June 30, 2009

Perth: 6KY, 6JKY, 6MIX

Our first station to feature on Radio Recall is Perth radio station 6KY.

The station began broadcasting in 1941 – the fourth commercial station in the city and would be the last one to open in Perth for the next 39 years.

The station’s original broadcast frequency was 1210 kHz – later changed to 1206 kHz in 1978.

6KY_1987
6KY in 1987, above, when it was ‘Nice and Easy’.

6JKY_1992
In 1991, 6KY was the second of two AM radio stations in Perth to convert to the FM band. The official call-sign was changed to 6JKY, to observe the normal three-letter call-sign protocol for FM stations, but identified on-air as 94.5 KY FM.

The branding was later amended to remove the “KY” letters – which had a somewhat salacious connotation – to become just 94.5FM.

6MIX_2008
The station is now owned by the Austereo network and has the on-air branding Mix 94.5. The official call-sign is now 6MIX.

Mix 94.5 has been Perth’s top rating radio station since December 1999 – making it almost a decade as Perth’s Number One radio station.

Website: Mix 94.5

Hello Listeners….

onair After almost a decade writing about Australian television history (here, and more recently here), I’ve decided to branch out a little and delve a bit into radio as well.  To be completely honest, my knowledge of radio history and my archive is nowhere near as great as some, but I hope to be able to shine a little bit of light on some of the radio that was in Australia – particularly through the ‘80s and ‘90s as that is where a majority of my collection of memorabilia has come from.

I also got inspired to add some radio history to the net after seeing two excellent radio blogs over the last week – Lots Of Radio Stuff and Radio Sticker Of The Day – and realising that I had some of my own collection to share.  So thank you guys and I hope you don’t mind being used for a bit of inspiration!!

Cheers,
Andrew