Perth: 6PR

Radio was almost a decade old in Australia when Perth received its first commercial radio station – 6PR – in October 1931, although Perth already had an A-class (funded by listener licence fees) radio station – 6WF – that began broadcasting in 1924 and would be a foundation station in the ABC when it was inaugurated in 1932.

6PR’s original broadcast frequency was 880 kHz – a position that it stayed at until 1978 when it moved slightly up the dial to 882 kHz with the advent of 9 kHz spacing on the AM dial.  The station still broadcasts on that frequency today.

6PR broadcast a range of program formats including ‘beautiful music’ during the 1970s, leading to 6PR gaining dominance in the Perth market.

By the late 70s the station carried a format dominated by talkback and racing coverage, as the station was owned by the state’s TAB agency.  By the early 90s, racing broadcasts were removed from 6PR when the station had secured a second frequency – 1206 kHz, formerly assigned to 6KY – to operate a dedicated racing service.

Above: 6PR in the mid-1990s.

In 1994, 6PR was taken over by Southern Cross Broadcasting which also owned the popular 3AW in Melbourne.  In the late ‘90s, Southern Cross bought FM music station 6NOW to run in tandem with 6PR.  Southern Cross re-branded the FM station on-air as 96FM.

6PR and 6NOW are now owned by Fairfax Media which bought the metropolitan radio network in the carve-up of Southern Cross Broadcasting in the late 2000s.

Website: 6PR

Sydney: 2UE

2UE was the first “B”-class (the predecessor to commercial) radio station in Australia when it launched on 26 January 1925.  The station’s original call-sign was 2EU, after the station’s owner Electrical Utilities, but it was later directed to change to 2UE.  Apparently, over the air the callsign “2EU” came across as sounding like “who are you?”  The original broadcast frequency was 1025 kHz, changing to 950 kHz in 1935 and then 954 kHz in 1978.

In 1958, with the advent of television threatening radio, 2UE  was the first station in Australia to adopt the “Top 40” music format which had been successful in the United States.  The format led to 2UE publishing Australia’s first Top 40 chart each week. 

The Top 40 concept was later adopted by other stations around Australia, including 3UZ Melbourne, 5AD Adelaide, 4BC Brisbane and 6KY Perth.

In later decades 2UE adopted more a talk-based format but it was in 1986 that 2UE, and its Melbourne counterpart 3AK, launched another bold initiative in radio – network talk-back.

In June 1986, 2UE and 3AK adopted a single on-air branding – CBC – with much of their schedule in simulcast with each other, with some exceptions for prime shifts such as breakfast where each station had its own program.  It was a bold experiment given that radio audiences are particularly parochial and many talk-back topics do not travel well outside of their home cities.  Melbourne listeners also took umbrage to their 3AK being run by Sydney interests and being dominated by Sydney-based talent, and the ratings reflected that.  The ratings were not as dire in Sydney, but still lagged well behind the top-rating stations at the time.

As a result CBC, in its initial format, was short-lived.  2UE and 3AK later went their separate ways while still maintaining elements of the talk-back format.  Both stations adopted the branding ‘Newsradio’, but 3AK soon ditched the talk format entirely.

2UE continued to present a talk-back format and, with top-rating names like Alan Jones and John Laws starting each weekday, the station built up its ratings to become a dominant force in Sydney radio for many years.

The eventual move of Alan Jones to rival station 2GB, and the retirement of Laws, has seen 2UE lose a lot of its ratings shine and is now sitting well down the ratings ladder.

2UE is now owned by Fairfax Media, the company that also owns talk-back stations 3AW Melbourne, 4BC Brisbane and 6PR Perth and music stations 4BH Brisbane, 96FM Perth and Magic 1278 (3EE) Melbourne.

Website: 2UE

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

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.

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