2Day FM: Encyclopedia II - 2Day FM - History

2Day FM - History

The station has always transmitted from the Hampden Road Artarmon tower, jointly owned by television stations Seven, Nine and Ten. It shares an antenna with three other stations, Triple M, 2WS and Mix 1065, under the collective banner of Sydney FM Facilities. It has a backup transmission facility on the Channel Nine tower at Artarmon Road Willoughby. The base broadcast power is 20 Killowatts and is currently delivered by a Harris PT20 solid state transmitter.

Originally the studios were located on the second floor of the Sovereign Inn at 220 Pacific Highway, Crows Nest. The original equipment comprised BMX Pacific Recorder mixing consoles, and CEI cartridge machines.

The station was bought out by radio group Austereo in 1987.

In 1994 2Day FM moved to digital audio playout, incorporating the DCS audio system built by Computer Concepts Ltd, and sold and supported in Australia by Techtel.

In 1995 the station's owner Austereo bought out the Triple M network from Hoyts, and 2Day FM moved it's studios and administration to Level 24, Tower 1, Westfield Bondi Junction at 500 Oxford Street, just one floor below the original home of Triple M since 1980. Austereo also took over level 26 of the same building for group departments.

2Day continued to broadcast from Bondi Junction until October 2005, when both 2Day FM and Triple M moved into new premises at World Square, Goulburn Street Sydney. The new premises included state of the art Klotz digital equipment, and a street level studio.

The station's programming format in its early days was centred around easy-listening music, until the late 1980s when it shifted to a full on pop oriented format, which it has more or less continued to this day.

Many notable on air staff have graced the air waves of 2Day FM, including George Moore, Gretel Killeen, Keith Williams, Ron E Sparks and Jamie Dunn.

During the 1990s, 2Day FM enjoyed ratings success, especially with its breakfast program The Morning Crew (featuring well-known Australian comedienne Wendy Harmer) and television comedian Peter Moon which consistently topped its segment in the Sydney radio market for years.

Moon left the breakfast show in 2002 after infighting with Harmer became unbearable for him. He was replaced by yet another Melbourne "comedian" Greg Fleet, who was poorly received by the Sydney radio listeners.

When Harmer resigned in 2003 the station tried to directly replace her with a clone, Melbourne comedienne Judith Lucy. Judith was given free reign over the new show and installed her two best friends, Peter Helliar and Kaz Cooke to co-host. The show was a dismal failure and saw 2Day receive some of the worst breakfast ratings of its history. Many blame this failure on the fact that a completely Melbournian team were hosting a show in Sydney, and that Lucy was unable to carry a show on her own.

Nights on 2Day FM have also been controversial. In 1997 night announcer David Rymer, host of the then Top 30 Countdown, was castigated in the media for a poorly thought-out on air stunt in which he called a top ranking HSC student, pretending to be from the board of studies. He told the girl her results were incorrect and that her marks had been adjusted. He played the segment to air after receiving verbal permission to do so from the girl's mother, however her father was a lawyer and took legal action. The media pounced, and Rymer was suspended until further notice. He returned to the show a month later but was soon moved to day shifts on sister station Triple M to make way for the new networked night show Ugly Phil's Hot 30, hosted by Phil O'Neil and his then wife Jackie O. The new show was not without its controversy either, with complaints about obscenity and foul language. Phil and Jackie divorced in 2001 and the show disintegrated, culminating in O'Neil's resignation in 2002. Phil moved to the UK and was replaced by Brisbane based Kyle Sandilands, while Jackie O remained as co-host.

2Day FM started 2005 with a number of changes, the most significant of which was moving the night show team of Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O to breakfast, and employing young unknown Craig Low as the host of the nightly networked show "Lowie's Hot 30". Both moves have so far proved successful.

In recent years the station has loss much of its share of the radio market to newcomer Nova 96.9, which has been accused by Austereo of having a format too similar to that of 2Day FM. One of the measures the station has carried out to address its falling ratings, its shifting two popular hosts Jackie O and Kyle Sandilands (former hosts of the popular night program Hot 30 Countdown) to the breakfast shift.

At the start of 2005 The Austereo Today Networks across Australia relaunched with a brand new logo.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki