Magic 1278 (official callsign: 3EE) is a commercial radio station in Melbourne, Australia owned by Tapt Media, and run under a lease agreement by Ace Radio.
History
1935–1967: Diverse programming
Establishment On 14 March 1935, prominent businessman Frank Thring announced that his company had secured the rights to operate 3XY: Melbourne's seventh commercial radio station. It had licensed by a jointly-owned affiliate company of the Young Nationalist Organisation and the United Australia Party, who sought to establish a profitable rival to the Labor Party's 3KZ radio station.
Frank Thring was well-renowned in Australia's entertainment industry and notably founded Efftee Studios, a film and theatre production studio which had introduced sound films to Australia.Fitzpatrick, Peter, The Two Frank Thrings, 2012, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Victoria. He founded a subsidiary company, Efftee Broadcasters, to oversee the operation of 3XY and set about converting a ballroom within the Princess Theatre into a modern broadcasting station.
Technician Lindsay Shephard oversaw the installation of specially-designed equipment by AWA, including transmitting equipment on the theatre roof which employed advanced modulation technology. The frequency allocated was 1420 kilocycles (211 metres). A unique, flexible-type cathode ray oscillograph was specially manufactured by AWA for use in the station.
Like virtually all broadcasters prior to the introduction of television to Australia and the invention of the transistor radio, 3XY aired a variety of programming styles; theoretically providing something of appeal to all its prospective listeners.
3XY's original slogan The Quality Station was taken seriously by management, who tried to produce programs which they often perceived as being superior to similar programs being produced by rival stations.Carty, Bruce, On the Air: Australian Radio History, privately published, 2011, Gosford, N.S.W. For example, the station preferred airing live performances over pre-recorded material, securing exclusive rights to broadcast all artists appearing at the Princess Theatre.
A highly-modern news department was formed to report local and international events. A team was hired to commentate on sporting events, and management arranged for Table Talk magazine to provide a weekly session of social news and gossip. Tom Holt, the father of future Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt, was the station's original manager. Les Daley was the first announcer.
Opening 3XY officially began transmission around 8:15 pm on 8 September 1935 with a speech by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons, who revealed remarkable statistics about Australia's advancing broadcast industry. A programme of instrumental music was provided to the crowded Princess Theatre, including items by Robert Chapman's Orchestra and the Masonic Grand Lodge Choir. Following its initiation, no new commercial radio stations would air in Melbourne until 3MP began transmission in 1976 (41 years later).Australian Broadcasting Control Board, Annual Reports. In the collection of Albert Isaacs, Melbourne.
Early programming and reception By the time 3XY began broadcast, most of Melbourne's radio listeners had settled on their preferred stations and so continued to listen to 3XY's rivals.Jones, Colin, Something in the Air: A History of Radio in Australia, Kangaroo Press, 1995. This is widely recognised as a factor behind 3XY's particularly low ratings during the 1930s and 40s. Despite this, 3XY did host a few popular programs–notably the children's session–which originally ran in partnership with the Williamstown Theatre. It was later sponsored by the likes of Peters Ice Cream, One Man's Family and Raising a Husband.
The station also produced some top class live variety programs with artists of the calibre of Stella Lamond; Doug McKenzie; Helen Reddy, Max Reddy, Leslie Ross, etc.collection of published radio guides, in the collection of Albert Isaacs, MelbourneStella Lamond and Max Reddy were the parents of Toni Lamond
Frank Thring Sr. died of cancer several months after 3XY began transmission, and control over the broadcasting license was inherited by his second wife, Olive.Fitzpatrick, Peter, The Two Frank Thrings, 2012, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Victoria. Nevertheless, his son Frank Thring Jr. often referred to himself as the proprietor despite being 10 years old at the time of his father's death. Frank Thring Junior began his career as both a thespian and radio announcer at 3XY in 1941, as a young man of 15. His numerous jobs at the 3XY microphone included being Uncle Frankie in the children's session. Thring's acting career, whilst mainly centred around the Melbourne theatre scene, also included periods in London and Hollywood.
The late Bert Newton grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy where he became a scout. His first broadcast in a radio, television and theatrical career that spanned nearly 60 years was in the 3XY program Scouting Around, hosted by Tom Jones. In the mid-1950s, Newton presented the 3XY midnight-to-dawn program. He returned to the station in the early 1970s (see below).
Because of the lack of listeners, 3XY did not get as much advertising revenue as some of its rivals, but this was, in part, compensated for by the broadcasting of many sponsored religious programs, particularly on Sunday afternoons,Jones, Colin, Something in the Air: A History of Radio in Australia, Kangaroo Press, 1995. as well as sponsored non-English programs, mainly Italian. At the time, 3XY had to comply with an Australian Broadcasting Control Board regulation that required anything broadcast in any foreign language to also be translated into English.
From the commencement of the 1936 Australian rules football season (about seven months after 3XY had first come on air) it became the very first station to broadcast descriptions of Victorian Football Association games. 3XY later broadcast games of the Victorian Football League. They also broadcast descriptions of Melbourne thoroughbred horse races each Saturday, as well as transmitting some interstate races. On some weeknights, harness races, then known as the trots, were broadcast.
Prior to 1967, the station had many prominent announcers, as well as a number of broadcasters who would go on to achieve fame at other stations. These included Frank Avis, Laurie Bennett, Graham Berry, Carl Bleazby, John Boland, John Burls, Ray Chapman, Peter Charleston, Bern Davis, Col Denovan, Jack Dyer, Keith Eden, Doug Elliot, Peter Evans, Vi Greenhalf, Mary Hardy, Ken Hibbins, Geoff Hiscock, Ken Howard, Tom Jones, Craig Kelly, Maurie Kirby, Wayne Kirby, Paul Konik, Alwyn Kurts, Ray Lawrence, Barry Looms, Bernice (Binny) Lum, Alex McNish, Bruce Mansfield, John Magee, Ian Major, Tom Miller, Alf Minister, Bert Newton, Bill Passick, Sir Eric Pearce, Stan Rofe, Bob Rogers, Will Sampson, Dennis Scanlon, Barry Seeber, Wallace Sharland, David Shoreland, Paul Sime, Clyde Simpson, Eric (''Tiny'') Snell, Roy Stenye, Cyril Stokes, John Storr, Jeff Sunderland, Madge Thomas, Frank Thring Jr., Hal Todd, Iven Walker, Mike Walsh, Jeff Warden, Dorothy Wilby, Madge Wister, Johnny Young, etc.
Between 1954 and 1962, 3XY was Victoria's only 24-hour broadcaster. (In the 1930s, the Postmaster-General's Department issued 24-hour licences to one station in each capital city market except Melbourne. In Melbourne, since 1931, 3AK had been broadcasting almost exclusively in the early-morning hours when other stations were off the air. However, on 1 February 1954, 3AK began broadcasting exclusively during hours of daylight, and concurrently 3DB, 3UZ and 3XY were all given 24-hour licences, but both 3DB and 3UZ had ceased all-night broadcasting within six months. Nevertheless, between 1962 and 1968, the Australian Broadcasting Control Board had granted 24-hour licences to all Melbourne commercial stations; 24-hour transmission on ABC stations was to follow within a few years.)Australian Broadcasting Control Board, Annual Reports. In the collection of Albert Isaacs, Melbourne.
An excellent history of the first 10 years or so of 3XY can be accessed in the following book: Fitzpatrick, Peter, The Two Frank Thrings, 2012, Monash University Publishing, Clayton, Victoria .An online review of The Two Frank Thrings can be accessed at https://publishing.monash.edu/books/thrings.html .
1967–1989: Melbourne's top pop music station From 1 July 1967, under the direction of General Manager Bob Baeck the station became Melbourne's dominant music radio station and remained so until the mid 1980s, with a Top 40 music radio format, which often topped the ratings. Its sister station during this era was Sydney's 2SM. Of the many promotions conducted by the station, the most important during the 1970s/80s was Rocktober held annually during the month of October.
3XY dropped all of its religious programming in the late 1960s under the direction of Program Manager Dick Heming. (Heming received a letter of complaint from a woman who signed herself 'Yours in Christianity' but which concluded: 'I have prayed to the Lord that you be struck dead'.)Griffen-Foley, Bridget, Changing Stations - The Story of Australian Commercial Radio, UNSW Press, 2009, Sydney
In the early 1970s, there was a head-on battle for the lucrative Top 40 market between 3XY, by then managed by Rod Muir, and Rhett Walker's 3AK.Walker, R.R., The Magic Spark: 50 Years of Radio in Australia, 1973, The Hawthorn Press, Melbourne The fact that 3XY won the battle is reflected in 3AK's rapid change away from its Top 40 format. However, 3XY's fortunes declined in the late 1980s after the advent of FM radio in Australia, a few years earlier.
3XY DJs during this era included: Barry Bissell, Jack Daniels, Greg Evans, Peter Grace, Peter Harrison, Jane Holmes, John Hood, Craig Huggins, Kevin Hillier, Mark Irvine, Peter James, Chris Maxwell, Peter O'Callaghan, John O'Donnell, John Peters, Stan Rofe, Lee Simon, Peter Grubby Stubbs, Richard Stubbs, Gary Suprain, Paul Turner, Karl van Est.
As well as its Top 40 format, in the early 1970s, 3XY also experimented with a personality format with Bert Newton conducting the breakfast program, and Graham Kennedy presenting a morning session from a studio especially constructed at a cost of $10,000 in the bedroom of his house in Frankston, thus saving him from even having to leave home to present the show. He often broadcast whilst in pyjamas. During the late 1970s Derryn Hinch presented a current affairs morning program.
The Liberal Party continued to have a marked influence at 3XY. In the late 1970s and 80s, the manager of the station was Stanley Guilfoyle, husband of Liberal Senator Margaret Guilfoyle. Magnus Cormack, a former Liberal senator, served as chairman of the company after his retirement from politics in 1978. The company's articles of association provided that, upon the sale of the company, any proceeds should be "given or transferred to some institution or institutions having objects similar to the objects of the company". In 1986, the radio licence was sold to businessman Paul Dainty for $15 million. The proceeds were used to establish the Cormack Foundation, which became a major donor to the Victorian Liberals.
1989–1991: The temporary end of the 3XY callsign