Melbourne: 3UZ

When radio began in Australia there were two classes of radio stations - ‘A’ class stations, which were funded by licence fees and limited advertising, and ‘B’ class stations which were funded entirely by advertising.

3UZ was Melbourne’s first ‘B’ class radio station when it launched in March 1925.  The original broadcast frequency was 930 kHz.

3UZ was the radio station that ‘discovered’ a young talent by the name of Graham Kennedy who later went on to embrace the new medium of television from the mid-1950s.

The station was also one of the first in Melbourne to adopt a dominant Top 40 format after the introduction of television and won many ratings surveys in the 1960s and early ‘70s.

Through the ‘70s and early ‘80s The Greater 3UZ rated well with a talkback line-up, headed by popular personalities including Bert Newton, Don Lane and Tony Barber, and racing coverage that commanded a much larger audience than what it does now.

But by 1983 3UZ took the controversial step of removing all horse racing coverage and adopted a music format: 

The new format was not a huge hit and, in 1985, the station went another direction with a country music format, again with little success.

By 1988, 3UZ was bought out by the Victorian racing industry and the station resumed exclusive coverage of horse racing, supplemented by morning and drive-time news and talk-back programs.

With a format based heavily on racing and sporting discussion, 3UZ was re-branded 3UZ Good Sports and, in 1996, later changed to Sport 927 which continues today.

With a strong signal on the 927 kHz frequency, 3UZ can be heard across much of Victoria but its regional coverage is also boosted by re-transmission sites across the State including Shepparton (1260 kHz), Bendigo (945 kHz), Ballarat (1314 kHz), Mildura (1359 kHz) and medium and low-powered FM sites in other areas.

Website: Sport 927