4MMM

Radio station


name = Triple M Brisbane
airdate = 3pm 22 August 1980
frequency = 104.5 MHz FM, adjusted from 104.1 on 5 Nov 1989
area = Brisbane
format = Rock
owner = Austereo Triple M
website = [http://www.triplem.com.au/brisbane http://www.triplem.com.au/brisbane]

4MMM (identified on air and in print as Triple M) is one of Brisbane, Australia's commercial FM Rock radio stations, primarily targeted at those in the 25-50 age group. It is part of the Austereo Triple M network and broadcasts on 104.5 MHz.

tation history

The station started on the FM band at 104.1 MHz on August 22 1980. Brisbane businessman Leo Williams was the driving force behind the venture while station manager then was Rob McKay who left the station soon after, allowing program manager Ted Seymour to take the reins. Their first format was contemporary rock. It was rebranded as FM104 in December 1982 with the new slogan "Rock In Stereo", and focused on the typical Queensland lifestyle of beaches and barbecues.

The music was now serious rock but very much album oriented. Their playlists now included AC/DC, The Angels, Van Halen, ZZ Top and the Talking Heads as well as supporting Australian pub rock bands such as INXS, Hunters & Collector's and the Choirboys.

In 1983, they started using a vocoder with the popular call sign, "FM104 ROCKS THE WEEKEND", "FM104 ROCKS BRISBANE" and "FM104 ROCK IN STEREO". The first number one ratings success was in the 7 to midnight timeslot in the second survey of 1983 reaching an impressive 26 share. The station finally went number one overall in October of 1984 with a share of 18.2% total audience.

From then they dominated the market, peaking at a massive 37.9% share in the Brisbane expo year, 1988. This has never been achieved by any radio station since. They were number one in Brisbane from late 1984 until 1990. The breakfast shift, with Bill Healy and Mr T was also consistently number one. Promotions including the Skyshow featuring the first afterburner F111's in the world and involvement in all things Brisbane supplemented the sizzling on-air format.

In 1988, Hoyts Entertainment, the new owners of the station, forced FM104 to take on the Triple M brand to become part of the newly created Triple M nationwide network. From then on it became known as FM104 Triple M, with the callsign 4MMM. A change of frequency to 104.5 MHz also occurred in the late 80's.

During 1990, management and staff changes started its slide. Triple M was finally toppled from the top spot by new FM station B105, with the onset of rap and dance music. When the Austereo group purchased the station as part of its takeover and merger of the Triple M and Today networks in 1995, the FM104 tag was dropped for good.

These days Austereo still owns the Triple M network, and the station continues to broadcast as Triple M Brisbane. In 2005 Triple M regained the top spot on Brisbane radio after 15 years.

tudios

FM104 studios were originally based in the top floor of 67 St Pauls Terrace and moved to 549 Queen Street, Brisbane. This building was quite a character building, designed by renowned architect David Phillips, it featured a quirky lift, green carpets and a distinctive spiral staircase linking the two floors. The basement carpark, reserved for executives, was tiny and difficult to enter and exit. It also hosted some wild survey parties with many famous guests over many years.

The original equipment comprised MTE mixing consoles, and ITC Delta cartridge machines. FM104 Triple M never experienced the era of "Digital Commercial System" (DCS) which was incorporated into most other Austereo stations. Instead, FM104 Triple M continued to use outdated cartridge machines until 1999, when the updated Maestro digital playout system was installed as part of an Austereo wide upgrade.

From 1998 to 2000, Triple M's news was broadcast from the newsroom of sister station B105 FM in a combined newsroom arrangement. A data link was also installed between the two stations for WAN access.

FM104, and later Triple M Brisbane, broadcast from the Queen Street location until August 2000, when owners Austereo relocated Triple M and sister station B105 into new combined premises at 309 North Quay, Brisbane. The new complex was the first in Australia to use the revolutionary Klotz Digital VADIS audio system.

Transmission

FM104 originally transmitted using two RCA BTF-20E 20 kilowatt transmitters (A/B) running from the BTQ Channel 7 tower at Mt Coot-tha Brisbane. An increase in ERP (effective radiated power) was granted in the early 1990s, and an arrangement was reached with rival station B105 to share a new antenna, combiner and floor space at TVQ Channel Ten, which had a higher tower.

An ERI FM array was installed on the tower, combined through an RF combiner to allow both 105.3 (B105) and 104.5 (4MMM) to transmit at 5Kw base power on the same array. 4MMM had a 20Kw RCA transmitter moved from the BTQ site and an NEC 10Kw transmitter installed at this site, in an A/B failsafe configuration. One of the original 20Kw RCA transmitter was left in place at BTQ seven as a backup, leaving 4MMM as one of the most redundant ready stations in Brisbane, with three transmitters to choose from and two different transmission sites.

After the official duopoly merger with B105 FM, which had two Harris HT10 transmitters on a separate antenna at TVQ Channel Ten, 4MMM continued to use the same transmitter configuration until 2002, when a new solid state Harris Z10CD transmitter was installed at the newly created TX Australia facility under the TVQ Ten tower. One of B105 FM's existing HT10 transmitters was re-tuned to 104.5 MHz and installed at the Channel Seven tower, 1 km away from Channel Ten on Mount Coot-tha as a backup. Both original RCA transmitters were sold for scrap, and the NEC transmitter eventually went to Broadcast Australia for parts.

As of November 2005, Triple M Brisbane has one Harris Z10CD solid state transmitter as the main, located at TVQ Ten. It has one HT10FM tube transmitter as the secondary, located at BTQ Seven. There is also a spare antenna (the original B105 FM1C) at the TVQ Ten tower if needed.

As of February 2008, TX Australia are under contract to maintain all of Austereo Brisbane's transmission infrastructure including antennas, transmitters and combiners. TX Australia have also been appointed to install and maintain the digital radio infrastructure due to air on January 1 2009.

4MMM's base power is 5 Kilowatts with an ERP (Effective Radiated Power) of 19 kilowatts at the antenna.

Breakfast shows

FM104 and 4MMM have had several notable breakfast shows in their history. The most popular Breakfast Show ever on FM104 Triple-M was Hosted by Bill Healy and Mr T, from the early to the late 80's.It was the first team to attain number one ratings on FM104 Triple-M.Bill Healy and MR T's survey results have never been bettered by any subsequent team on the station under any of its titles or liveries. Healy returned in 1990 under Hoyts rein but failed to regain the dizzy heights he attained with Mr T. He left the station in 1991 for a Contemporary station. Other Breakfast shows were;

* Rob Duckworth and Dave Gibson
* Dean Miller, Gary "Badge" Belcher and the late Graham "Shirley" Strachan
* Dean Miller and Sammy Power
* Fatcat, Marto and Leisa
* The Cage with Ian Skippen

Current Breakfast Show

The current breakfast show on 4MMM is The Cage, which has undergone several lineup changes since its inception in 2004. Georgina McEncroe is the latest host to leave the show, retiring from Triple M in December 2007 to join Melbourne's Mix 101.1 in 2008.

The current lineup for 2008 is:-

* Ian Skippen (Anchor)
* Greg 'Marto' Martin
* Greg 'Sully" Sulivan
* Sami Lukis

Notes

* In 1999 announcer Dave Dangerfield died of a heart attack aged 29 following a Saturday morning shift on FM104. Dangerfield had complained of chest pains throughout the morning, and news director Rod Tiley encouraged him to visit a doctor. He stayed until the end of the shift, then went home and collapsed as he entered the kitchen. Dangerfield was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital. FM104 General Manager Jim Johnston mandated that all staff except the current on air announcer attend a fundraiser in his honour. Guest speakers at the fundraiser included NRL Bronco's coach Wayne Bennett,AFL Lions coach Leigh Matthews, and B105's Paul 'Campo' Campion. Dangerfield was a childhood friend of both Paul and his brother, former Bronco Kevin Campion. Austereo also made a large monetary contribution to Dangerfield's wife and two baby girls, aged 3 years and 18 months.

* Ex FM 104 Triple M Promotions and Marketing Director Paul Dutton died of cancer whilst employed by Australian Radio Network at their Melbourne Stations TTFM (now MIX 101.1) & GOLD 104.3.

25th anniversary celebration

In August 2005, 4MMM held a weekend long celebration of 25 years broadcasting. Archived audio was played back, including interviews with the likes of former programmer Bill Riner and other former DJ's.

The weekend culminated in a Sunday afternoon broadcast from the station's carpark at 309 North Quay, with drinks, food, and live to air performances from The Screaming Jets, The Choirboys and Glen Shorrock. The single 'Cool Change' from Shorrock's 'Little River Band' was the first song ever played to air on 4MMM.

Football

4MMM broadcasts full call of AFL matches played by the "Brisbane Lions", mainly on weekends. The Brisbane AFL call team is headed by lead commentator and producer Michael Price, along with former Brisbane Lions, Richard Champion and Craig Starcevich. The call team also features stats from Mark Kennedy and boundary line updates from Belinda Mellen.

Triple M Brisbane covers all Brisbane Lions games and relays it's calls into other Triple M interstate stations as required. Other interstate matches are called by different commentary teams and networked. Triple M Football is produced nationally by Lee Simon.

4MMM also broadcast full commentary of all NRL matches played on Monday nights in 2008, with commentary headed by Anthony Maroon, Phil Gould, Jimmy Smith and Daniel Ginnane.

Networking

As with most national radio networks, 4MMM engages in networking of several shows across the day. In addition, 4MMM employs local automation overnight, where the computerised playlist system will play logged events automatically, eliminating the need for an announcer to be present.

Currently the following shows are networked on 4MMM:-

* Wil & Lehmo - 4pm to 6pm weekdays, from Sydney
* The Peter Berner Experiment - 6pm to 7pm weekdays, from Sydney
* The Spoonman - 10pm to 1am Tuesday - Friday, from Sydney
* Homebrew - 6pm to 8pm Sunday, from Sydney
* Planet Rock - 8pm to 10:30pm Sunday, from Sydney

Overnights - Locally automated

Current executive team

As of June 2007

* CEO - Michael Anderson
* General Manager - Richard Barker
* Content Director - Rex Morris
* Production Manager - Rick Wade
* News Director - Melissa Martin
* Technology Manager - Dan Chalmers
* Sales Director - Nick Randall
* Integration Director - Lisa Lees
* Finance Manager - Petrea Grant

Former FM104 MMM On-Air Personalities

Phil Moroney, Rob Duckworth, Dave Gibson, "BBQ" Bob Gallagher, Barry Drinkwater, Dave Carlson, Rod "Mr. T" Tiley, Mike Goldman, Jamie Meldrum, Rex Morris, Rob McCasker, Gregg Easton, Clare Blake, Loretta Ryan (news), Sheridan Stewart, Dave Andrews, Brendon Jones, Dean Miller, Sammy Power, Colin Mooney, Bill Riner, Bill Healy, Graham "Shirley" Straughn (deceased), Gary "Badge" Belcher, Rod Lockington, Mark Irvine, Jeff Truscott, Rob Tesararo. Chris (Bomber) Bombolas (news), David Kidd, Bruce McCartney, Alan McGirvan.

ee also

* List of Australian radio stations

External links

** http://podcasts.triplemrocks.com.au/4mmm.xml - Triple M Brisbane PodCast (All Shows) or subscribe with iTunes