3AK


1503 3AK was a popular music radio station dating back to the 1930s. Today, the station ceases to exist. It was sold in the 2000s several times, switched to 1116AM frequency and eventually sold to current owners Sports and Entertainment Network SEN 1116. A number of unusual events and precedents throughout the station's history make its story of interest.
These include:
  • In lieu of a "C" class licence, the granting of a "B" class licence in 1931, but with limiting conditions including: a position on the dial that could not be picked up by most contemporary radio sets; only allowed to broadcast when other Melbourne commercial stations were off the air, that is, most of the time only at night; limited power.
  • The founder of the station was George Palmer, the father of Clive Palmer.
  • The sharing of its wavelength with 2BS Bathurst, a station that was comparatively close geographically, thus causing interference problems.
  • From 1954, permitted to broadcast during daylight hours, but only when its signal was perceived not to interfere with that of 2BS.
  • Purchased in 1961 by Australian Consolidated Press and thus became sister station of GTV-9. Most high-profile GTV personalities also broadcast on 3AK.
  • When some FM licences were auctioned off to existing AM stations in 1989, 3AK became one of the two successful Melbourne bidders, but the station did not take up the offer because of ownership changes.
  • In 1990, purchased by Peter Corso. 3AK thus became an Italian language station for some years.
  • In late 2003 the 3AK license was leased to Sports Entertainment Network and from January 2004 it became a 24-hour sports station, using the on-air name SEN whilst having to retain 3AK as its official callsign.

    History

Early years

3AK commenced broadcasting on 29 November 1931, the fourth commercial radio station in Melbourne after 3UZ, 3DB and 3KZ.
The station's call-sign came from the name of its operating company, the Akron Broadcasting Company. The owner of the Akron Tyre Co and of 3AK was George Palmer, the father of Clive Palmer.
At the time of its formation there were three types of broadcasters in Australia, A Class stations ; B Class stations, which are now known as commercial stations; amateurs. There were also government plans for a set of C class stations which were intended to be used by businesses to exclusively advertise their products. However it was decided not to proceed with this type of license before 3AK was actually granted its licence. Akron and the Postmaster-General's Department had originally discussed the issuance of such a license, but in lieu, a B Class licence with a number of restrictions, was issued to Akron.
From the outset, 3AK was only permitted to broadcast for limited hours when other Melbourne stations were off the air. 3AK originally broadcast from 11.30 pm to 2.00 am daily; 5.00 to 7.00 am Monday-Saturday; 1.00 to 2.00 pm Saturday; 12.30 to 2.30 pm Sunday. The three hours of weekend afternoon broadcasting were shared with amateurs on the MW band. 3AK also had limited power, which although frequently altered was usually about 20% of that given to other B Class stations in Melbourne. 3AK's wavelength of 1500 KC could also be seen as a third limiting factor - it was at the very end of most contemporary radio dials; there were still some radio sets that were unable to receive it.
Most of 3AK's early broadcasts consisted of live concerts from its studio in Queen Street. These were provided free of charge by a number of progressive Melbourne music teachers who believed that radio would help promote both them and their students. These concerts were occasionally interspersed with broadcasts of recordings.

Melbourne Broadcasters

On 2 May 1934, the name of the company was changed to Melbourne Broadcasters Pty Ltd, a name that persisted throughout many major changes of management and was still being used as late as the 1980s. At this time Palmer changed the style of the station by introducing a format that mainly consisted of dance music, then very popular.
A listing of all Melbourne radio announcers published in February 1936 shows that George Palmer gave himself announcing duties, as well as managing the station. He was assisted by only two other announcers, F Bibby and T Lelliott. This small announcing staff puts 3AK's lowly status in the 1930s and 1940s into context - the same list of Melbourne announcers shows that each of the five other commercial stations had either nine or 10 announcers each and the ABC is shown as employing 13 announcers in Melbourne to cover its two local stations.
In 1937 3AK was allowed to extend its hours of broadcast to 11.30 pm-7.00 am, however the station still closed at 3.00 am on Sundays. It still broadcast for three hours on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, even though amateurs were no longer permitted to do so after 1939. 3AK's hours of broadcast remained unaltered until 1954.
2BS Bathurst commenced broadcasting on 1 January 1937. Because of 3AK's low power, 2BS was given the same wavelength and, within a few years, both stations suffered from interference during the few hours when they were simultaneously on the air.
One of 3AK's major personalities in the late 1930s/early 1940s was Alf Andrew who began broadcasting from 3AK in March 1937. Although a controversial character, Andrew had been a pioneer broadcaster at 3LO, commencing there in 1925 before going to 3UZ and then 2UW and a few other stations.
During the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, the station's slogan was "3AK - The Voice of the Night". However, unsubstantiated rumours about both drunkenness and the poor wages of the staff led to some referring to the station as "3AK - The Voice of the TIGHT".
In the 1930s, the postmaster general gave one station in the Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide markets a licence to broadcast 24 hours a day. Because 3AK broadcast at night, Melbourne did not get any such 24-hour licences until as late as 1 February 1954 when 3UZ, 3DB and 3XY all began continuous broadcasting. This was concurrent with 3AK changing its hours of broadcast. Within six months 3XY had become Melbourne's only 24-hour station.
In this same era, 3AK moved its studio from Queen Street to Bourke Street. By the 1950s it had again been resited and was to be found in the upper storey of a bank in Grey Street, St Kilda.
In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, 3AK provided an alternative to country radio, then the accepted place to commence a broadcasting career, many of 3AK's early staff going on to become well known at major stations, e.g. Stan Rofe, Mike Williamson, Hal Todd, John Worthy, John Eden and John Hart.
At the time very few stations had newsrooms and most relied on newspapers for their news. Due to its poor financial situation, 3AK is believed to have devised a novel system of getting its news – the station had a rope dangling from their studio into the adjoining lane-way and the first newspaper firm to tie their morning edition onto the rope had it read on air.
By the late 1940s, 3AK had been purchased by Mack's Furnishing Company. At this stage, both of the directors, the station's manager, Vernon Margetts and the studio manager Ray Benn held conservative Christian beliefs that were reflected in 3AK's program schedule.

1950s

For many years, 3AK management had been lobbying the Postmaster General's Department and, then, the Australian Broadcasting Control Board for an increase to its permitted broadcasting hours. Eventually, 3AK was allowed to broadcast during those daylight hours when it was thought that it would not interfere with transmissions from 2BS. From 1 February 1954, 3AK was permitted to broadcast from 6.00 am to 7.00 pm daily. However, 2BS still experienced difficulties during the summer, and so, for 4 or 5 months per year, 3AK could not broadcast until 7.00 am, and had to close as early as 5.00 pm. Until the introduction of television in Australia in 1956, the peak hours for any radio station were 7.00 pm-10.00 pm, so 3AK was never able to take advantage of this peak listening period.
When 3AK became a "daylight" station, its very first breakfast team was Lennie Holmes and Shin Berinson. Holmes went on to become a well-known radio and television comedian. After changing his first name to Jim, Berinson became one of the most sought-after and well-paid voice-over men. The breakfast program was later compered by Lou Carr. Another notable announcer during that era was Graham Madison.

1960s

In the early 1960s Australian Consolidated Press, owned by the Packer family, took over both television station GTV-9 and, a little later, 3AK. 3AK moved from its small St. Kilda studio into GTV-9's Television City premises at Bendigo Street, Richmond, broadcasting a revised format from Easter Monday, 3 April 1961. GTV's major television personalities were forced to broadcast from 3AK. Therefore, overnight, 3AK changed from a station with a young and virtually unknown announcing staff, to one featuring some of Australia's best-known television personalities, including Philip Brady, Geoff Corke, Tommy Hanlon Jr., Geoff Hiscock, Graham Kennedy, Jack Little, Bert Newton, Eric Pearce, Brian Taylor, Hal Todd, Eric Welch, Arthur Young and Frank Zepter. In talking about the use of high-profile celebrities on 3AK, Philip Brady is quoted as saying: "They expected us to do it for nothing". Even so, Philip Brady was one of the few GTV personalities without previous radio experience. Despite his claim that he had always loved radio, his first job in the media was with GTV, as from 1958.
Frank Zepter was actually more of a GTV-9 backroom person than a TV personality. He presented a weekend Italian language program on 3AK. Arthur Young was also heard on 3AK at weekends - he was the leader of GTV-9's studio orchestra and presented a classical music program on 3AK.
Former 3AK manager Bill Bowie resigned and formed his own radio/television school. Former 3AK announcers were redeployed with the GTV organisation; only the former chief announcer, Ron Alderton, retaining any on-air work at 3AK, albeit only at weekends. Alderton later made his name as a TV newsreader, particularly at ATV-0/10. Peter Cavanagh was to make a name for himself as a TV actor, particularly in a number of Hector Crawford Production's police dramas.
During the mid-1960s, 3AK's program format shifted to Top 40 music with the slogan "The Good Guys".
ACP was always keen to solve the problem of transmission hours caused by 2BS and 3AK sharing the same wavelength. Technology in the form of a directional antenna seemed to be the answer, but this small country station was deaf to ACP's continuous requests, leading to ACP's purchase of 2BS, allowing them to install such an antenna. By October 1968 permission which enabled 3AK to commence 24-hour transmission had been granted. 3AK officially launched 24-hour broadcasting at 7.00pm on Friday, 8 November 1968. The station's first overnight announcer was Grantley Dee.