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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 7 Hansard (5 June) . . Page.. 1951 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

Things changed dramatically when 2CC entered the market in late 1975. 2CC was one of only a handful of new stations that made it to air in Australia during the 1970s. In 1976 2CC ended its first full McNair Anderson survey with an approximate 50 per cent share of the overall audience. US Billboard magazine named it station of the year. 2CC was a leader in concerts, stories and stunts. The huge community service profile enjoyed by the station was largely thanks to a full-time community service director. The longest serving person in this position was Ros Loftus.

For many young DJs working in country stations, particularly in New South Wales, 2CC was a station to aspire to. Its reputation as a feeder station for bigger markets became well known. Even city jocks with previous form passed through on their way to somewhere else.

In the second half of the 1980s, 2CC actively promoted the new technology of AM stereo but then dropped it like a hot potato when asked by the Australian Broadcasting Authority to apply for a supplementary FM licence. After lengthy ABA hearings during 1986-87, the two existing commercial operators, 2CC and 2CA, were simultaneously awarded supplementary FM licences. On 27 February 1988 they became the first stations of their kind to go to air in Australia.

Since that time "two stations by one owner in the same city" has become the rule rather than the exception in the Australian radio scene.

2CC's supplementary FM station was called KIX 106FM. It went to air at 8.00 am on 27 February 1988, at the same time as 2CA's supplementary station, FM 104. The entry of the FM stations dramatically changed the market again, with younger listeners flocking to the new stations. 2CC's owners, the Australian Radio Network (ARN), responded by rebadging the station Classic Hits 2CC. In doing so, it gave the new FMs decent competition for a few years. For example, while the FMs and the ABC station 2CN achieved reasonable results in most shifts, neither could dislodge 2CC's Breakfast Club from the top position until the early 1990s.

During 1993-94 ARN put their resources into relaunching their struggling FM station-to be then known as Canberra FM, now MIX 106-while it waited for a buyer to take over the 2CC AM licence. 2CC was sold in early 1995 to the Capital Radio Group. Two years later they bought 2CA from Austereo. They became the sole owners of commercial AM radio in Canberra. In the late 1990s a joint venture between Austereo and the Australian Radio Network (Canberra FM Radio) assumed ownership of both FM stations, thereby reducing the commercial radio market in Canberra to only two players.

Mr Speaker, against that background, I would like to look at how commercial broadcasting licences are allocated in Australia. The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 requires the Australian Broadcasting Authority to develop a price-based system to allocate licences for commercial radio and TV broadcasting services. The price-based allocation system developed by the ABA is governed by the Commercial Broadcasting Licence Allocation Determination.

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