How Melbourne’s killer music radio station 3XY was knocked from the perch
Radio station 3XY was the heartbeat of Melbourne rock music, with a hot hits playlist and star DJs. Then this new player in the game brought the music powerhouse to its knees.
Lifestyle
Don't miss out on the headlines from Lifestyle. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- If your kids' drawings came to life
- Where to find our sunken treasures
- Pubs for a beer with a slice of history
- Penfolds Grange for $1.50 a bottle?
The Buggles weren’t entirely right about video killing the radio star.
Here in Melbourne, FM radio killed one of the city’s greatest AM radio stars — 3XY.
Only a few short years before 3XY closed in 1991, it was at the top of the radio heap.
Plenty of radio stations have come and gone from the airwaves in Melbourne, but few had the cultural impact of 3XY.
Once one of Melbourne’s most popular stations, 3XY was at the top of the radio heap with a “hot hits” rock playlist that turned many of its DJs into big names.
The station opened its doors in 1935 and was owned by the parents of actor Frank Thring and, at first, operated from the Princess Theatre in Spring Street.
Early announcers included Alwyn Kurts, later a star of TV’s Homicide, Bert Newton, Graham Kennedy, Mike Walsh and DJ Stan “The Man” Rofe.
Rofe, in particular, helped to foster local talent including Johnny Young, Colleen Hewett, Normie Rowe and Johnny O’Keefe, and introduced acts like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones to our airwaves.
But the 1970s and early ‘80s were 3XY’s golden years as young people cottoned on to 3XY’s top 40 format in droves.
Rofe left 3XY in the mid-‘60s but returned as music director in the ‘70s.
Like its sister station 2SM in Sydney, 3XY gave Melbourne Rocktober — a celebration of pop music with concerts throughout the month that brought the best bands to our town.
Its weekly top 40 singles and album charts remain gospel to Melbourne music historians. They were available all over town, including at Brashs and other record shops.
Tens of thousands of people packed Albert Park Lake each Australia Day for the 3XY Skyshow to watch fireworks exploding in time with the hottest pop tunes.
To prove the point that 3XY rocked Melbourne, its “3XY Rocks” stickers, featuring the name of your suburb, were wildly popular.
In the days before radio station “Black Thunders” hit the streets, 3XY had the Coca Cola Easy Roller, a Bedford band with a wild body kit and a colourful paint job it gave away to a listener in the late ‘70s.
Money was no object, and 3XY was on the crest of a wave.
Some of its DJs became household names.
Greg Evans and Lee Simon built lucrative TV careers on the back of their radio success at 3XY.
One-time 3XY breakfast host Gavin Wood was Molly’s voiceover sidekick on Countdown. He took over from another 3XY announcer, Paul Turner.
Other presenters included John Peters, Mark Irvine, Craig Huggins, Peter O’Callaghan, Richard Stubbs, Richard’s brother Peter “Grubby” Stubbs, Jane Holmes, Kevin Hillier, Peter Grace, Peter Harrison, John Hood and John O’Donnell.
Before he became a stalwart at 3AW, Derryn Hinch was a hard-hitting commentator on 3XY in the late ‘70s.
Apart from the jocks, the station teemed with local and visiting pop stars eager to sell their musical wares on the top-rating music station in town.
Many Aussie groups, including Skyhooks and many others from Michael Gudinski’s Mushroom Records, owe part of their success to the power of 3XY in those halcyon days.
The beginning of the end for 3XY came on July 11, 1980 when Australia’s first commercial FM station, EON FM, hit the airwaves in Melbourne, with Lee Simon as general manager.
Two weeks later, FOX FM debuted.
It took most of the 1970s for commercial FM to become a reality.
The successful AM stations lobbied the federal government to be allowed to simulcast their existing programming on the FM band.
Instead, the federal government sold FM licenses to the highest bidder. Many, including 3XY, missed out and suffered in the long run.
It took a while, but the decline of 3XY was inevitable.
Slowly but surely, the crisp, clean FM sound and a concerted effort from both FM newcomers to raid 3XY of its best and brightest and bit into its bottom line, bringing 3XY’s dominance to an end.
In 1986, the Paul Dainty Corporation bought 3XY’s broadcasting license for $16 million.
Five years later, the AWA group bought the license for a rumoured $500,000, at a time when the station was broadcasting from Geelong alongside Bay FM.
AWA closed the station almost immediately, on September 23, 1991.
The last song played live to air was Spectrum’s 1971 hit I’ll Be Gone.
A prerecorded highlights package at the end finished with AC/DC’s It’s a Long Way to the Top (If you Wanna Rock and Roll).
AWA took the 3XY license and moved its frequency down the dial, establishing easy listening oldies station Magic 693.
MORE NEWS
SEN DOWN IN MARCH RADIO RATINGS