Triple M Melbourne
Triple M Melbourne is a radio station broadcasting in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its target demographic is the 18-54 age group. Triple M Melbourne is part of Southern Cross Austereo's Triple M Network and broadcasts on the 105.1 MHz frequency.
The station was Australia's first commercial FM station, originally known as Eon FM, broadcasting on 92.3 MHz.
Station history
Eon FM: The Birth of Commercial FM Radio
In late 1979, a consortium, members of which included recording entrepreneur Bill Armstrong, band manager Glenn Wheatley and stockbroker Bill Conn, successfully bid on one of two Melbourne FM licenses and set about creating a commercial FM radio station. Armstrong headed the consortium, having seen the commercial opportunities of FM radio in the US and the UK.Despite what their license application read, they had no blueprint at all with regard to marketing, programming, administration or promotion. The next six months was then spent building a radio station from scratch. A makeshift studio was set up in Bank Street, South Melbourne, draped with hessian to deaden the noise. Late-night dummy runs were performed a week before the on-air date to test the equipment.
On 11 July 1980, Australia's first commercial FM radio station, Eon FM, began broadcasting on 92.3 MHz, beating Fox FM to the title by two weeks. Peter Grace, formerly a DJ for 3XY was the first voice heard on the station; he later said he was given that late night spot by default. "It's one past midnight and this is 92.3, E-O-N FM, I'm Peter Grace and this is the beginning of a long, long time..." The first song was "New Kid in Town" by The Eagles.
Armstrong was the first managing director; Clyde Simpson, the first general manager; Lee Simon, also ex-3XY, the first program director; Billy Pinnell, first music programmer – all names to circulate the Australian music industry for years. Other announcers included Mike Nicholls, Karl Van Est, Joe Miller, John Peters, Andy McLean, Jan Cannon, Paul Cashmere, Kenny The Paper-Boy, Kent Forbes, John Hood, Gavin Wood, Trish Mulholand, Craig Huggins and Mark Irvine. Newsreader Jennifer Keyte also began her career as a cadet at Eon FM.
At first, Eon FM played songs that "would not be played elsewhere", having no playlist and avoiding Top 40 songs. Said Armstrong, "we thought we were going to be the beginning of a new era. It took us a while to realise we were wrong."
Eon FM performed better than the other non-commercial FM stations, but was easily beaten by the AM stations. Management was worried, and shareholders were asked to invest another $1 million between them only a year after the station was launched.
Programme Director Lee Simon then went against the flow of the album rock formats favoured by Australia's FM stations and radically changed Eon's format by playing Top 40 hits and staging outdoor concerts. Molly Meldrum, host of Countdown, was even invited to do a regular breakfast spot with Gavin Wood, the voice-over man of Countdown. Gavin and Molly's partnership included a segment of their own version of the crime fighters "Batman and Robin". They even appeared in the Moomba procession as the crime fighting duo in the Batmobile. The combination of Gavin and Molly proved to be a ratings winner when finally in 1985, Eon FM topped Melbourne's ratings. Ken Gibson was the stations first Advertising and Marketing Manager.
In early 1986, 3EON FM was sold to Triple M Sydney, owned by Hoyts, for $37.5 million. The deal was reportedly negotiated by Wheatley, who subsequently became the managing director of Hoyts Media. The station was rebranded 3MMM on 27 November 1988, and was moved to the current frequency.
Triple M Melbourne
In 1987, a new style of breakfast show had begun taking shape on 3MMM featuring a team of comedians known as The D-Generation. With a successful sketch show on ABC TV behind them and initially hired in 1986 by Lee Simon to write comedy pieces for The John Peters Breakfast Show, the team of Tom Gleisner, Santo Cilauro, Rob Sitch, Tony Martin, Michael Veitch, Mick Molloy, and Jason Stephens, successfully took over the breakfast air waves; even recruiting a member of the news team, Jane Kennedy.. The show had a number of anchors during its run, notably Ian Rogerson, Peter O’Callaghan and Kevin Hillier, but it is the sixteen month 'anchorless' period that is best-remembered by fans.The show had a popular mix of sketches, characters and clever comedy, producing a number of best-of CDs.
In September 1990, 3MMM moved from the original South Melbourne premises to the 8th Floor, 140 Bourke Street, Melbourne.
The on-air line-up in 1991 consisted of:
| Time | Show name |
| 6:00 am – 9:00 am | Kevin Hillier and The D-Generation |
| 9:00 am – 12:00 pm | Richard Stubbs |
| 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm | Mark Irvine |
| 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm | Rob Elliott |
| 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm | John Peters |
In late 1991, the D-Generation team successfully pitched The Late Show to ABC TV. Sitch and Martin immediately left the radio show to prepare, with the rest of the team following in April to star in it.
Richard Stubbs, another ex-3XY DJ, moved from the morning slot to the newly vacated breakfast position. Tim Smith and then Brigitte Duclos, who, like Jane Kennedy earlier, began working at the station as a newsreader, joined him to form The Richard Stubbs Breakfast Show. Saturday nights hosted Live from the Ivy, a dance music program hosted live from the Ivy Club in Melbourne.
Joining Austereo
In 1994, the Triple M network, owned by Hoyts, was sold to Village Roadshow, who, on 1 December 1994, sold the network to Austereo, owner of the Today Network, in return for a 53.5% share of Austereo. This gave Austereo, and therefore Village Roadshow, control of two national networks.The merger of two formerly competing radio stations created some rivalries in each of the capital cities. In Melbourne, it was rumoured that Richard Stubbs received some flack for spending time in the Fox FM offices with his brother, announcer Peter Stubbs, better known as Grubby, who was co-hosting a breakfast show on Fox FM at the time). However, over the years the two stations have regularly swapped stars between themselves when an existing role hasn't suited.
Image:AustereoBuildingMelb.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Former Triple M Building on St Kilda Road
In 1996, Triple M moved from its home in central Melbourne to the first Floor of the Fox FM building at 180 St Kilda Road, St Kilda. Triple M continues to share resources with its sister station, such as the traffic reports.
Meanwhile, The Richard Stubbs Breakfast Show continued to deliver a strong performance for Triple M Melbourne. In 1995, an attempt was made to network the show in Sydney, but it ultimately failed, being replaced by a local team in Sydney headed by Andrew Denton.
At the start of 1996, Tim Smith left the breakfast show to join forces with Steve Bedwell in a morning show called The Squirrel Grippers, while Duclos moved to drive for The Grill Team, a reworking of the original Grill Team format pioneered by Triple M Melbourne in the early 1990s, merging sport, comedy and music – a formula to filter throughout the station. The Grill Team also included ex-footballer Dermott Brereton and future Channel 9 CEO Eddie McGuire.
On breakfast, Richard Stubbs continued with two new team members until the end of 1997, when he retired from radio, much to Triple M's disappointment..
The Squirrel Grippers were chosen as Stubb's replacement, moving from the mornings to breakfast. Renaming themselves as Timbo & Bedders for Breakfast, they continued Stubbs' success from 1998 to 2001.
After The Grill Team departed from the drive slot, Triple M moved the eccentric show Crud with Tony Moclair and Julian Schiller, which began life on community station 3RRR, from the evening slot into drive. Crud became best known for the character of Guido Hatzis, a self-confessed 'adonis' of ethnic descent who would call people with the intention of stirring them up.
Triple M tested the concept of FM talkback in 1999 with The Spoonman adding his controversial opinion every weeknight. The program was shelved at the end of the year, but returned in 2005 in almost exactly the same format.
At the start of 2002, seemingly to capitalise on Smith and Bedwell's success, the station moved Smith to the drive slot to create a new show The Cage with previous colleague Brigitte Duclos, leaving Bedwell to head a new breakfast team. Called The Morning Madhouse, it included former Big Brother contestant Rachel Corbett, with ex-cricketer James Brayshaw featuring as a sports reporter. It was a ratings failure.
The Cage involved a revolving door of guests and comedians including Matt Parkinson, Matt Quartermaine Trevor Marmalade and Russell Gilbert. The show performed well and was moved to the vacant breakfast slot only 3 months after it began. A relay of the breakfast show, with about 20% new content, kept the drive slot warm for the following few months. James Brayshaw remained at breakfast and eventually joined The Cage full-time, which at the same time lost Marmalade and Gilbert.
Triple M eventually decided in July 2002 to concentrate The Cage on breakfast only, and filled the drive slot for next 13 months with a couple of one-announcer shows.
Also in 2002, joined the daytime lineup, promoted from the midnight – dawn position. At the age of 21, 'Turbo' was the youngest announcer in the country at the time to be given a prime time shift in a major metropolitan market. He continued with the network through until 2005, leaving his mark with the number one position across Melbourne in the afternoons time slot with a 13.8 share of the market.
Following the success of outdoor concerts such as Big Day Out and Rumba, Triple M ran their own full-day concert, called M-One. It featured Garbage, Billy Idol, Goo Goo Dolls, Midnight Oil and Nickelback. In Melbourne, it was held at Docklands Stadium) on Saturday 12 October 2002. It was moderately successful, but didn't sell as many tickets as expected. It was therefore seen as a financial failure and not run again.