"The Magic Spark" - and who we are ...
Seagull
The internet is a wonderful thing.
I only stumbled onto this newsgroup a couple of years ago - and
compared to others it's pretty dedicated and spam free. There seems to
be a healthy respect to most contributors here - which seems rare on
other newsgroups. Even when messages go off-topic.
I think it's because most of us here have a massive love of what we're
talking about. And the spammers would have a much better time
elsewhere.
It may be wrong for me to suggest this ... but I'd like to know more
about some of our contributors. Not names and addresses - but who you
are and what you want out of radio.
Permit me to go first ... and possibly last.
I am Ian - who grew up in the late 50s and sixties and can't remember a
time in my early stages when the radio wasn't on. My Dad built a
pretty good sounding extension speaker which he would drag around the
backyard and front garden as he did his weekly chores.
Dad had earlier played the piano in a "dance band" and loved all types
of music. I particularly remember him pulling his speaker around when
Doug Elliot's "Champagne of Music" program was being aired on 3XY.
He didn't like 3XY's eventual successful change and neither did I.
I loved the Good Guys on 3AK - the Voice of Television City.
And the Most Happy Fellas on 3KZ.
I wasn't even too happy with the Greater 3UZ (the leader in change) at
the time - but must admit I loved their jingles.
3BD was a great institution then - but it lost its way.
3AW is the great survivor - and adaptor.
When commercial FM was about to arrive in 1980 I was excited. I'd
listened to the quality on community stations and it all seemed so
positive. I was never so disappointed.
Then came AM stereo in 1985. It had such a bad start in America that
it was never properly promoted. It was BRILLIANT! If only becuase I
liked the programming as well as the quality.
Then our beloved 3KZ and what was left of 3DB went to FM. They quickly
went bankrupt and had to sell out to ... (God help us) Clear Channel.
The 1975 starter 3MP had great success as top station (in AM stereo)
for several years. Magic 693 continues the mission under new (bigger)
owners. May it continue until something better turns up.
I have contributed to the media pages on radio and TV for ... as long
as I can remember. In the Listener In-TV I was "Nosdivad from
Hughesdale" - but more recently I am "Seagull from St. Kilda".
I think our contributors ... The Listener, Wombat Lover, Bearcave,
aussieseek, Brian Goldsmith, Forum Retard, Glenn Hampson, Matt Cook,
Peter Tate, Sarch, Peter Taylor, Andrew Bayley et al are wonderful.
Keep it up!
God bless the Magic Spark ... that is RADIO!
Ian
Seagull
And Justin ... We love you!
But please keep your response down to three pages ...
Glenn Hampson
of my system .20 years later and still no luck Seagull LOL
Not to mention it being my bread and butter so heres to clocking a few more
years up in and around radio.....or else the bills dont get paid.Well and
truly bitten by the radio bug long ago and well and truly snared by it.
G.(hearing my wife muttering she wished Id take up a real hobby like
fishing )
"Seagull" <dav...@csiro.au> wrote in message
news:1106820904.5...@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
Ben Downing
i used to be a regular on the Challenge during tony delroys show on the
ABC - "ben from St Albans" and i used that even when i moved to QLD
Wombat Lover
> Me - i'm 24 and working towards a fulltime paid job in the industy.
>
> i used to be a regular on the Challenge during tony delroys show on the
> ABC - "ben from St Albans" and i used that even when i moved to QLD
So your the night owl....I dont listen to Tony much now, But the name and
suburb sound so familiar
Righto...Where do I start from.
Ever since my first radio was picking up stations from Ballarat, there was
some kind of excitement in getting radio stations that no other radio in the
house could get. Then I was picking up more and more as I learnt that there
are more stations out there than the Melbourne ones I've been raised up on.
Travelling around Victoria made me aware of what was out there, Most towns
in Victoria that we went past all had a Tourist Information Radio on 88.0
back then, and most Local ABC stations (except for Alexandra and Albury) all
had a Stereo Pilot. As I travelled to Bright for holidays nearly every year.
Martin Molloy heard on B104.9, 3NE on 105.3 in Stereo back then. Ahhh, the
days of the holiday unit in Bright. And the tourist information as well,
(with the WIN TV program listings on air, still got it on tape too)
Well, I finally got into radio at VYV (now Yarra Valley FM) doing Saturdays
for 2 hours. But soon after, work was calling and as I was transferred to
Wednesdays, I found other options. At the moment Im at Double X and
Seymour's 87.6 doing on air shifts there (not to mention other things as
well)
--
From Robert | Wombat Lover | Melbourne | http://www.surfnetvic.cjb.net |
>
>
Paul Nicholson
As is "Listener In-TV".
Constance E Little from Swan Reach was another prolific letter writer days
gone by. I don't know if she got to write about radio.
Paul in Melbourne
"Seagull" <dav...@csiro.au> wrote in message
news:1106820904.5...@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>
Forum Retard
Worked at 3CS Colac in 1995, they screwed me around, and i screwed them back
bigtime, sure it was immature and sometimes stupid, but hell, i was young
and stuid back then, as apposed to nowdays, old and stupid! lol :P
No interest in working in commercial radio, i enjoy doing what i do now,
working in disability, and at this time, no interest in being involved in
Community Radio due to crap that im sure you have all read! lol
I keep my passion and love for production going tho via my home studio,
allways stuffing around with Cool Edit pro and more into the tech side of
things now days as well.
Also teaching my son how to use Cool Edit pro on his computer.......future
production whiz he is!
:)
Artie
I'm Artie Stevens, 52 an a bit - former Soccer reporter on 1260 3SR,
cameraman/audio operator GMV-6, Videotape editor ATN-7, TCN-9, AAV and
ATV-0, traffic reporter on KZ, mid-dawner (used to follow The Daddio of the
Raddio), newsreader during the 1990 gulf war, football producer with the
Captain and the Major, football producer with firstly Ian Major & Alan Jeans
and then Kevin Bartlett, Sam Kekovich, Stephen Quartermain et al at Magic
693, producer the 19th Hole and Correct Weight at Sport 927. Currently
multi-track producer and "commercial" voice of 3RPH across Victoria and
Southern New South Wales, presentger of Musicworld on RPH on Tuesday
evenings at 8pm, multi-track producer and "commercial" voice 3WBC-FM,
Newsroom Manager Informatel, Voice of Australian National Radio News
www.anrn.net, Operator of Ausvoice.com Voice Artists Management Service and
web designer Artie-online.net. My wife says I'm a bit busy at the moment.
I first fell in love with radio listening to FAB 208 in the evenings back
home in the old dart as a youngster (Radio Luxembourg at night), then when
we moved to Australia and settled in Shepparton was stunned by the fact that
we had our own radio station in the town (after BBC only all those years it
was a welcome change), built a home radio station with a mate in the mid-60s
and annoyed the hell out of the neighbours, listened in the evening to The
Greater 3UZ via a Bike Wheel "antenna" on the shed, won a junior Disc Jockey
comp at 3SR when I was 15 and still can't work out how someone with a (then)
Yorkshire Accent could win, left home at 16 and moved to Melbourne, trained
at 3SA radio school in East St Kilda (and some bloody stories there, which I
won't go into in these pages), then with no assistance from the school moved
into radio, television and then back to radio. So I've done a bit.
As a matter of interest my wife is also now a presenter on RPH, with Get
about with Guide Dogs Victoria on Wednesday nights at 7pm.
Artie Stevens
Andrew Bayley
> It may be wrong for me to suggest this ... but I'd like to know more
> about some of our contributors. Not names and addresses - but who you
> are and what you want out of radio.
Not in the industry myself.. just an interested listener/observer. Memories
of younger years in the 1970s and 80s overhearing mothers listening to "100
3DB", hearing Beautiful Music 3AK in dads shop, and the grandparents
listening to The Greater 3UZ (Tony Barber at breakfast, Bert Newton
mornings, and 'the gongs' on Radio Auditions on Sundays).
Though "my" first radio listening would have been 3MP ("that summer
feeling") in the early 80s and then FOXFM in 1984-5. Switched back to AM
and Hot Hits 3XY in 1985. Memories of Richard Stubbs/Peter O'Callaghan/Jane
Holmes and the XYZoo, Shirley Strachan and Mark Irvines from 6-8pm, the
Skyshow Fireworks from Albert Park Lake on Australia Day weekend, and the
best music on the radio (although the Top 8 at 8 on EONFM often got a look
in too). Christmas holidays at Nagambie in the Goulburn Valley and
listening to 1260 3SR and 1071 3CV among others.
Stayed with XY until November 1988 when Starship's "We Built This City On
Rock And Roll" signalled the end of an era and the launch of "XY Easy Rock".
Strayed around the dial until XY did some back-pedalling in January 1990 and
made moves to revive the Hot Hits format. Kept the dial on 1422 until the
station signed off in Sept 1991. Radio seemed a lot less interesting until
a small station called Hitz FM came on air in December 1992 which shook up
the commercial FM's during the test broadcast of summer 1993-4, and then
came the copycat formats such as KIXFM and K89.9 and other variations on the
format eg. KISS90 and CityFM.
Did some work experience at 1503 3AK in June 1987 (during one of its Easy
Listening phases) and Classic Hits 3TT in December 1988 (during its
transition from the basement at Flinders Lane to shiny new studios at
Southbank) and some volunteering in 1988 at what would later become Inner FM
96.5, and also at Hitz FM during test transmissions in 1993-4 and i think 95
too.
No ambition to move into the industry just happy to be an outsider/listener
at the moment.
Glenn Hampson
G.
"Andrew Bayley" <SPAM?NOTHANKY...@yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
news:41fbac66$0$9783$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
Paul Nicholson
I've always been interested in radio; from about the mid 1950s when I was
intrigued by the marching news themes that used to introduce the "news
bulletins" on commercial radio. I always wanted to hear that little bit more
of the tune.
Became a dial twiddler at school (brass bands on 3GL, the 'UW and 3XY
changing from quality music to Big 30) and decided I wanted to become a
journalist. In 1969, I found my was to the 3AW news room under the
management of Corbett Shaw. I started off on a trial on a Saturday morning
and quickly ended up as continuing the cadetship that I had started at
Australian United Press (an agency that used to serve regional newspapers).
The 3AW newsroom under Corbett Shaw was something of a sweatshop but it was
good training and experience. We rarely had the resources to ever go out to
report an event so would rely on fairly primitivive telephone recording
equipment. 3AW also provided news, by teleprinter, to various stations
around Australia and part of our task was to write stories for "the wire".
We were trained as radio writers rather than newsreader journalists and
rarely had the opportunity to go on air.
In 1972, management decided on a "restructure" with the main focus of the
Macquarie National News being 2GB in Sydney. I was offered a position at 2GB
and decided to take up the challenge. A challenge it was - "upstarts" from
the south "taking over" the well-established news room at 2GB! There was
lots of history too because they were still broadcasting out of the studios
at 136 Phillip Street and many of the staff had been there for years. I
enjoyed my time at 2GB and soon became part of the "scene". There were
incredible differences between Sydney and Melbourne and it is probably, with
the benefit of hindsight, reasonable to say the experiment of centralising
the Macquarie news operation at 2GB was not a success.
I left 2GB in April 1974 to travel overseas for several months and return to
Melbourne to get married. Returning to journalism proved to be very
difficult; radio experience was not sufficient for newspapers and radio
stations now wanted readers who could write rather than trained jouranlists
who did not have a "voice".
So I decided to back pedal a little and enter the "security" of the public
service - with an interlude driving trams while waiting to sit the public
service entrance examination.
During the 1980s I returned to radio for several years, on the side from my
daytime public service "career", as a casual journalist/sub editor at Radio
Australia and ABC local news in Melbourne. At the same time, I was studying
for an Arts degree as a mature age university student and graduated in 1989.
When a local community radio station, ECB-FM, opened in the early 1990s I
wanted to become involved and was soon on the roster presenting programs,
mostly on Saturday mornings. I stayed at ECB (later Eastern FM) and more
recently Radio Eastern for nine years but always felt I was a square peg in
a round hole because, although I had wide musical tastes, I wasn't hooked on
a nostalgic lifestyle and felt the "babyboomer" generation deserved a voice
at the station. The management felt that being 50 I was still too much of a
"young radical" (actually a middle aged public servant with a mortgage and a
family) and suggested it was time for me to "move on".
In 2001, I was approached to join 3VYV and I accepted the invitation. I
found 3VYV (now Yarra Valley FM 99.1) very different to what I had been used
to in community radio. The "culture" of the Yarra Valley was a new
experience for me, also. My regular program is Classic Country on Sunday
mornings. I help out on Tuesdays and with overnight automation. Since taking
early retirement at the end of 2003, I have been busy working as Secretary
for the station (the pay is good = zero) but the task is rewarding and I
feel that the station has achieved much under the current management
especially following the setback of the transmitter failure last year. But
there is still much to do. We aim to provide "something for everyone" with a
daytime focus of easy listening/adult contemporary music and community
information sharing. Evening programs are mostly special interest and we are
automated overnight.
We are always looking for new volunteers at Yarra Valley FM 99.1 so feel
free to contact me off list if you are interested.
I've had the opportunity to travel overseas many times and always listen to
the radio; I feel with networking and automation it isn't as "exciting" as
it used to be and now we have the internet we can often listen to stations
that previously we had to travel thousands of miles to hear. Some memorable
travel/radio experiences were visiting 4IP in Brisbane and 4XD in Dunedin in
1970, listening to radio in [apartheid] South Africa in 1974, my first
experience with USA radio in Hawaii in 1986, being invited to co-present a
program on community radio at Ceduna, SA, in 2001. I must acknowledhge the
fellowship and assistance of various radio "professiobals" over the years.
There's my two bobs' worth - hope it is of interest.
Paul in Melbourne
p...@bigpond.com
Iwasyoungonce
"Paul Nicholson" <p...@bigpond.com> wrote in message
news:yn0Ld.141110$K7....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> Some memorable > travel/radio experiences were visiting 4IP in Brisbane
> and 4XD in Dunedin in 1970,
Hi Paul
I was in Dunedin a month ago and you may not know that 4XD is still around,
though with different owners, different call, and different frequency? It is
now known as Radio Dunedin on 1305KHz with a 2KW transmitter. The Otago
Radio Association (who owned the station license since the early 20's) sold
it to Radio Otago (4XO) who themselves were bought out by Radioworks and are
now (I think) networked as More FM. Radio Dunedin still has local
programming and I understand it's the top rating station in Dunedin, so
perhaps that's what saved it... The announcer heard was Colin Lehmann, an
Aussie who was at one time a presenter at 4ZB (now Newstalk ZB).
Regards,
IwasYoungonce
Seagull
What's happened to your Surf Radio Newsletter?
I thought it was great.
I realise the subscription list may have been smallish ... but as my
poor old Mum always says - from little acorns big oak trees grow.
You are one of the "sanest" and best contributors here. Please revive
it. Who knows? You may end up with your own radio column in the Green
Guide or HS Guide.
Wombat Lover
Thanks for your kind words, and yes its a small list to start off with, but
eventually people will find some use for it, or simply go to the link on the
front page of the website, whichever is easier.
Along the lines of the subscription, There was one email address lost along
the way when transferring computers at one stage, I think the person's first
name was "Sue" IIRC
Either way, send an email over this way, and I'll send you the February
edition
aussieseek.com
Colin is still there/
I set up Radio Otago 4XO and employed announcers like Owen Delaney
(ex 2UE) for them.
Id love to see Larnach Castle again
Lived there
Is it still there?
keith
bueller
worldwide and love listening to diG and Triple J, which first got me
interested in AU radio and the worldwide music scene as opposed to just
the same old same old being pumped out on American stations lately. I've
done some radio in the States, small-market, and hope eventually to work
in alternative music/broadcasting. I still believe in the power of a
well done DJ selected music set and that there should be a place on the
dial for deeper playlists and quality music variety. I'm also in love
with all sorts of music, from indie rock to chill to house. I believe
enthusiasm and passion is a missing element in radio, along with the
lack of improvisation and randomness. I love a realistic small market
station just as much as a smooth and slick major market station, and
think there's a place for both. I'm also very into collecting playlist
archives and discovering new music, and collecting airchecks (over 2,000
at present)
Bueller
buellershow at yahoo dot com
Skank
> I'm American but don't hold it against me..
Been through the archives here then? :>
> I'm fascinated with radio
> worldwide and love listening to diG
A fine choice.
> and Triple J, which first got me
> interested in AU radio and the worldwide music scene as opposed to just
> the same old same old being pumped out on American stations lately. I've
> done some radio in the States, small-market, and hope eventually to work
> in alternative music/broadcasting. I still believe in the power of a
> well done DJ selected music set
Yeah.
> and that there should be a place on the
> dial for deeper playlists and quality music variety.
Yeah.
> I'm also in love
> with all sorts of music, from indie rock to chill to house. I believe
> enthusiasm and passion is a missing element in radio
Genuine e + p is rare, but can be found. To many,
it's become a job where going through the motions
is how they stay sane. Especially when stations get
so short-staffed they almost redefine the term
multi-skilling. Nothing wrong in being busy, but where's
the wisdom in dousing the flame within the staff who
actually have the fire.
> along with the
> lack of improvisation and randomness. I love a realistic small market
> station just as much as a smooth and slick major market station, and
> think there's a place for both.
Yeah.
Timbo
Originally from Gunnedah N.S.W.,and always been into radio.
Shortwave,MW and media news.Always loved it and was into Community
radio in Tamworth for some years,boots and all,in many different
ways,News,sales and Admin.
Would love to set up my own network one day!
41 in June if anybody wants to lend me any capital! LOL.
73
Aussie Tim G
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