Radio - the early days in Sydney

It was the early 70's and my radio career was just starting. I was about to make the big move from production in my home town Gold Coast to panel operator at 2KY in Sydney.

I can remember my parents being so concerned that they booked me into a hostel type place at Cremorne Point. The owners had described it as a beautiful place overlooking the harbour with lovely residents and home cooked meals. They omitted the bit about the mean old people, itinerant foreign railway workers and rat infestation.

A great start, but nothing compared to the shock of 2KY. A station steeped in all the great traditions of the trade union movement. It's the only place I've worked where the manager inherited the job from his dad and there were more technicians than announcers and panel ops put together. But strangely, you never actually saw one. It was very odd because you would have thought that these technicians would have noticed the dirty faders and general state of disrepair in the control room.

One of the strangest things was that there was only one output for the 3 cart machines. There were individual pre-set buttons for each cart player, so you had to wait for the ad to end, hit the button and then hit the next cart machine. This, I was told, was so operators couldn't crash over the ends of ads. But what it did do was leave huge gaps bewtween the ads. The sales manager, who I think also inherited his job, thought this was great as it made is clients ads stand out. Did I mention that the average scheduled 30 seconder ran about 50 - 70 seconds?

What to do? Unlike the other operators, I had been a trainee technician, so I had a few clues (very few) when it came to patch bays. Cart One, direct to desk, cart two via Gosford dogs OB line, cart three via Dapto dogs OB line - me fired for being too tight. It was 10 years before I built up the nerve to work in Sydney again.

King Country Radio Signs Off

When you finger through the autograph book and scrap books at King Country Radio you find literally dozens of household radio and television names.

It had been the training ground for literally hundreds of up-and-coming stars for over 44 years. Not just announcers, but broadcasters of every description, from technicians to sales and management.

Why were these two overseas owned networks allowed to take over and destroy so many wonderful community assets? In my time as manager of King Country Radio, I found that not only was it loved by the community it served, but it was a vital part of that community.

But gradually as the TRN talons tightened it became an unwanted sattelite. They say it was losing money, but I can tell you, when I left in March last year, just prior to them networking the breakfast show from Hamilton, it was making money and had been for the years it was under my control and before that too.

So March 31st will be it's final day. How sad, but in reality its final day was the day that TRN took over.

Here's what TRN's propoganda machine had to say yesterday:
RADIO NETWORK TO CLOSE STATION

Classic Hits King Country Radio, Taumarunui is to close. The Radio Network announced today that the station will cease broadcasting on March 31st.

“The station has been struggling financially for a number of years. The current economic conditions mean that it is no longer tenable for TRN to continue trading in Taumarunui,” said Brian Jennings, Taupo general manager for The Radio Network.

“We have made the decision only after long consideration,” he said. “The fact is that, despite the best efforts of the people involved, it has been very hard to keep the station viable on declining revenues. Regrettably, we really have no alternative but to take the closure action.”

“Over the last few years we have tried a number of strategies to keep the station in profit. The most significant being launching full coverage FM in 2006 with cheaper operating costs and improved signal quality, to make the station more attractive to both listeners and advertisers.”

The station’s Huia Street premises and a staff house will be sold at a later date. The transmission tower and FM transmitter will be removed and reused in another location.

The station has had a special relationship with listeners in Taumarunui for forty-four years. Classic Hits King Country Radio began as 1ZU broadcasting on 1520AM in 1966. It become King Country Radio and moved to 1512AM in 1978. In 2001 it became part of the Classic Hits network.

Farewell to Robbie

Over the years I have lost contact with many friends due to my rather nomadic lifestyle. Radio tends to be a bit that way. But since joining Facebook about 6 months ago I have regained contact with so many people who I haven’t thought about in years.

When I enlist a new friend I squirrel my way through their friends in the hope of finding someone else. I’m also now getting news from all corners of the planet - some of it not so good.

Just this week an old 4GG contact informed me that Robbie Snowden had passed away. The irony is, for the first time in years I had been thinking about Robbie.

This year I changed career paths, moving into newspapers and Robbie was also in newspapers on the Gold Coast, so he came to mind. I wondered how he was going, what it was like at his newspaper and I thought on my next Gold Coast holiday I’d look him up. It doesn’t pay to put things off.

Robbie was much too young to pass, but he has had a colourful and full life, going from pop star in the 60’s, to radio, and finally promotions in the press. I know there’ll be some wonderful stories at his memorial.

He was a great guy and will be missed by many - even those who have lost touch.