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

Mandurah: 6MM

Mandurah is a coastal community south of the Western Australian capital city of Perth.

In the last 15 years, Mandurah has experienced massive growth from a coastal leisure town of approximately 12,000 people to a city of 67,000.

Local radio station 6MM is a latecomer to the radio dial, having commenced broadcasting in 1988.

This author has little knowledge of the Mandurah region but given its relative proximity to Perth it is possibly likely that 6MM also has to compete with the range of AM and FM stations broadcasting from Perth.

Website: 6MM

Perth: 6PPM

6PM was Perth’s third commercial radio station when it launched in 1937 on the frequency 1000 kHz.

During the hey day of Top 40 radio in the ‘60s and ‘70s, 6PM promoted itself with slogans like ‘The Pleasure Machine’, ‘Peppermint Radio’ and later ‘6PMusic’.  In the early-‘80s, 6PM was one of several stations at the time that adopted the signature tune ‘Rhythm Of The City’ as its main slogan.

Later in the ‘80s, while fighting off the growing dominance of FM, 6PM was promoted as ‘Better Music’.

On 31 December 1990, 6PM was the first of two AM radio stations in Perth to convert to the FM bad.  The new station was branded 6PMFM (call-sign 6PPM) on the frequency 92.9 MHz.

The branding was later adjusted to drop the ‘6’ and just be known as PMFM:

PMFM dominated Perth’s radio ratings through much of the ‘90s.  After 2000, PMFM was re-branded as ‘The All New 92.9’ and later just 92.9, which continues today with the slogan ‘Perth’s Hit Music Station’.

92.9 and its sister station Mix 94.5 (6MIX) are owned by the Austereo network.

Website: 92.9

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