The History of Newcastle Radio Stations

2KO

With the Call sign: 2KKO is an Australian radio station, serving Newcastle and surrounds. It broadcasts at 102.9 megahertz now on the FM band from its Mount Sugarloaf transmitter via it's studios in the Harbour Forshore .2KKO and Its sister station is NXFM is owned by Southern Cross Austereo. As from the 9-Nov-2018, 2KO-FM  has, been rebadged as Triple M 102.9 Newcastle.

1st August 1931 - The station commenced operations as 2KO, based in the Newcastle suburb of Kotara. Founded by Allen Fairhall (later Sir Allen Fairhall) 2KO was licensed to The Newcastle Broadcasting Company. The station operated on 1410 kHz with a transmission strength of 25 watts. The station launched from the backyard of a resident's home, with the licensee's dining room being the only studio the station had at the time. Programs ran from 7 to 10 p.m., later moving into daytime programming. Ten minutes of advertising time was sold during the week, selling around 15 pounds ($30 today) of revenue for the station. Chief Engineer was K. N. Greenhalgh AMIRE. Studio & Production Manager was 2KO Chief Announcer Harold Pickhover. Advertising & Merchandising Manager was Keith F. Winser F.O.A.
Two years later in 1933, the station moved its AM transmitter to Sandgate, and was operated from studio's in several locations including 72 Hunter Street, Newcastle until January 1937, when new studios and offices in the heart of Newcastle in the CML Building at 110 Hunter Street, Newcastle. In its time on the AM band, the station had its power increased twice, first to 2,000 watts, and then to 5,000 watts, using a directional aerial system.

In the days before television, peak listening time was around 8pm, but with television arriving in the country in the late 1950s, the station had to change formats to survive the new medium. This was even more the case when 2KO's owners at the time, United Broadcasting Company (who also owned Sydney's 2UE), itself owned by the local Lamb family, was part of the consortium that brought television to Newcastle, launching NBN Television on channel 3 in 1962.
These changes led to 2KO becoming one of the first, Top 40 music radio stations in Australia. This took the audience by storm, and helped re-established radio as the personal medium.

In 1978, as part of a nationwide realignment of radio station frequencies, 2KO moved to 1413 kHz.

During May 1988, 2KO moved to new facilities at 252 Pacific Highway Charlestown.

Around the 10th July 1990, Word had got around that Wesgo Communications Pty Ltd had got itself into financial trouble and had to unload 2KO as soon as possible. News of the Wesgo problem had quickly spread throughout the Newcastle business community... Within a couple of hours of hearing this information, a consortium of local business people, including Myself, formed a new company, 'Radio Newcastle Pty Ltd',  to purchase 2KO from Westgo.

On October 12, 1992, 2KO, whilst owned by Radio Newcastle Pty. Ltd, converted to the FM band, changing its callsign to 2KKO, and branding itself as KOFM 102.9. Four years later, following a board decision, on January 22, 1996, the parent company of KOFM (and of NXFM), Radio Newcastle Pty. Ltd, decided to sell the Radio operation which was purchased by Austereo. A few more years later, Austereo sold 50% to RG Capital Radio Network, whose stake in the station then transferred in 2004 to Macquarie Regional RadioWorks, upon the purchase of RG Capital's stations. On April 2011 Southern Cross Media bought out Austereo for $714 million giving Southern Cross Media full ownership of KOFM. 
Southern Cross's Newcastle operation, during 2017, moved and is now based in the Honeysuckle area by the Newcastle harbour.

On 9 November 2018, KOFM was renamed to 102.9 Triple M Newcastle.

Who else recalls the Ron Hurst, show 'The Coke a Cola bottlers club', We couldnt wait to finish school so we could run down the hill on weekdays, to be at the  station studio on the top floor of the CML building in town in the late 1950's. i don't think i missed a day !!  

Leigh Compton Remember Pat Barton on breakfast forever. Hated when he cut songs short to fit in more ads.
David Collins was one half of Australia's longest-running radio breakfast team David and Tanya. Tanya recorded their final on air break in Davids final days& a chance to talk about how and why David emigrated to Australia in the 70s, the early days at Sydneys 2WS, his move to Newcastle in the 90s and the pairing of Tanya with David.The guys were on air together for 22 years, first working at 2HD for eight years before switching to KOFM, where they ruled the airwaves for another 14 years

The Honourable Sir Allen Fairhall KBE

The Great Pat Barton at his best (photo 2KO) early years

"I had built my first working receiver in 1924 when there was little official broadcasting but with amateurs providing a good deal of rough interest. When serving an apprenticeship to Electrical Fitting in the years 1925 on, I met fellows who actually knew the amateur broadcasters including 2CS, 2MS and some others. Then the bug bit and I became A2KB in 1927 complete with a UX201A in TPTG, Slop Jar rectifier and an OV1 receiver. 
My interest also led me to build an Electric Gramophone with a pair of UX250's with all of ten watts output. The Great Depression hit the bottom of its curve coincident with the end of my apprenticeship in 1929 and I was looking for a non-existing job for quite a while, meantime filling in the rest of the day on 40 metres. Those were the happy days when amateurs could still romp on the 240 metre band.

It occurred to me that a little publicity might drum up a little business in radio servicing. So Sunday mornings found tank coils switched to 240, the gramophone tied in as a modulator and 2KB became a regular Sunday Morning Broadcaster to the great content of listeners charmed by faithful rendition of such records as I was able to borrow. Some of it was even very good, since I was ignorant of little things like copyright and played one or two well known works over the air which were banned to every other Broadcaster. Then out of the blue some hopeful business man asked me to do some advertising. Sadly I refused. But a great light dawned and with my hand shaking with eager anticipation I wrote to the Chief Radio Inspector and had the temerity to ask for a "B" Class Licence.

Twelve months went by while I floated a company, argued myself into the support of local organisations, and waited. Then one day, the licence turned up. However, I soon learned that having a licence was one thing - knowing what to do with it was something else. Money was now needed in what was considerable quantity for the hard times we were enjoying. Raising money for Broadcasting Stations has come a long way since 1931 but the result then was a big round lemon. 
After another six months the Radio Inspector was breathing down my neck, 'Use it or send it back!' I was not going to give in that easily. I bought another length of oregon and raised the rear mast to make it 40'.  
Then  I  turned  my  UX210  TPTG  into  a power amplifier with crystal control, bought a microphone on the 'pay if ever I can basis' and 2KO Newcastle was in business.

In the 240 metre days I met a young character by the name of Pickhover who knew where there were stacks of gramophone records for the borrowing. He became Chief Announcer and between us we managed to do a reasonable job as engineers, copywriters, announcers, salesman, accountants and anything else that has to be done around a Broadcast Station. 
It seemed acceptable to the Radio Inspector who gave his blessing to the use of 6 watts in a suburban back yard on a temporary basis. Now our 9am Sunday morning station became a fixed 1 hour programme after which it shut down until 7pm. There was one snag. The trawlers fishing the NSW Coast at the time used 240 metres CW to check fish prices to see whether it was worth bringing the catch in. They mostly managed to chose 9am on a Sunday morning and their signals were mostly RST 592 and the QRM was killing our audience.

Our routine on Sunday mornings became to key the rig and tell the trawlers in Morse to  get the hell off our frequency and let us entertain the populace. This is the only case to my knowledge of a Commercial Broadcasting Station sending CW. For the record it is interesting to note that the 2KO Newcastle Station Log Book shows the revenue for the first month came from two commercial announcements at 4 shillings each!"

Note: Max Spitzkowsky was one of the early technicians at 2KO.

Thursday 31 May, 2007
Pat Barton, Newcastle radio's longest serving breakfast announcer, has died aged 92 after suffering a stroke.The Newcastle Herald reported that Barton died at the John Hunter hospital.

Barton dominated the airwaves in the steel city for 55 years and was the man who introduced John Laws to the airwaves.
His career started at 2LF in Young in 1938 and by 1941 he was the breakfast announcer at 2KO. He left radio for four years to serve in World War 2. In 1952 he was poached over to rival station 2HD with a contract that at the time was considered a landmark in Newcastle radio.
He returned to 2KO in 1957 and remained on breakfast until company policy demanded he retire. This was 1982.

2HD meanwhile had other plans and they coaxed Pat out of retirement the following year. He stayed on air in Newcastle until 1993.
"The jingle is from 1962 promoting Elvis's 'new' record Return to Sender. The aircheck grab is Pat's return to the airwaves on 2HD in 1983.
He left KO the previous year. He had to leave KO i.e. retire, in '82 because of his age and the company policy. It was owned by the Lambs in those days and staff had to be compulsorily retired by a certain age."

As advertised 4th Aug 1931 2KO NEWCASTLE

7.30	Band music. Radio rhythm
8.00	Rienzi overture.		8.50	Ruth Ettling.
8.10	"Rose of  Tralee," John McCormack.		8.55	"Viennese Nights."
8.15	"Valse September"		9.00	News service and weather reports.
8.20	"Souvenir."		9.05	Bransby Williams., elocutionist.
8.25	Old Musical comedy gems.		9.10	"Wake Up and Dream."
8.35	Peter Dawson, baritone.		9.15	"Simple Aveu"
8.40	"Belle of New York," selection.		9.20	(Mischa Elman).
8.45	"New Moon.".		9.25	Bransby Williams
			9.30	Meditation music
			10.00	Close

5am to 9am	Michael Ahern
9am to 12pm	Art Ryan
12pm to 4pm	Kev Kellaway
4pm to 8pm	John Henry
8pm to 12pm	Tim Frankin
12am to 5am	Bill Grundy

2KO Bits n Pieces... Various Snippets

From our contributor David Lister,

From our contributor Mike Hallinan, 
From  Kay Armstrong.
From Joyce Baker..

Denise Flannery writes,

From Pamela Naylor:

From our contributor Pat Wilson,
From Peter Wilson
From Brian Pickering
From our Contributor Janet Heath
From our contributor Garry Renshaw...

2HD Newcastle - Australia's second oldest existing radio station.

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The Labor Party and the NSW Labour Council owned 2HD from 1945 until 1999. For the first 29 years of its ownership, the station was under the management of Jim Storey, with his wife Twink acting as program director and on-air personality. Other announcers during this time included Harry Randall, Stuart Dibley and Tom Delaney.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, 2HD was one of the founding shareholders of local television station NBN Television.
2HD broadcast in the popular The Good Guys of Life format, also used by other stations, including 2SM Sydney.
Presenters during this time included Harry Randall, Tom Delaney, Art Ryan, Haff Enegg, Mal Lamonte, John Hill, Allan McGirvan, Mike Jeffries, Malcolm Elliott, Keith Harris, Graeme Gilbert, Don Mayo, Rob Maynard and Cliff Musgrave. Towards the end of this period, announcer Geoff Gregory joined the station, but was better known as a program director, and host of the Sunday night program Country Sounds.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the station was the subject of a takeover bid from NBN, which resulted in a shake-up in ownership at the television station, and the bid was eventually rejected.
For decades after the end of the "Good Guys" era, the station's ratings were in the doldrums, but it accomplished its first number-one ratings success in 1987, after adopting a strong news and talk format. Factors in the success were the recruitment of 2KO's Pat Barton to present the breakfast program, along with Warwick Teece, whose Openline program was a huge success. General Manager David Baldwin was a key part of the station's revival, guiding the team to the top of the ratings. The coverage of the 1989 Newcastle earthquake by the news team, led by Tony Briscoe, won the station a National Radio Award. The 1990s saw 2HD confirm its place as the top-rating station in Newcastle, led by the breakfast team of David Collins and Tanya Wilks, who notched up over eight consecutive years of survey wins, supported by Geoff Jay and Richard King.

The station expanded following the purchase of local FM station New FM in 1995, which resulted in internal remodelling of the building. In 1999, the NSW Labor Party and NSW Labour Council sold the station to Bill Caralis.

In 1997, the station had added the John Laws Morning Show to its line-up, which remained until Laws' departure from 2UE in 2007. He was replaced by Steve Price and, later, Steve Liebmann, until Laws moved to network station 2SM in 2011, and was syndicated to rest of the Super Radio Network.

Until 2006, the station broadcast coverage of Newcastle Knights National Rugby League (NRL) games, then syndicated from the Macquarie Radio Network. However, a dispute between BOG, the Macquarie Radio Network and the NRL saw both the "Continuous Call Team" and the coverage of Knights games go to rival 102.9 KOFM.

In 2018, A-League, Super Rugby, NRL and AFL returned to 2HD, with various games called live through the network partnership with Crocmedia.

May 14, 2021, 2HD recorded its lowest ratings result in its history, recording a percentage of 6.6.

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The History of Newcastle Radio Stations
2NX

NXFM (call sign: 2XXX)
History

One of the most unassuming yet experienced and influential owners and operators in the industry, Kevin Blyton has been in the radio industry for over 35 years. Kevin began his career at the age of 17 as an announcer at 2XL in Cooma and two years later bought the station. He went on to buy and sell stations across NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, ACT, Western Australia and Queenstown, New Zealand and was one of the pioneers of the FM band in regional Australia in the early 90s withNewcastles X107FM

Kevin launched Eagle FM & Snow FM in the late 90's then expanded his interests, with the purchase of Snowy Mountains Theatres, Snowy Mountains Airport and Charlotte Pass Ski Resort and the Kosciuszko Chalet Hotel.

Kevin served on the Commercial Radio Australia Board since 1999 and during that time chaired both the Regional Committee and the Digital Technical Advisory Committee. Kevin has been a strong and respected voice for regional radio and an advocate of the rights of regional broadcasters to a digital broadcast future. He was inducted into the Commercial Radio Hall of Fame at the 2013 Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRAs).

2 New Radio Stations For Northern Areas  
A new commercial' radio station, 2NX, will operate in Newcastle, the Coalfields and the Hunter Valley, starting on New Year's Day.
The new broadcasting organisation will commission the main station, 2NX, with a transmitter at Bolwarra, and a relay station, 2NM, which will service the Upper Hunter area. Station 2NM will be at Muswellbrook. Station 2NM will come into operation shortly after station 2NX begins transmission.

The new stations will have sufficient power to provide Newcastle. the Coalfields and the Hunter Valley with first-class reception. At work on the erection of a 330ft. radio mast at Bolwarra for 2NX is nearing completion. The transmitler will operate on 2000 watts, although it is capable of 2500 watts. Provision is made for autagnenting the transmission power to 5000 watts in the future. Station 2NM will operate on 500 watts.
The mast and transmitter at Bolwarra comprise one of the latest types of installations of the kind in Australia. 
On the recommendation of A.W.A., the mast was constructed by Skilfast.Sydney. and is of fabricated steel, fully galvanised. and weighs 9 tons.The mast has an electrical height of 400 feet, which is 5-8ths of the operating wave length of 2NX. Station 2NX will have a frequency of 1360 kilocycles, aitd 2NM will operate on 1460 kilocycles.
Most commercial stations in Australia use a mast in the region of a quarter of the operating wavelength. The taller mast gives extra signal strength.
Eight and a quarter miles of copper wire is buried in radial trenches from the bottom of the mast to give better signal strength. The station Manager Mr. K. Robinson said yesterday: "The 2NX transmitter is as powerful as any commercial transmitter in Australia. The station has a radius of 50 miles for first-class signal reception. and programmes from 2NX will be heard with clear strength at points as far apart as Swansea and Singleton." "Towns such as Scone, Merriwa. Denman, Muswellbrook. Aberdeen, Murrurundi and surrounding arcas will receive excellent radio reception. This is a service not previously available in areas where wireless noise was normal.
"Thc Muswellbrook station will give this area clear, strong signals such as are enjoyed in Newcastle and Maitland."
Tile 2NX frequency channel is not shared by any other station in the Commonwealth. The new network--2NX and 2NM--will replace stations 2HR and 2CK. The new network is owned entirely in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley.
Yesterday the mast had reached a height of 212 feet. It will probably be completed next week.

 

2NX Bits n Pieces... Various Snippets

From Lyn McLardy
From Lyn McLardy
From Christine Gregory
From  Don Sleishman 
From a contributor..

Former presenters 2NX

Andy Simpson   60's	Ed Webster, Morn	Les Thompson  mid 60's
Bryson Bush  mid 60's	Garry Suprain	Laurie Ryan 60's	Ron Gibson (the late)  50's
Brian James	Gary Mac	Kevin Gardiner
Brendon Dangar		Keith Ashton  mid 60's
Brian Pickering, 16Nov 67
Brian Blacklock
Carol Duncan
David Huth  early '90s,	Gordon McMillan		Steve Owens 70's
Dan Hill	Graham Rodgers	Mal Hedstrom -1984 brekky/news
Don Dawkins		Neville Graham, 60,s
Dick Commerford	Jim Pike, mid-dawn	Peter Pickover  50's
Dick Hemming 60's	Jon Blake	Rick Manchin	Stewart Horne
David Jones	John McGahen	Reg Gazzard	Todd Sergent
David Counsell	Jim Ball (Stewart)		Tim Webster
Derek Bargwanna
David Baldwin

       

2019 presenters NX-FM                                              

Tanya Hennessy	.Ash London	Carrie Bickmore	Tommy Little

The History of Newcastle Radio Stations
NEW-FM

NEWFM
Call sign: 2NEW is an Australian radio station, serving Newcastle and its surrounding area. It is now owned by Bill Caralis's Broadcast Operations Group and operates at 105.3 megahertz on the FM band. Its callsign is 2NEW, the 2 being a standard prefix for stations in New South Wales, and NEW short for Newcastle. Its sister station is 2HD. On 24 May 2005 NEWFM reverted back to its original 1989 logo which has since been modernised.

History
From Mike Webb..April 1989
Now here is something NOBODY has a copy of or has ever heard since the moment we switched the station on. In the building, the temporary station was housed top floor Nesca building for 12 months till we opened the 2 million dollar plus Darby Street station, was all the staff plus an invited throng of maybe 100 guests and clients for what became the first of three NEWFM opening partys , the first was that one we called the TONE party. That’s the moment we switched off the test tone and started two weeks of test broadcasting playing just music back to back no commercials or joks.
Many I have spoken to say that was the best two weeks of radio they had ever listened to. The next party was the moment we played out first commercial for the Newcastle Permanent and the second was a Coke commercial two later and the third was the quarter million dollar party I called SKYNOVA on the foreshore when we brought the Collaroy up from Sydney to become the floating VIP centre whilst the foreshore packed in 100.000 people. I paid a professional team $10 grand to film that event and I have the master video doco end production.

History part 2
NEWFM was the first commercial FM radio station in Newcastle when it commenced broadcasting on the 14th April 1989 from temporary accomodation and studio's in the old Nesca House in King Street Newcastle.
In 2008 NEWFM became the Hub of the Super Network FM Stations (NEWFM Network) supplying programming from its Sandgate based studios to stations from the NSW/Victorian boarder in the south, north to the Sunshine Coast in QLD and West to Broken Hill. The potential reach of the NEWFM Network is over 7 million people.
In 2009, NEWFM, along with its sister station 2HD announced plans to undertake a multi-million dollar ground up rebuild of its studio complex. The rebuild will see it become the most up to date digital studio complex in the country.

The station was launched on 21st April 1989, in the old NESCA House building, as a rock station for Newcastle & the Hunter. It soon screamed up to Number 1 in the Newcastle market, leaving 2NX (now NXFM) on their wake in the younger market. 
Since Broadcast Operations Group bought the station in 1999, the station went downhill FAST in both quality & ratings, except for a brief resurgence in the ratings during 2001-2002, when it reaffirmed themselves as a rock station.

Basically speaking, NEWFM is now a much poorer shadow of its former self. 

I remember the time when Young Spero invited his 'Idols' Mobs N Fletch, Liz & I to his house for a Sunday afternoon lunch .... Billy's, (Young Spero's) Mum and his sister Alice had cooked up a storm of Greek food... After seeing how compitant Alice was, I asked her if  she would like a part time job at Sound World...  my feelings where correct, she turned out to be a fantastic team player... a few more years Later. Young Spero joined the Sound World team as well.

Other DJs from NEW-FM's early days included Gavin Comber (mornings), and Chris 'Fletch' Fletcher, who joined Mobbs as the other half of the 'Mobbs and Fletch' duo that did nights in 1989-1990.
Young Spero (so-called as he was the guy that was always winning prizes on NEW-FM sponsored by local record store Sound World, which was owned by a bloke called Spero) ended up with his own shift as well...
His real name is Bill McFerrin also better known as Billy, yes he eventually got his own shift, he used to hang out at the NEWFM studios most days after school & seeing as he was there so much he actually trained other Jocks to be a panel operators at NXFM, (back in the days before computers, when everything was done manually, playing CD's, Carts they thought they might as well give him a job. He worked at NXFM for quite a while behind the scenes in the early '90s, before getting a shift there too.
Steve Graham did brekky with Garth Russell as the 'Garth and Steve' duo on NEW in the early 90s also.
I think Maynard F Crabbes (formerly JJJ) also did some shifts at NEW around 1990 or thereabouts too...

The History of Newcastle Radio Stations
ABC-Newcastle

Newcastle was the first regional radio station to be established in Australia in 1930 and it has been an rich part of the region's history.From World War II through to the 2007 June Long Weekend storms and floods, 1233 ABC Newcastle has been there to inform.
But it has also been there to entertain with events such as A Night at The Wireless.

Standing in front of the Newcastle Symphony Orchestra, conductor Mr J. Stanley Hurn raised his baton and launched them into the William Tell Overture. The sounds of the Newcastle Orchestra were carried across the country and into homes in Sydney, Newcastle and Melbourne.

A large audience attended the Newcastle Town Hall to listen to the first broadcast and the Acting Prime Minister, J. E. Fenton, spoke to the Newcastle audience from a Melbourne studio.
"This new station is the first to be erected outside the capital cities, as portion of the construction program of the National Broadcasting Service," Mr Fenton said. "There is quite a large population within range of 2NC and it is evident that the establishment of the local station will benefit listeners. Listeners may rest assured that everything possible will be done to give satisfactory programmes."

The first broadcast came out of the new studios above a billiard room behind the Old Strand Theatre in Market Square, off Hunter Street Mall. A transmitter at Beresfield was set up and connected the Hunter Street studio by landline. The current transmitter is still located at Beresfield.

The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate wrote about the broadcast the following day, "representing an important link in a chain of national broadcasting stations, and a development of considerable importance to the people of the Hunter River District, station 2NC Newcastle went on the air last night." The newspaper article about the first broadcast was bordered by advertisements to buy radios, "Read's Radios: Made in Newcastle for Newcastle for good reception. 27 pound 10 shillings complete with speakers, valves and installed in your own home and ready to listen in."

In those early days, radio was still a comparative novelty, and a good radio receiver cost quite a lot. Despite the significance of Australia's first relay station being in Newcastle, there was no obligation under the national broadcasting scheme for the Australian Broadcasting Company to supply more than one hour a week of local Newcastle content.

Local content that was provided consisted of Newcastle news, market reports, church services, and other important Newcastle activities. 2NC at this time was a part of the Australian Broadcasting Company but it was not until June 1st 1932 that the ABC, as we know it now, opened the airwaves. At first, 2NC remained largely a relay station for the new national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Commission. The first broadcast for the new ABC reached every state in the federation and was opened by Conrad Charlton and the then Prime Minister Joseph Lyons.

Opening day programs included the first Children's Session with Bobby Bluegum, the first sports program - "Racing Notes" with W.A. Ferry calling the Randwick races, British Wireless News received by cable from London, weather, stock exchange and shipping news.There was also a talk on goldfish and their care, a slot called "Morning Devotions", music the ABC Women's Association session, which included topics such as commonsense housekeeping and needlecraft.

In the first few years, 2NC would broadcast intermittently in the morning and would often shut down for intervals during the day. At the time, there was no concept of continuous broadcasting.

The History of Newcastle Radio Stations
2NUR-FM

In with the New in 2018 the digital air waves come alive with the new 2UW

NOTES

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Notes from Emails of days gone by...

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2009... WAY WAY BACK.....

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In the 1970's
David Jones (2NX)
2NX tried classic hits
NEW FM struggles.
2NX & others

Mal Hedstrom

Andy Simpson
Garth Russel went over to 1233 (2NC ABC)
Tim Webster has worked for NX, KO and HD doing music and talk shifts
Ray Waite also worked for both KO and HD.
Alan McGirvan