2Day FM
2Day FM (call sign 2DAY) is a commercial FM radio station broadcasting in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on a frequency of 104.1 MHz, and is part of Southern Cross Austereo's Hit Network.
- Sydney, New South Wales
- Australia
- Sydney, New South Wales
- Australia
104.1 2DAY FM
- Southern Cross Austereo
- (Today FM Sydney Pty Ltd)
2 August 1980
80,000 watts
224 metres (735 ft)[1]
History[edit]
1980s[edit]
2Day FM was one of three radio stations (along with Triple M and Triple J) to be granted new FM broadcasting licenses in Sydney in 1980, and commenced broadcasting on 2 August of that year. The original owners were well known media personalities John Laws (30%), Mike Willesee (30%), Village Roadshow (30%) and Graham Kennedy (10%). The station's original programming format was focused towards easy-listening music, but shifted to more pop and rock oriented programming since the late 1980s, with the later addition of Hip-Hop and dance music to their playlists.
Originally the studios were located on the second floor of the Sovereign Inn at 220 Pacific Highway, Crows Nest. The building became the All Seasons hotel during the 2000s and in 2009 was demolished and re-developed into a mixed commercial building.
The original equipment comprised BMX Pacific Recorder mixing consoles, and CEI cartridge machines.
The station was sold to the Lamb Family in February 1987, who sold it again to radio group Austereo in May 1989.[2][3]
1990s[edit]
In 1995, the station's owner Austereo bought out the Triple M network from Hoyts, and following the merger of the two companies in 1996 2Day FM moved its studios and administration to Level 24, Tower 1, Westfield Bondi Junction at 520 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 its corporate departments. With the move to new premises, 2Day FM also adopted digital audio playout, incorporating the DCS audio system built by Computer Concepts, sold and supported in Australia by Techtel.
During the 1990s, 2Day FM enjoyed ratings success, especially with its breakfast program The Morning Crew (featuring well-known Australian comedian Wendy Harmer and television comedian Peter Moon), which consistently topped its segment in the Sydney radio market for years.
From 1995 to 1998, 2Day FM broadcast the highly successful Martin/Molloy drive program with Tony Martin and Mick Molloy. This program was networked to over 50 stations around Australia (from the studios of Fox FM in Melbourne, Victoria), and is considered one of Australia's most successful FM radio shows. Martin and Molloy left the Today Network in late 1998 at the top of the ratings, citing the need for a break from the pressures of radio.
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 Year 12 student, pretending to be from the Board of Studies. He told the girl her results were incorrect and that her marks had been adjusted.[4] 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 responded 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. O'Neil resigned in 2000 and the show disintegrated, followed by their divorce in 2001. O'Neil moved to the UK to present breakfast on Kerrang! 105.2 and was replaced by the Brisbane-based Kyle Sandilands, while Jackie O remained as co-host.
2000s[edit]
Peter Moon left the breakfast show in 2002 after infighting with Harmer became unbearable for him.[5] He was replaced by yet another Melbourne comedian, Greg Fleet, who was poorly received by the Sydney radio listeners.[6]
When Harmer resigned in 2003, the station replaced her with Melbourne comedian Judith Lucy.[7] Lucy was given free rein over the new show and installed two friends, Peter Helliar and Kaz Cooke, to co-host. The show was not a success in the ratings and the station received some of the worst breakfast ratings in its history.[8]
2Day FM 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. 2Day FM started 2005 with a number of changes, the most significant of which was moving the drive show team of Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O to breakfast and employing a young and unknown Craig Lowe as the host of the nightly networked show Lowie's Hot30.[9][10] This was short-lived, however, after yet another on air gaffe later in the year that involved a porn star relating sexually charged experiences live to air which resulted in a breach of codes finding.[11] Lowie was forced to resign as host of the Hot30 in November 2006.[12] Tim Lee and co-host Carla Bignasca (Biggsy) were announced as his replacements in February 2007.
Rebranding[edit]
Early in 2015, Southern Cross Austereo announced a re-branding of the Today Network stations in capital cities. This followed the successful revamp in September 2014 of poorly performing Adelaide station SAFM. The rebrand was to HIT 107, which also provided it with a new fresh on air sound. In January, new logos were announced for all the capital city stations[51] (excluding Canberra) to the Hit brand.[52]
Perth station 92.9 FM was easily rebranded Hit 92.9, and the remaining capitals were co-branded to their previous names with the hit brand and frequency, for example "Hit 1019 the Fox", and "Hit 1041 2DAY FM". These co-brands were expected to dispense with the older identities, as demonstrated by the trademark applications lodged by SCA. A trademark on "HIT104" was intended to be the eventual identity of 2Day FM.
Brisbane's co-branding with B105 was abandoned in Easter 2015 to HIT 105, leaving Sydney and Melbourne the only station idents with co-branding.
On 1 September 2015, both 2Day FM and Fox FM transitioned away from using the "hit" line in their on-air positioning. Hit Network Group CD Dave Cameron advised "'Hit' will always be in the on-air vernacular, being the backbone of the network format, but more of a focus would be on '2Day' and 'Fox' brands in those respective markets".[53] The following year, 2016, SCA continued to roll out the Hit Network brand to former Today Network regional stations.[51]
1996–2004
2005–2014
2015–2020
Transmission[edit]
The station transmits 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, WS FM and KIIS 106.5, under the collective banner of Sydney FM Facilities. The base broadcast power is 20 kilowatts and is currently delivered by a Harris ZD20 solid state transmitter.
It has an alternate transmission facility on the Broadcast Australia tower at Gore Hill, with an output power of 16 kilowatts delivered by an NEC FBN11K20E valve transmitter. Though almost 20 years old it is fed with all-digital input equipment.
Digital radio[edit]
2Day FM is simulcast on digital radio in Sydney. The station launched Choose The Hits, a station only broadcast on digital radio, was launched on 1 February 2010 and closed on 26 May 2010. In addition to FM radio, listeners can also tune in through the station's smartphone application.