Melbourne: 3FOX

Melbourne’s second commercial FM station, 3FOX, made its debut on 1 August 1980 on the frequency 101.9 MHz.

The first song played on 3FOX was Breezin’ by George Benson, though it was initially played at 45rpm before being slowed down to 33 1/3 rpm.

The station was initially branded on-air with the initials F-O-X (e.g. “3-F-O-X-F-M”) before it was streamlined to the snappier “Fox FM” or sometimes “The Fox”.

Broadcasting from studios co-located with television station ATV10 in the suburb of Nunawading, 3FOX initially had a very easy listening sound and, in an unusual move, had also come to an arrangement to simulcast the ABC radio news each weekday morning at 7.45am.

The station’s first ratings survey late in 1980 returned an audience share of 3.4 per cent for 3FOX, making it the lowest rating commercial station in Melbourne.

By the mid-1980s the music playlist was broadened to include more contemporary hits with some older favourites thrown in, and the station logo had been altered to include the fox motif.

The station had also adopted the slogan that “FM is Fox Music”.

In 1984, the station launched Australia’s first national Top 40 countdown, Take 40 Australia, hosted by Barry Bissell and produced by MCM Entertainment.  The weekly show was syndicated to radio stations around Australia and continues to broadcast today on 85 stations nationwide.

In 1986, 3FOX was bought by Austereo, the licensee of Adelaide’s SAFM, in the first step to the company establishing a national FM network.  The station’s playlist took on a more modern emphasis and with that came a more stylised logo:

In Survey 2, 1987, Fox won the ratings for the first time – with an audience share of 14.8 per cent – and continued to top the ratings in Melbourne until the first survey in 1990 when it was overtaken by FM newcomer KZFM.

Although Fox’s music format would continue to change over the next few years – including a brief dalliance into ‘Classic Rock’ in the early-‘90s – the  new logo would serve Fox in various forms right through until the re-branding of the entire network, including 2DAY, SAFM and B105, in the mid-2000s.

In the mid-90s, Fox was one of the first commercial radio stations in Australia to set up a presence on the World Wide Web.

In 1996, the Austereo network merged with the rival Triple M network which would bring 3FOX under the same roof as rival 3MMM.  Both stations now broadcast from studios in the suburb of South Melbourne.

Website: Fox 101.9

Adelaide: 5SSA

Adelaide’s first commercial FM radio station, 5SSA, launched in September 1980.  The station was originally branded Double SA-FM and broadcast on the frequency 107.5 MHz.

After a couple of years the station trimmed its on-air branding to SAFM – a moniker it continues to use to this day – and moved slightly up the dial to 107.1 MHz.  A translator station was established in the Adelaide Foothills district on 91.1 MHz – it has since moved to 90.3 MHz.

The logo above served the station in various forms through much of the ‘80s right through to the mid-2000s.

5SSA was the founding station in what has become the Austereo radio network.  The network first expanded outside of Adelaide later in the 1980s with the purchase of Melbourne’s 3FOX and Sydney’s 2DAY.  It also bought Brisbane AM radio station 4BK and successfully converted it to the FM band – as B105 (call-sign: 4BBB) – in 1990.    Austereo also owns radio stations in Perth (including Mix 94.5) and has interests in radio stations in Newcastle and Canberra.

The Austereo network now also incorporates the national Triple M network which also has a presence in Adelaide with 5MMM.

Website: SAFM

Brisbane: 4MMM

Brisbane’s first commercial FM station, 4MMM, launched in August 1980.  The original broadcast frequency was 104.1 MHz.

 
A few years after its launch 4MMM adopted a new on-air branding, FM104, featuring the “rockin’ roo”.

4MMM would later move slightly up the dial to 104.5 MHz and went back to its original Triple M name as the Triple M brand was being rolled out across Australia.

By the mid-‘90s, the Triple M logo was streamlined.

4MMM and its sister station B105 (4BBB) are owned by the Austereo radio network.

Website: Triple M Brisbane

Brisbane: 4BBB

Radio station 4BK was Brisbane’s second commercial station when it launched in September 1930. The station originally broadcast on the frequency 1290 kHz and moved up the dial slightly to 1300 kHz, before moving back to 1296 kHz in 1978.

By the late ‘80s, 4BK had been bought by the Austereo network with the hope of successfully bidding for a licence to convert to the FM band. Up until then the only commercial FM station in the Brisbane market was 4MMM which started back in 1980.

Austereo was successful in gaining a licence to convert 4BK to FM and on 26 February 1990, B105 (call-sign: 4BBB) was born on the frequency 105.3 MHz.

This logo would represent B105 for over a decade:

Within two ratings survey periods of its launch, B105 had taken the old 4BK from a modest rating to be ranked Number One and B105 would continue to top the Brisbane radio ratings until 2004.

In the most recent radio ratings survey for Brisbane, B105 regained the Number One position.

4BBB and 4MMM are both owned by the Austereo network.

Website: B105