Tim Robinson

3OZZ-FM

The story Behind Student Radio 3-OZZ-FM

Background

In the late 1960’s to early 1970’s, there was a big political push to open up the FM band following years of conservative government. The media ownership was in control of just a few people [Rupert Murdoch Kerry Packer etc], and there was a vested interest in keeping any one else that could be seen as competition from getting on the air waves. The thought that ordinary people might just be able to run their own broadcast radio station was too much to bare! Fancy allowing the public to have access to their own content on the airwaves!

An Astor "Mickey" c1950's

Radio dials from that early era of the 1920’s to 1960’s reflect the fact that you could hard print a dial for a radio with all the stations in Australia, and not have any fear of it becoming outdated. No new commercial licenses were issued in Australia for many years before WW2, and well after that.

Some people may have heard about the ‘rogue’ transmitter that was transmitting a signal from the campus of The University of Melbourne during the early 1970’s. This caused much consternation at the time as there was still a large lobby [Murdoch/Packer] which was trying to stop any form of additional radio stations [commercial or public] from getting a radio license. The rogue transmitter was seen as a challenge to the status quo and had to be silenced. It was more about what it represented than the actual transmitter itself. Federal police were called to find the transmitter
and silence it. The Radio licensing branch was pressed in to service jamming the pirate radio signal. Try as they may, the transmitter was never found, but the police raided the Melbourne University radio club and took a Yaesu FTdx-400 [an amateur band radio transmitter and receiver - Quite legal!] as a consolation prize. This of course was NOT on the air at the time and the radio club had nothing to do with the illegal transmission [it was in the AM broadcast band]. The police had needed something to justify their raid, and It took some years for the radio club to get the FTdx-400 back from the police.

I’m not sure if anyone actually listened to this rogue transmission - it was more about public access to the airwaves, and the tight control of what radio licenses were available at the time. There was a desperate need for more diversity in broadcasting  and this was part of the start of a push to open up the airwaves and provide access for other groups to be able to connect with their own particular content.

1976 - Parkville Campus Radio - 3OZZ-FM

I participated in one of the first test FM broadcasts in Melbourne with a consortium set up through the University of Melbourne. "Parkville Campus Radio" - 3OZZ-FM [92.1Mhz] had an experimental license to broadcast for three days in August 1976 and the studio was located in the Union building. I designed and built the studio around a Phillips broadcast mixer, some turntables and two reel to reel tape recorders. While some of the on-air presentations were rather dubious, the studio held up for the duration with no technical problems [sigh of relief!].

Setting up the studio for 3OZZ-FM test broadcast and Testing the Equipment

I was appointed technical manager in early 1976 for a test broadcast for radio 3OZZ-FM at The University of Melbourne. I was also on the organising committee. This test transmission was a pre-cursor for an application for a public/educational license for a radio station in the FM Band [88-108 Mhz]. The transmission frequency was 92.1 Mhz [in glorious mono!]. A consortium had been created between the Melbourne State College Student Union [formerly Melbourne Teachers College] and The University of Melbourne Student Union. My primary involvement was getting the station on air. This involved wiring up and testing the studio equipment, and connecting it all together. The station equipment consisted of a Phillips broadcast mixing panel, 2 x Revox A77 ¼ inch tape recorders, a cartridge [tape loop] machine and two turntables. Parkville Campus Radio ran for three days - August 4th, 5th and 6th 1976.

This was all done under the auspices of “Parkville Campus Radio”. The test transmission went to air on August 4th, 5th and 6th [Wednesday to Friday] 1976. It was decided to broadcast during the week as opposed to a weekend as students would be on campus at the time and help was available to assist people wanting to listen [ie; find the right place on
the dial!]. “Off Air” receivers [cheap $5 transistor AM/FM radios] were purchased by the student union to provide access for listeners without an FM receiver. They were initially sold at cost to anyone who wanted one. Some ended up being given away to interested people, and those who might be able to assist with publicity for the event. Keep in mind that the FM band had yet to be developed, and up until this time there was only ONE FM broadcast license issued in Victoria. This was to 3MBS-FM, a classical music station. At the time most of the general public were unaware of the FM band as such and had to be shown how to find stations within this frequency band.

Nadia on air	Avril [Left] and Nadia	The 3OZZ-FM Studio

Two of the on air presenters were Nadia Anderson and Avril Bell. Nadia went on to be a presenter at 3 Triple R FM in Melbourne. Nadia and Avril were also on the organising committee which oversaw the setting up and running of the test transmission event and coordination with the University of Melbourne Student Union.

A 10watt FM transmitter and ¼ wave ground plane antenna were loaned to us by 2MBS in Sydney. The antenna was installed on the top of the Raymond Priestly Building [Roughly in the middle of The University of Melbourne Parkville Campus]. The transmitter was housed in the lift machinery room at the top of the building with the aerial cable going to the roof outside. A temporary broadcast studio was set up in the student union building, which was next door to the Raymond Priestly building.

I was on the organising committee. Liberal minister for communications [Guilfoyle] at the time had a daughter at Melbourne University - a conduit to the minister. It was thought it may assist with getting application approved]. However the Government changed and needed to wait until a call for applications for new licenses by the Whitlam government. The broadcast was quite successful, with signal reports coming in from all over Melbourne. A number of programs had been prepared especially for the occasion with different on air presenters.

The government had changed and we needed to wait until a call for applications for new [educational] licenses was made. A consortium formed between [then] Melbourne State College, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology [RMIT] and The University of Melbourne. RMIT already had a ‘closed circuit’ radio station that broadcast via speakers around the RMIT campus. After a while an educational licence was issued [3RMT-FM], which eventually became 3RRR-FM.

There was also an organisation set up to coordinate applications for licenses and assist people with applications called the PBAA - The Public Broadcasting Association of Australia, [Now the CBAA - Community Broadcasting Association of Australia]. Meetings were held in Canberra and delegates were appointed to represent the various organisations that were considering application for a community license or looking for guidance as to how to go about what was quite a complex process at the time. There was also a technical committee [which I was on], which looked at the requirements for broadcast transmission, and make comments on government policy in this area. We also discussed the ‘Common Carrier’ concept in relation to Telecom [now Telstra], the 'common carrier' at the time, and whether that was a good idea. Telecom had a stranglehold on broadcast communications but eventually Optus came about partly to try and provide more competition in regards to public access to technical infrastructure and the internet.

 For further information, see the "My Radio Life" article for OTN magazine which goes in to much more detail about this event [downloadable PDF file].