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The last two hours of the evening were taken up with Barry Mac's Music Soundtrack, which covered much of the pop music from 1955-1975. These programs were removed from air in 1988, to make way for John Blackman's new show. He presented a Australia Wide Program called the Solid Gold Countdown. This was sponsored by Toyota Camrey. John's program lasted for three hours from 6:00pm and contained a number of different countdowns. Each hour he would countdown a top ten chart from a different year. One from the 60's, another from the 70's and a chart from the 80's. This program was produced by RadioWise Networks who still produce programs for the industry today. When John Blackman vanished in June 1992, David Dwyer appeared for the first time and presented a love song dedications program. 2WS converted to FM in June 1993. The laid back style of the station went out the window. From it's first days of FM, 2WS's sound became more rock n roll orientated with more competitions. Hans Torv and Kayley Harris started the brekky shift in February 1992. They worked together on the same program for over 10 years. Sometime during 2001-2002, Hans left the station and was replace by Jonesy. Hans now owns a station on the Gold Coast. Kayley started her time in Sydney in 1983, when she worked as a traffic lady for Rick Melbourne on 2UW. 2WS has now relocated from it Seven Hills studios, to new facilities at North Ryde. A Christian radio station now occupies their old premises at Leabon's Lane.
First Jukebox Saturday Night Promo - First aired around June 1986
The new rock of the 80's, 2SM
My musically enriched ears also received a good dose of 2-S-M. This station was very popular during the 1970's, topping the ratings for most of the decade. If you're a Sydney cider, you'll most probably remember that good old reverb. "That signature echo - I remember it well". My first experience with 2-S-M was listening to Paul Holmes on Friday 19th February 1982. He worked the 3pm to 7pm shift. During this period, they rocked with the anthem "2SM - The Power!". At the time they had Jeff Angel as news reader. In January 1983 they changed their catch phrase from "the power" to "the new rock of the 80's".
I listened to 2SM in short bursts. I remember for some reason that they used very tight play-lists during the 1984 period. It seemed the turn-around cycle was about every four hours; what a killer! October 1984 saw the appearance of the first AM stereo radios. Unfortunately this radio technology was a flop. The new radio technology revived 2SM's ratings briefly, through the earlier part of 1985. At the end of 1984, Julie Brodsky replaced Paul Holmes who then moved to Triple M. Other announcers I vaguely remember from this period were Ray Author, who I think did afternoons and Steve Murphy. Club Veg (Malcolm Lees and Vic Davies) started their style of humor and satire in January 1986, when they commenced work on the 7pm to midnight shift. After a few short years at S-M, they soon moved to Triple M in April 1988. This was the time when the 2-S-M's North Sydney Studios were being renovated.
Father Jim McLaren started his radio career in 1968 at 2UW. He presented short segments that promoted Christian values. He then worked Sunday evenings as a councilor, from 1970 through to the mid eighties. At this time he moved to 2SM, when it was renamed Lite 'n' Easy. Father McLaren disappeared off the airwaves when 2SM was shut down at the end of June 1992. He was diagnosed with cancer in the late nineties, and had past away in Sydney during March 2001 at the age of 70.
On Saturday 2nd April 1988, 2SM became Lite n Easy 1269. After 24 years of playing nothing but top 40 music, the station had a new identity, and no longer enjoyed the top ratings it once had in its earlier days. After eight years at 2Day, Grant Goldman moved to Lite and Easy 1269's breakfast.
The station continued to performed poorly in the ratings, which initiated continuous format changes from July 1989 to June 1992. Over the twelve month period of July 1991 to June 1992, 2SM played a continuous seventies eighties format, with the catch phrase "The station you grew up with. Although the ratings were very low, I thought this was 2SM at it's best. Besides playing music from this era, it also played specials of news events from that time. The announcer line-up included Ian Walker, Georgia Brown and Barry Mac, who previously presented a nostalgia program on 2WS, years earlier. In March 1992, the station was bought out by a consortium of people, including John Brown. They then sold it off to Wesgo Communications. This was the company that owned 2WS. After the termination of 2SM in June 1992, the station played continuous easy music, without any station name, ID's or adds.
In October, Sydney's first commercial country radio station called "Sydney's Hottest Country" appeared. From that point, the station hit death row and since then has wavered at the bottom of the Sydney ratings chart. Very sad when considering what a great station 2-S-M once was. In January 1996, 2SM briefly re-appeared with it's legendary logo. Remember the record in the denim zip? Well this time it was a CD in the legendary zipper. They gave the sixties, seventies and eighties format another go, up to 1998. Ex Triple M brekky announcer Doug Mulray did a eight month stint, from July 1997 to March 1998.
He moved to the drive slot of 2WS FM in April 1998. He experimented by simultaneously broadcasting on 2WS and a pay-tv channel at the same time. I don't know if it was successful, as this was the period when I generally tuned out of commercial radio. Nowadays, 2SM is trying it's hand at the talk-back radio market. Checking recent ratings charts, the station is still hovering around the 1.0 to 0,8 ratings point range.
From the period of 2002 to 2003, 2SM presented a half talk half music format, which was different and worth listening to. Announcers included Grant Goldman for breakfast, both Howard Sadler and Trisha Duffield presented talkback in the late mornings as James (not sure of his other name) did lunch time requests. There was John Henry who did talkback in the afternoons as Graham Gilbert (who seems to live at the station) worked evenings. I enjoyed Tad Pearson's overnight program, which was a mixture of people ringing in and him playing music, which often included obscure classics from the 70's and 80's. During the later-part of 2003, the station's format in my opinion started to deteriorate (again), as some of the programs were put into auto-pilot mode, and slowly but surely, those country and western hits are starting to eat into the music format. (no, no, no, please don't go that way guys). 2SM is now part of an Australian wide radio body called the Super Network of Stations.
Debbie Kruger's memories of 2SM in the earlier years (1970's)
Hot Hits and Favourites, 2 K A.
In March 1987 we bought a place in the Blue Mountains, West of Sydney and eventually moved up there in 1990. In 1987, my ears were introduced to 2-K-A. This radio station based in Penrith was a quiet achiever.
In April of 1987, I heard the station for the first time. Bryan Sanders was 2-K-A's key DJ personality as he presented the Midday to 4pm slot, and announced the live football coverage on Sunday afternoons. Reg Dowton was K-A's brekky voice. Richard Perno worked on the 9am to midday shift up to July 1988 when the station changed its format from a variety hits station to top 40. Richard Mercer, who is now known for his lovey-dovey late-nite show on Mix 106. Was then the manager of 2KA. He presented the 4pm to 7pm shift, which was followed by a pre-recorded non-stop music program, that continued through the night. At this time, they had Jenny Tallmen and Shon Walker as news-readers.
In July '88 2KA stopped playing a lot of its great music and moved toward a rotational playlist format. One of K-A's new programs was called "Coca-Cola's Hot Hits Sunday". After 2-K-A's inception of the Top 40 format, Perno moved to 2-U-W as Mercer moved into his slot. Kerry Denton appeared and took control of Drive. In August of 1988, Reg Dowton disappeared as David Archer replaced him. David now works on a late night love show on Wollongongs I-98-FM. 2-K-A's catch phrase was also shortened from "Hot Hits and Favourites" to "Hot Hits". This format continued right through to October 1992 when the station converted to FM.
This was the last time I really took note of the station as from the beginning of 1993, the stations sound went down-hill. The station was renamed 96.1 ONE FM and followed the same foot steps as 2day FM. Mike Hayden Entertainment was a small media company in Penrith that owned a small cinema complex and 2-K-A. The radio station part was bought out by Wesgo Communications. The Mike Hayden Cinemas that were connected to the back of 2KA's studios where purchased by Hoytes at the same time. On my last visit to Penrith about a year ago, I saw that both the cinema complex and radio station studios, on the corner of Henry and Lawson Streets were vacant. ONE FM went through a number of name changes over the last ten years, and now sits quietly at the back of WSFM's new studio complex in North Ryde.
Again the station went through more changes and now is called "96.1 The Edge". It now plods along with the phrase "your number one hit channel". With all the changes. I don't think there's a bone left anymore, from the 2KA days. Very sad!!!
2KA Promo that came into rotation around 1989.
The beginning of One FM 96.1 on Friday 23rd of October 1992 at 1:00 pm.
2KA's last promo series before they switched to FM in 1992
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