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

Adelaide: 5KA, 5KKA, 5MMM

Adelaide’s second commercial radio station, 5KA, was launched in March 1927. The station was first broadcast on the frequency 1200 kHz, changing to 1197 kHz when 9 kHz spacing was introduced on the AM dial in 1978.

Above: 5KA in 1989.

In 1989, 5KA was one of two AM radio stations in Adelaide to be granted a licence to convert to the FM band. The station changed to KAFM (call-sign: 5KKA) on 1 January 1990. Existing FM station SAFM (call-sign: 5SSA) considered legal action against KAFM over the use of a similar branding but did not proceed as KAFM was assumed to be a legitimate adaptation of the former AM call-sign.

In 1993, Hoyts Media (owners of the Triple M network in the eastern states) had bought KAFM but were unable to adopt the Triple M branding in Adelaide as a local community radio station already had the call-sign 5MMM. Hoyts then paid 5MMM, reportedly a six-figure sum, for the right to use the call-sign. The community station 5MMM then became 5DDD, allowing KAFM to become Triple M (call-sign 5MMM).

5MMM and 5SSA are now both owned by the national Austereo network. 5MMM also operates a relay transmitter in the Adelaide Hills district on 98.3 MHz.

Website: 5MMM