Radio Vault once again; the laid back but professional commercial sound in the 80s is what all DJs should aspire to I reckon. The closest you’ll come to that now is on community radio and stations like Radio Caroline in the UK.
Was listening to Bay FM earlier and they had an for its upcoming 30th anniversary, mentioning its on-air launch date as 8 December 1989. Wikipedia (FWIW) mentions both 8 and 10 December 1989 as launch dates so there’s been some confusion along the way.
But the 8th date makes sense as I seem to recall the first I knew about Bay FM was reading about it in the Saturday (9th) papers and tuning in to having a first listen to it then.