true, though 3AW still rates well. Being down the other end of the AM band might be an advantage reception/signal wise in the daytime at least.
Yes. Magic1278, Magic 2CH 1170 & Magic882.
I donāt think 1170 in Sydney ever used the Magic branding though?
Magic 693 (and then 1278 after switching frequencies with 3AW) was a thing in Melbourne for a long time, it only died with the start of Talking Lifestyle - having spread to 4BH by then, and yesā
āI did forget, youāre right, it was indeed āMagic 2CHā for a time (it was never āMagic 1170ā when it was part of that network, ā2CHā was always mentioned; rumours the supposed church covenant had to keep it that way) before they had to sell it off, and instead expanded Talking Lifestyle on the other two plus a DAB channel in Perth.
After Macquarie Sports Radio, Melbourne obviously went back to the Magic name, but their Perth digital station also briefly used the Magic name until they invented the callsign ā6GTā (supposedly standing for āGood Timesā - goodness knows why they bothered doing that!) - the latter station left the air when the other stations were leased out to ACE.
The original station was 3EE because Magic 693 was āThe Breezeā initially, a soft-ish talk format of sorts from what I can gather. Contemporary stories (thereās something from Ten News on YouTube, showing rehearsals, before they announced the actual name) had Craig Willis - he of āvoice of the AFLā fame - as one of its early hosts.
That didnāt last very long at all, AWA who owned it then sold out to Wesgo (who owned 3MP at the time), it simulcast 3MP for a while then they were told to knock it off by the ABA, hence the start of Magic 693.
Wesgo had to sell off stations after the ARN merger; it eventually sold 3MP and 3EE to Southern Cross (and keeping TT-FM and KZ-FM/Gold 104)⦠who had to divest two of the four licences they owned - and they on-sold 3MP as well as 3AK, and kept 3AW and - in their words, āfortunatelyā - Magic. They used to have a really good about-us page on their web site when Southern Cross owned it, including the former links to 3XY - now thatās kinda left for Wikipedia and all that. Canāt think of the past, even for a station that has most definitely been about the past for all its music-station life ![]()
As for the UK Magic, I am careful to say the London version of it - because they also used the Magic name (indeed, first) for an AM network of classic hits stations in the north of England - those stations became part of what is now Bauerās Greatest Hits Radio network at the start of 2015, leaving the Magic brand to the London format (which is now on digital radio nationwide).
Did UK Magic copy or base their format and name from the US?
WMGK Philadelphia was possibly the first Magic there (1975 according to Wiki) with a āsoft rockā format.
I donāt know which one of these Iām remembering but I remember it being shortlived.
There was also Magic in Auckland in the early 1990s before it became the Breeze.
I stumbled across this interesting station from Kampala in Uganda, KIIS 100.9

Iām SURE they donāt have the rights to do thisā¦
Facebook | š | Live Stream
A bit like KIIS Extra (Mentioned before on this forum)

āKIIS Ugandaā have a direct stream URL as well: http://14867.cloudrad.io:9224/live
radio-browser.info has details about the station, with itās homepage (supposedly) being: https://capitalradio.co.ug
Details: radio-browser.info
Kyle and Jackie O did a segment with them a couple months ago, calling them up to see what they were
Ooo really, how interesting does anyone have a link to that?
Edit, found it:
ā¦stations has diminished during the past 10 years, music still accounts for over half the airtime on the major commercial FM and music-based AM stations in Australia, according to figures released by monitoring platform, Tracka.
No surprise to see Smooth in Sydney playing the most songs during the day considering they are pushing the no talk positioner but how repetitive are they vs the others?
Hereās an editorial by Jen Seyderhelm in relation to the above article.
What is it that Jen wants? She seems upset K&J donāt play enough music. Why? Itās entertainment talk and radio is all the better for strong personalities as K&J.
They seem to be forgetting that this so called āmusicā is just a placeholder for dead air, in between idiotic commercials and cretinous unfunny dribble.
Strong personalities is one way to put it. A stinking turd definitely has a strong smell.
Strong words. I will admit I find them funny at times. Not his rants but their comedy can be quite amusing
She has it all wrong IMO. Itās still a hit music station, as itās predominantly a music based station. Many FM and AM music stations have talk content (except 2UE, Magic and 3MP), but still play mostly music throughout the day, evenings and weekends.
Nova and MMM probably have more talk content than KIIS overall.
I was in the car today, and checked out KIIS⦠I couldnāt tell any difference reception wise, but when I got home, I found out why!
As it looks like KIIS is now back on the main antenna, as my Tecsun radio showed a similar signal strength to WS and the SCA stations. This must have only occurred in the last 24 hours, as this time yesterday it was still on the new set-up.
I assume ARNs approach will be to keep WS and KIIS on the main antenna where possible, and only switch over to the new set-up if they need to do maintenance or have any issues? I assume SCA will still switch to Gore Hill when required?
I confirm from measurements taken moments that I also strongly suspect so.
I also suspect same. About 25 hours ago I was driving in some āRF shadowā areas (for Artarmon mast) such as Kiribilli & the WS FM signal was better than that of KIIS which was subject to lower signal stereo hiss or multipath.
