20 reasons why SAFM rocked in the 1980s
SAFM is coming back! Remember when the Black Thunders roamed Adelaide? Or when you got your first “107 Card” and felt really grown up? From Skyshows to mullets, we celebrate the iconic radio station’s greatest hits.
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MADE IN ADELAIDE
Originally known as 5SSA, with the on-air call sign Double SAFM, the station delivered Adelaide’s first FM station on September 12, 1980 to the strains of Sultans of Swing. Nine months later the station was in dire straits when a major shareholder pulled out of the company, but founder radio executive Paul Thompson refused to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
WORLD TRAILBLAZER
Double SAFM became SAFM in 1982. By the late ‘80s Paul Thompson’s little baby had grown into a giant – the national Austereo empire. It was run out of the Greenhill Rd offices which housed SAFM. In 1995 it was the third largest radio company in the world before it merged with Triple M’s Village Roadshow.
THE MUSIC
SAFM was groundbreaking, championing adult rock with Music Marathons – a phrase coined by David “Daisy” Day – and more. The only station to play 12-inch singles, it simulcast live music such as The Who’s rock opera Tommy. SAFM has also been credited with launching artists such as Dire Straits, Melissa Etheridge and Bruce Springsteen when Bill Page played The Boss’s album Born in the USA in its entirety on his Sunday show, The Rock Page.
EPIC COUNTDOWN
In 1986, SAFM played Adelaide’s all-time 1075 favourite songs, as voted by the station’s listeners across four days. The list was printed in The Advertiser, which was a godsend for all of us making mixed tapes of our favourites. It started with Instant Karma, by John Lennon, with Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven taking out top spot.
STANDARDS
“We will not play and don’t play the Kylie (Minogue) and Jason (Donovan) records and the things that have very strong junior teen and subteen appeal,’’ Paul Thompson told The Tiser in 1989.
GIVEAWAYS
From the start SAFM was the gift that kept giving. A lot of households and cars did not even have FM receivers, but the station convinced suppliers to get in equipment and then gave away FM radios in exchange for AM models.
COMPETITIONS
By 2014 the station, which was famous for its Secret Sound competition, could boast having given away $7m in instant wins. Popular competitions also included Hong Kong For a Song, Millionaire in Mexico, Money or the Glovebox, and a 1988 $30,000 scavenger hunt for items including an original Cold Chisel T-shirt, singlet or sweatshirt.
107 CARD
For many Gen Xers, SAFM’s 107 Card was their very first piece of fantastic plastic. With no joining fee, it got them discounts from local businesses, nice-price tickets to gigs and the chance to win money if their membership number was called out on the Morning Zoo breakfast show. SAFM even had a city shop in Gawler Place selling windcheaters emblazoned with the station’s logo. And who didn’t have an SAFM sticker on their schoolbag, followed by a Black Thunder one on their first car.
SKYSHOW
Running from 1985 to 2006, Skyshow lit up the Adelaide skies with fireworks choreographed to music on Australia Day. It was also the brainchild of another SAFM mastermind, program director Greg Smith.
ON THE ROAD
SAFM was the first station in the world to have Black Thunder promo vehicles.
CD OR NOT CD, THAT WAS THE QUESTION
The answer was a resounding yes when SAFM introduced its listeners to the CD music format using one of the very first Sony players on air. SAFM was also the first station in Australia to have one.
COMMUNITY AND GLOBALLY MINDED
SAFM gave us events such as a sand sculpture competition and beach volleyball, and sponsored sports teams like the Adelaide SAFM Buffalos basketballers and music festivals including Australian Made in 1988. SAFM was also instrumental in encouraging Australians to embrace the Live Aid movement, simulcasting the 1985 historic concerts in London and Philadelphia.
ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE
The station was a huge force behind the push for the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, which opened in 1991, and brought its first act – John Farnham – to town.
RATINGS POWERHOUSE
In 1984 SAFM was the first FM station to go to No 1 in the ratings and four years later in survey four it registered the highest-ever capital city ratings figure in Aussie radio history with 36.6 per cent.
MORNING ZOO
Anchored by radio legend John “Vinnie” Vincent, SAFM’s Morning Zoo was Adelaide’s No 1 breakfast show for years. The winning formula included album-rock, Vinnie’s banter, lightning-fast one-liners from weather man Grant Cameron, sports commentator Greg Rees and newshounds John Williams and Kaye Mathewson.
MAX THE STEREO CAT
SAFM’s Greenhill Road offices were not only the home of Austereo but also a cat called Max who would roam in the ceiling (and randomly drop in on staff) and make surprise guest appearances on air.
THE CHARACTERS
Vinnie came up with show regulars Paul Bearer (Paul Keating), whose greetings included “Morning scumbags, now get out of bed and earn some tax”, Percy the Pensioner and Ken Oath, who had hit records with songs such as Ow Ya Goin and Junk Mail.
DAVID “DAISY” DAY
Daisy commanded a massive 44.8 per cent of the Adelaide radio audience in the late ’80s.
BIG BREAKS
SAFM can take credit for kickstarting the career of many a radio star such as Grant Cameron and Andrew Peters in the ’80s. Nineties’ names included comic Adam Hills, cricketer James Brayshaw and Amanda Blair. Funnyman Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann also got his big break at the station. He’s back to co-host the now Bec, Cosi & Lehmo show in the crucial breakfast timeslot.
THE MULLETS
Daisy, Grant Cameron, Andrew Peters and mid-dawn announcer Jeff Allis, were all big fans of the business-at-the-front-party-at-the-back iconic ’80s hairstyle.