Our first featured Sydney radio station, 2UW, was launched in February 1925. The station was originally broadcast on the frequency 1125 kHz before moving to 1110 kHz in 1935 – a time when almost every radio station in Australia was assigned a new frequency with a re-organisation of the radio dial.
2UW changed to 1107 kHz in 1978.
Over the years 2UW has featured some of the biggest names in Sydney radio – Howard Craven, Ward Austin, John Burgess, John Laws, Mike Jeffreys, Laurie Bennett, Holger Brockmann, Donnie Sutherland, Ron E Sparks, Ian MacRae, Rob Duckworth and Trevor Sinclair, just to name a few.
In the ‘60s, when radio was experimenting with catchy slogans, 2UW dubbed its announcers ‘The 11-10 Men’. In the early ‘80s, the station was perhaps less successful when it called itself Magic 11 – nicknamed by some as ‘Tragic 11’.
Above: 2UW in 1986.
By the early ‘90s, 2UW had settled down with the slogan ‘Classic Hits’ with a style and format that would also be picked up by other radio stations across the country.
While AM radio stations across Australia were converting to the FM band in the early ‘90s, there seemed to be a moratorium on the same happening in Sydney. My vague memory tells me that legal action was initiated by one disgruntled AM station that had missed out on an FM licence in the bidding process, hence putting any FM conversions in Sydney on hold. (Somebody might be able to shed some light on this)
Eventually, 2UW did manage to score one of the two FM conversion licences on offer and, in April 1994, it launched as Mix 106.5 FM (call-sign 2WFM).
Mix 106.5 is now partnered with fellow Sydney station WSFM (call-sign 2UUS) as part of the Australian Radio Network.
Website: Mix 106.5
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