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From 1975 to 1982 Sydney radio station 2SM played an intrinsic role in my life. Actually, that's an understatement. To a degree, 2SM was my life. There were lots of other things going on, of course, but while for most of my friends radio was just something going on in the background, for me it was very much in the foreground. The jocks were my pals who got me through each day, and my visits to the station became more frequent as I got older.

Oh, and a note about the audio on this page. Wherever you see this little animation, it means there is a nifty 2SM promo, jingle or some other kind of snippet for the savouring. Some are fairly large files as I'm providing them in high quality. There is quite a selection, so I'll be changing some of the audio clips now and then. For instance, if you click on the big 2SM denim logo at the top of this page, you'll hear one of the hundreds of old 2SM ID jingles, and that will change regularly. So come back when you can to have another listen. Enjoy!

A 2SM day always started with the madcap Ian MacRae, the best — and highest rating — breakfast announcer of his day. He did the 6am-9am slot solo for several years before the seriously demented and irritatingly amusing Hon Nick Jones, a crazy self-appointed local government councillor who initially did the odd guest segment on the show, became Macca's regular sidekick.

Ian MacRae was audacious from his beginnings on Melbourne radio and then joined the pirate radio crusade in the UK, returning to Australia to join 2SM in the late 1960s. Which meant that by the time kids like me were tuning in, Macca had already refined his manic delivery to perfection. There's some interesting info on Macca's pirate days at the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame, including an audio clip from 1966.

MacRae had a thing for chickens. He brought new meaning to the Aussie chook raffle. His take on Rick Dees' 1976 hit "Disco Duck" was of course "Disco Chook." After years of pining to hear it, a very very kind site visitor sent me a big clip of the song to share with you. Click on the chooks at left to hear the classic "Disco Chook"!

Macca was also the master of promotional stunts. The most famous was the Rocktober 1978 competition to win a trip on the jumbo that was going to go under the Sydney Harbour Bridge. You can hear a fantastic audio clip of the Jumbo Under the Bridge event, and read about MacRae's other shenanigans, on his page of Interesting Stuff about Ian MacRae. There's similar stuff and more to be found at the Ian MacRae Radio School.

Ian MacRae was the funniest man I ever heard on radio. He also knew how to be serious when the occasion called for it. I remember vividly sitting at the breakfast table on August 17, 1977 (it was still the 16th in the USA), listening to 2SM when a song was interrupted and Macca announced the death of Elvis Presley. "I can't believe I have to annouce this," he said. "What a shocking start to the day." Macca took the breakfast show on location at various times throughout his years on 2SM. From the north pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to London in 1977 for the Queen's Silver Jubilee and Alaska for a series of Christmas broadcasts in 1978, tied in with the famous Christmas Wish promotion

Actually, Macca never made it to Alaska; apparently he got sick and had to send Gordon O'Byrne to Santa Land with the Hon Nick instead. Here are a couple of different promos for that event: Macca goes to Alaska Googy goes to Alaska
Early in 1979 Macca celebrated his 10th anniversary on air at 2SM with a big birthday party at Luna Park where the Hon Nick jumped out of the birthday cake. Must have been quite a sight.		2SM ran a trade ad — which they did regularly during their peak run — in B&T magazine congratulating the breakfast king for being such a good egg. Click on the thumbnail to check it out.

Macca and the Hon Nick even hit the charts, both in Australia and the UK, with The Ballad of Lady Di, an entertaining ditty featuring the Hon Nick Jones on lead vocal. Recorded in 1981 in honour of Lady Diana's engagement to Prince Charles, it was incomparable in its rhyming elegance, with the chorus: And Lady Di Di Di said "stick it in your eye! The only man I'm gonna marry is Prince Charli." You can hear a clip of this collectors item by clicking on the cover image on the left.

Macca and the Hon Nick were back in London, broadcasting from a hotel room during the week of Charles and Diana's wedding in July 1981. By this time 2SM was already losing ground in the ratings and most of its top personalities had departed for other stations. It was a credit to MacRae that he stuck it out, only finally leaving in April 1982 in a memorable last program.

It was too easy to forget, after 2SM was outshone by the new FM stations in the 1980s, and Triple M's Doug Mulray became the most successful breakfast presenter in Australia, just how groundbreaking Ian MacRae was in the 1970s. Macca's foray into television in the late '70s (Thank God It's Friday at the Zoo) was a dismal failure. But that did little to diminish his legendary status. Macca moved on to other stations and other adventures (he's currently doing breakfast at Radio 2 1611 AM - "The New Voice of Sydney's West"), but he will always be remembered most fondly for his days ruling the Sydney breakfast airwaves on 2SM.

In my early days listening to 2SM, the 9am-midday shift was occupied by Bob Rogers, a radio veteran who had notched up many firsts on Australian radio (including being the first DJ to play "Pub With No Beer" in 1957). This was Bob Rogers' second time at the station, having been one of the original Good Guys in 1963-64.
Bob Rogers' talkback program on 2SM was great listening, and there were a few days in early 1976 when I was glad to be sick at home from school so that I could listen to Rogers followed by Bob Maumill and George Moore in the noon-3pm shift. But mornings on 2SM really made their mark when Bob Rogers departed, Mike Gibson arrived, and the Gibson and Moore show began midway through 1976.

Gordon O'Byrne (aka Googy O'Byrne, aka Gordon-I'm-a-personal-friend-of-ABBA-O'Byrne) hosted the early afternoon shift doing requests from noon-3pm from 1976 for three years. He was jovial, a good interviewer (especially when it came to ABBA) and just a real nice guy. When he left 2SM as part of the mass exodus in 1979, it was quite a loss. Googy went over to 2UW for a while, and ended up on radio in Perth which is actually where he'd originally established himself as a jock. Hear one of Googy's ABBA promos here.

And then there was Ron E Sparx, who did the afternoon drive shift, initially from 3pm-6pm, and later from 3pm-7pm. Sparxy was and still is a total legend, one of the most dedicated and professional rock music jocks in Australia ever. And he didn't even need those King of Pop Best DJ awards to prove it!! He did some terrific interviews, my favourite being a lengthy special called "The Saga of the Little River Band". I was looking for that special for years, after my tape collection had been stolen in the mid-1980s. Thanks to Screensound I now have a new copy of it on CD. Hooray! Here's a promo for that LRB special just to jog your memory (although it's not Sparxy doing the promo).

Sparxy became a hero to me initially when I wrote a silly letter to him in 1976 asserting my musical tastes and he wrote back without being in the least bit patronising. I still have the letter and you can read it by clicking on the envelope on the left.

Alan Steele. Ahhh... he was a spunk, wasn't he? Alan's star shone brightly for two years from 1976 to 1978. He was only 18 when he started on 2SM, his nervousness evident in the constant laughter that permeated his announcing. Such a spunk. Alan hosted the 6pm-9pm shift, and many a night I sat in my bedroom hanging on his every word.
Fortunately I didn't have to content myself with his voice only. Alan was an excellent self-promoter and managed to turn up on television quite regularly, even hosting Sound Unlimited once or twice in Donnie Sutherland's absence. At the age of 19 he was jetting off to America to interview top rock stars. And of course it was Alan who went to Sydney Airport to do the first interview with Sherbet when they returned from their first overseas trip in December 1976. And posed for photos with them, of course.
Photos by Bob King

So many spunks... Alan Steele throws the hard questions at Sherbet's Alan Sandow and Tony Mitchell

I went into the 2SM studios in the old Clarence Street building in January 1977 with the sole intention of meeting Alan Steele. I awkwardly tried to flirt while he played with a rubber band, trying to look cool. He put three kisses at the bottom of the autograph he signed for me (yes, I still have it) so he cannot have thought me too much of a dag. Alan was the hottest DJ in Sydney in 1977. But the point was missed by no-one when Skyhooks lead singer Shirley Strachan dedicated "Ego is not a Dirty Word" to Alan in front of 80,000 people at the Summer Magic free concert in February 1978.

In May or June of 1978 Alan took on a second job, becoming the host of Channel Ten's afternoon TV pop music show Right On, taking over from Kobe Steele (no relation, but they were apparently flatmates). Alan was very groovy — even when he had his hair permed, embarrassingly making reference to it on camera one day. I preferred his hair straight. Sadly, the strain of two high profile gigs must have been too much for him. One night in June 1978 Alan seemed to fall asleep on air. I was listening. The song finished and then there was just dead air. For about 20 minutes. The music eventually came back on, but soon after Alan disappeared from 2SM. Barry Chapman sacked him, and word is Alan might not have actually been sleeping, but playing Space Invaders in the jocks' playroom. Regardless, Alan was undeterred and continued with Right On for a couple of months until the show was finally axed. And then he was gone, vanishing into obscurity for some time. But happily he's resurfaced and nowadays you can hear his voice all over the place as he is one of the advertising industry's top voice over guys. Check out some interesting sound grabs here. But for those of you steadfastly stuck in the past, who want to remember Alan as he was, there can never be enough pictures, so here's a last longing look at him before we move on.

After Alan Steele's departure, Sparxy took on an extra hour in the afternoons, and Grahame "Durry" Rodgers stepped into the new 7pm-10pm shift. I thought Durry was urbane and quite handsome. He'd been floating around doing late nights and weekends for a while, and I'd met him when I paid my first visit to the new 2SM glass tower in February 1978 one day after school. Durry and I sat on the studio carpet and he shared a beer with me. I was in my school uniform but it didn't seem to worry him, so it didn't worry me, either.
Durry was an Eastern Suburbs Rugby League supporter, which I could forgive him for, because he seemed to have quite good taste in music. Someone must have been trying to stir him, then, when he was allocated this interview in 1978.
Googy and Durry
Grahame had the nickname of "Durry" probably because he was fond of the odd cigarette. I guess he was a real hard rock 'n' rollin' DJ. I still thought he was urbane and handsome. I'd sit in my bedroom doing my homework in the evening hanging on his every word. I was completely devastated when he suddenly left 2SM in April 1979, and called Ron E Sparx immediately. "Where's Durry???" I wailed. "He's in Newcastle on 2NX," Sparxy replied.

Fortunately Newcastle is close enough to Sydney that I could pick up the 2NX frequency on my little transistor radio, and was able to keep listening to him in the evenings, as he was doing the same shift. I called him several times while he was on air and he invited me to visit the 2NX studio if I was ever in Newcastle. At the end of 1979 I was, so I did. I think by then the hard rockin' life combined with the Newcastle air had done something to him because he didn't seem so urbane any more. Or maybe I was just getting older... At any rate, I still have a soft spot for him, and wonder where he is today. So Durry, if you're out there, know that you are still remembered fondly.

As for the other guys in the caricature with Durry, above, they were all first-class jocks doing their stuff on various evening and weekend shifts in the late '70s. Peter Grace migrated north from sister station 3XY in Melbourne some time in late 1977 or early 1978 and followed Durry in the 10pm-1am shift. John Carroll is most memorable to me because he was a Chicago fan, and earned my enduring admiration for that alone. He equipped himself quite well in interviews with Chicago members, and wore his red and white Chicago t-shirt proudly. Go John! These days he can be found at MusicMax where he is Music Director, and manages to dig up and air old Chicago videos occasionally. Trevor Sinclair was a smooth young guy who rose to more prominence in late '78/early '79 when most of the other 2SM jocks were running away. Trev himself was gone by the end of 1979, but like many of the other SM guys, he ended up on FM radio not long after. Most recently he was on MIX 106.5, and he now does inflight radio programs for Qantas and runs the Travel Voice Magazine. If you go to his website you can see a very nice current photo, too.

Some of the other DJs on 2SM whom I listened to, met and enjoyed were the affable Mal Hedstrom, the really nice and really tall (six-foot seven-inches) Mark Smith, and the perennial Mike Drayson, who had been with 2SM in the early '70s and returned to replace Ron E Sparx on drive in 1979. Another jock who came, left and then came back was Keith Williams. That's him looking jubilant on the right. The story was that he had been sacked from the station for some reason but then they "kissed and made up." Keith made a big impact in 1979 but left in October that year for the strangely alluring 2NX. Of course he was back in Sydney and riding the FM airwaves through the 1980s and 1990s. He was the top-rating drive announcer in Sydney on 2DAY FM, a station he'd stayed at for 13 years, when he decided to bow out in October 2000 and move to broadcast software company RCS Australia.

In a class of his own — hopefully not economy class, considering how much he travelled — was David White. Whitey was the guru. Whitey was slick. Suave. Deep. When he wasn't producing world class "rockumentaries," he was delving into the mysteries of the prophet Nostradamus, in what I believe was one of the earliest radio specials on the often terrifying forecasts of the doomsdayer. Whitey was a Manly-Warringah football supporter, too, so I thought we were even possibly soul mates.

My favourite David White rockumentary was "The Chicago Years," first broadcast over two mornings in late 1977 and repeated again in January 1978 after Terry Kath (the band's guitarist) died. This was the documentary to end all documentaries. Whitey was a champion. I taped the special, all three hours, and treasured those tapes like precious jewels. Alas, I should have made copies. In 1985 my tape collection was stolen, and "The Chicago Years" (and the Ron E Sparx "Saga of the Little River Band" special) along with it. I was broken-hearted. I called 2SM — by then staffed by strange people who had no understanding or empathy for my cause — and they refused to even look for the original masters, let alone make copies for me. Cut to 1991, when I was living in London, about to fly home to Sydney for a three-week visit. Inspired by a recent trip to LA, where I saw three Chicago concerts in a row, I wrote to David White, by this time News Director on Triple M, and explained how badly I missed the Chicago rockumentary and asking whether he might perhaps still have the tapes. Shortly after my arrival back in Sydney the phone rang, and it was David White. The next day he drove his car into my parents' driveway and presented me with my very own new copies of "The Chicago Years." We sat in the garden, sipped iced water, talked about music, and I felt I was in the presence of a true radio legend. Big files ! Here's the original 1977 Chicago Years promo. And here's a 1978 Chicago Years promo in tribute to Terry Kath.

Whitey stuck around at 2SM after most of his contemporaries had ankled, taking over as program director in the early 1980s, and then eventually moved over to Triple M, where so many of the 2SM jocks worked in the 1980s. He made various forays into television as well, always looking debonair. These days he's at 2DAY FM but I don't hold that against him.

Last but not least was Barry Chapman, who curiously avoided having his caricature done for the 1978 2SM Top 100 poster from which the drawings on this page are taken. Barry was the Program Director for 2SM during its heyday in the 1970s, devised many of the revolutionary promotions and free concerts, and basically had the Midas touch.
	Originally a DJ like everyone else, he still did the occasional on air slot while he was PD, but most of his genius was effected behind the scenes, taking over from where the other 2SM mastermind, Rod Muir, had left off. But in 1980 Barry left 2SM suddenly as the programming took a different direction, and hopped over to Triple M, where Rod Muir had already taken up residence, repeating his success on an FM scale. After Triple M Barry moved to the ABC and ran youth network Triple J, taking it to unprecedented heights, before joining cable music television with Channel V and MusicMax. He has now temporarily retired and is playing the golf courses of the UK until further notice.
I only met Barry Chapman for the first time in October 2000 at a music industry conference in Sydney, when I first started working with APRA. I told him he was my hero, that his work at 2SM alone, without any of the other remarkable feats he had managed, rated him as my number one radio person of all time. Having seen him around regularly since, always reminding him of my love for the 2SM of his era, I think he thinks I am just a crazy stuck-in-the-'70s 2SM obsessive nutcase. Who am I to argue? In actual fact, Barry is quite chuffed about this page, and we recently sat down to a long conversation about the old days. The Chapman Chat — his personal recollections of the glory (and sometimes gory) days at 2SM, delivered in Barry's frank and unabashed style — is now available for your reading pleasure. Just remember, the words transcribed are his, not mine!!

It needs pointing out that during this period 2SM's commitment to news and current affairs was unstinting. Despite its focus on music and mayhem, the station had a news team that delivered serious news and incisive commentary unparalleled on music radio. Long before he was the cool calm collected host of Channel Nine's Today Show, Steve Liebmann was heading a great news outfit. Ian MacRae's breakfast craziness was punctuated by the Liebmann-White report, with the late Brian White's intelligent opinions providing much food for thought, even for teenage school girls breathlessly waiting for the next Sherbet song to come on air.

Steve Blanda was the ever-reliable roving reporter and floating news reader, and John Tingle was also an integral part of the crew. I don't recall him talking about guns in those days.

The great Frank Hyde called the Rugby League every weekend, famous for his catch cry "It's long enough, it's high enough, and it's straight between the posts!" 2SM was always involved in big Grand Final promotions, with free entertainment and Frank's legendary broadcasts. You can hear a promo for one of the Grand Finals in the late '70s here. And the ever dependable Alan Wilkie gave the weather reports. It may surprise Sydney-siders who watched Alan on television for 30-odd years to learn that on radio he was quite audibly animated. He only just retired from Channel Nine at the end of 2001.

There are also some fantastic trade ads that ran in media magazine B&T in the late '70s featuring the cast and crew of 2SM in photos or artist Peter Ledger's impressions. As a school-age listener back then I had no knowledge of these ads, but since putting this page together I have come across them and they are a real hoot! Click on each thumbnail to see wide-screen versions and see if you can put names to all the faces.
Our Recipe, 1977	The 2SM Show, 1978	The Remarkables, 1979

And at a party in June 2003 a few of the old 2SM on-air and off-air folk found themselves together with yours truly. All were very complimentary about this website and we all posed for a photo. Click on the thumbnail for a bigger version.

L-R: Alan Steele, Debbie, Barry Chapman, Jeanette Johnson, Keith Williams, Mandy Maier and Mike Drayson

ROCKwords was a competition that ran at least twice in the 1976-77 period. You cut something out of the newspaper that had a grid with words going across and down. The words were from song titles, and if you heard at least three songs in a row on 2SM then you called in and could win something. The biggest prize was for five in a row — that was something like $500 cash, I think. Four in a row was $100, also a nice chunk of cash back then.
	And if you heard three songs in a row that connected with the words on your ROCKwords grid, then you won a $55 diamond love ring from Diamond Traders. I remember very clearly the day I went into the Diamond Traders city store at 15 Park Street in Sydney with my voucher from 2SM to select my diamond ring. You can imagine how large the diamond was for the princely sum of $55!! Even in 1977 that didn't get you a lot of diamond!!
Check out a ROCKwords promo and relive the wild rush for cash and diamonds.

Of course every summer was big for radio promotions. Kids had school holidays so there had to be lots to keep them tuned into 2SM while they were on the beach, making sure advertisers and sponsors like Coke, Stud Cola and Moove Flavoured Milk reaped the benefits of their hefty spends. In the Summer of 1976 the "127 Days of Summer" theme gave the impression that summer went on and on. In 1977 2SM was "Takin' it to the Streets." The jingles flowed thick and fast, providing a sountrack to my life. You can hear a couple of them right here: 127 Days of Summer Takin' it to the Streets

Once back at school, some lucky kids even got to cover their exercise books in groovy 2SM denim.

As usual, the station was keeping the other media and the advertising industry appraised of all their goings on with trade ads in B&T. Here's one where they congratulate themselves on the promotions in early 1977. Just click on the thumbnail to the left.

In 1977 to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the release of Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock," 2SM and its sister stations, 3XY in Melbourne and 4IP in Brisbane, put out a re-make of the song with a host of stars doing the vocals.

Glenn Shorrock, Shirley Strachan, John Paul Young, Daryl Braithwaite, Renee Geyer and Frankie J Holden rocked around the clock and I still have my copy in mint condition. At the end of 1977 2SM held its Christmas Wish promotion. The winner was a girl whose wish was that Sherbet - who had moved to America for a year or more to really try and make it there - could come home for a concert. The result of that was what I still refer to as Victoria Park Heatwave in January 1978, which I will come to later.

1978 was a huge year for 2SM, its most successful in the ratings, most certainly due to the non-stop promotional activity of the station. It was also the year that the biggest-ever musical film was released. Starring our very own Olivia Newton-John, Grease was to become an enduring worldwide phenomenon, and when Livvy came to Sydney for the Australian premiere at the Paramount Theatre on 3 August 1978, 2SM had secured the rights to the premiere party. Tickets to the Grease Ball at Paddington Town Hall were the hottest item in Sydney. Alas, I didn't win any tickets, but my memory of the event is so strong I may as well have been there!	Harvey and Tony from Sherbet greasing it up at the ball
Have a listen to one of the promos for the Grease Ball.
Sparxy looking spiffy at the ball Livvy looking so lovely at the ball. Macca and the Hon Nick doing their thing at the ball

When the Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Band film opened in Australia, 2SM did it all again. Peter Frampton was in Sydney (he was touring Australia with Sherbet as his opening act), so he was the special guest at the premiere and the Magical Mystery Tour party that followed. Winners of tickets to the premiere and party on 17 November 1978 didn't know where they were going to end up; they were transported by bus from the theatre after the film. It turned out the party was a disco at Channel Ten. I didn't get to that, either, but I hope it was more successful than the film. Here's a Sgt Peppers promo, anyway.

There were many entertaining Rocktober promos played through the most fun-filled month of the year. Click right to hear one of them.
Rocktober was 2SM's biggest promotion each year — a whole month of non-stop competitions, prizes and always a free concert. I deal with the free concerts in a moment, but even aside from that, Rocktober rocked. More than a month of craziness in radio, Rocktober was a state of mind. Some of the major promotions ran each Rocktober for successive years in the late '70s, but here's a list of the major promotions and giveaways in Rocktober 1978: • 2SM pays the Bridge toll • Concert Gold Pass • Trip to Great Keppel Island • Dragon set • Time Freeze • JPY kit • Norman Gunston kit • Rock Attack Pack • Who Are You album pack • $1000 phone call • Trip on the Jumbo under the Bridge And I didn't win any of it. The only thing I won from 2SM in 1978 was a copy of Steely Dan's Greatest Hits. But I wasn't complaining.
At the end of 1978 2SM produced a poster featuring the Top 100 of the year. It was a strange list because it combined singles and albums, and I never quite worked out why.
	It didn't really matter, because the best part of the poster was the caricatures of all the DJs and the general impression the drawings gave of a happy fun-filled sunshiney chook-crazy place. If you click on the poster image you can see an even bigger version.

And if you click here you can hear the promo for the 1978 Top 100. My 2SM Top 100 '78 poster is framed in glass and hanging on my office wall. I wonder how many other people still have theirs. Probably not as many as still have their copies of Bat Out of Hell and Saturday Night Fever. Ahhh... 1978. It was a very good year.

Free rock concerts were already a part of the 2SM way of life before I became a full-time devotee of the station. On 26 May 1974 on the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House - possibly the first rock concert staged on that hallowed ground - AC/DC supported Stevie Wright at a 2SM freebie. In September 1975 AC/DC headed a free gig at Victoria Park supported by Stevie Wright and Ross Ryan. And in late 1975 the Ted Mulry Gang and John Paul Young & the Allstars performed the famous gig on the floating stage on the harbour beside North Sydney Pool. That was the gig when the girls jumped in the water and swum to the stage to embrace Ted, only to be tossed back into the harbour by burly roadies (immortalised in the "Jump in my Car" clip). I believe it might also have been one of the first public sightings of JPY in his sailor suit. At any rate, I wasn't there. My first 2SM free concert was on Sunday 13 February 1977 at Victoria Park.
Other than the Opera House, Victoria Park was the main venue for many of 2SM's free gigs. On this occasion the lineup was Sherbet, Dragon - only recently transplanted from New Zealand but already kicking butt - and Air Supply. There were some 40,000 people there, including me, my date Colin, my school friend Alison, and some other school friends who amused themselves by setting fire to an unsuspecting girl's hair.
At the Royal Easter Show in 1977 2SM presented a free concert on the Friday night starring JPY & the Allstars supported by Billy T. And then, in an extremely clever ploy to win the undying devotion and adoration of school kids, the August/September school holidays of 1977 were filled in with free daytime concerts at Chequers nightclub in Goulburn Street, starring acts both famous and up-and-coming. You needed a ticket to get in but they were easy to get, and because of the intimate layout of the venue, it was easy to meet the rock stars and hang out with the jocks. A 2SM junkie's dream!

Sponsored by Cheezels, the 2SM Mighty Rock concerts at Chequers live in my memory to this day. Dragon, TMG, Ol' 55, Windchase, Finch, Jeff St John and Feather shared the stage with Rabbit, Scandal, Supernaut, Mother Goose, Moonlight and Punkz. I have to say I have absolutely no recollection of Punkz, but my friend and guru, Glenn A Baker has reminded me that it was a band he put together and managed in the wake of Ol' 55's success.

Some of the mighty rockers at Chequers. Clockwise from top: Dragon, Feather, Scandal, Mother Goose, Finch, Jeff St John.

The free 2SM Rocktober concert in 1977 was at Victoria Park on October 23, sponsored by Stud Cola (grouse, mate!) and starred Dragon, Stars and The Ferrets.
The Ferrets in action	My friends Emanuel and Mark digging the scene at Victoria Park, Rocktober 1977

As previously noted, 1978 was 2SM's biggest year. The free concerts started with a bang and kept on going. Life was good. The first of the year was the free Victoria Park gig supposedly arranged as part of the Christmas Wish competition that had been won by a pining Sherbet fan who wanted them to come home from overseas. Truth was, Sherbet were homesick and 2SM and 3XY made it worth their while to come back for a couple of big shows.
JPY & The Allstars sweat it out at 2SM's Victoria Park Heatwave	The 2SM gig starring Sherbet, John Paul Young & the Allstars, Cold Chisel and U-Turn was scheduled for Sunday 8 January 1978. It poured with rain all day. My friend Alison and I were walking through the long underground tunnel from Sydney's Central Station to Victoria Park when we saw streams of kids walking in the opposite direction. The show had been cancelled due to the weather. Sherbet had to extend their stay in Australia so that the show could be rescheduled the following Sunday, and everybody prayed for sunshine.
The gods must have heard 40,000 prayers, because on Sunday 15 January 1978 the mercury hit 44 degrees celcius (that's 116 degrees farenheit, give or take a degree). Luckily Victoria Park is the location of one of Sydney's Olympic-size pools and Alison and I took turns all day to swim while the other guarded our spot in close proximity to the stage. The heat never subsided, even after dark, so we all screamed in delight at Sherbet as some kindly organisers hosed us down with power hoses from the front of the stage.

Four weeks later, 2SM staged what was possibly my favourite of all their free concerts. The "Summer Magic" gig was held on the Opera House forecourt on Sunday 12 February 1978 starring Little River Band, Skyhooks, Stars and Finch. Stars were riding high at the time, playing at several 2SM free gigs, and in view of the fact that guitarist Andy Durant wasn't around much longer, I'm glad I got to see all those performances.

Stars at the Opera House

Little River Band making magic

The best thing about "Summer Magic," though — other than Shirley Strachan's aforementioned dedication to Alan Steele before "Ego is Not a Dirty Word" — was Little River Band. LRB was the best live band in Australia during the 1970s, and this was the best concert I ever saw them do. They also had a special guest, John Hartman of the Doobie Brothers, joining Derek Pellici on drums. There were 80,000 people on a balmy Sydney night, and me with an unrestricted view from atop my friend Peter Dixon's shoulders... It was bliss.

At Easter that year, 2SM held a very laid-back free concert on the Corso at Manly Beach. It was on Monday 27 March and it featured Richard Clapton and Ray Burton. Who? Well, I was having trouble remembering who he was, too, but some research reminded me that he is the guy who co-wrote "I am Woman" with Helen Reddy. I'm pretty sure he didn't sing that song at the Corso Concert that day.

Rocktober 1978 was already a blaze of promotions and craziness... all of Sydney breathless with excitement waiting to see the jumbo go under the Harbour Bridge... and to cap it all off, the Rocktober free concert, again at the Sydney Opera House, was a stunning event. 2SM decided to import a couple of hot bands from overseas. One has gone on to maintain legendary status, the other proved to be a blow-in-the-wind one-hit wonder.
But on Sunday 29 October 1978 when Thin Lizzy and Wha Koo took the stage along with Jon English and Sports in front of 100,000 people, it was an event befitting the greatest month of the greatest year in the life of the greatest ever radio station.
Clockwise from top: Thin Lizzy, Wha Koo and Sports rocking the opera for Rocktober 1978. But in fact Jon English was the hottest act of the day.
Rob and Deb rocking at the Opera	I went along to this one with Robyn, my musical soul mate and frequent concert companion in the late 1970s, and my two best school friends, Peter (on whose reliable shoulders I always had a reservation) and Marcus. We were such a cool bunch, weren't we?
Robyn and Peter Check out Pete's strong wide shoulders	Marcus wearing a famous set of puka shells and me wearing my traditional concert-going black felt hat

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The mood seemed to change a little with the advent of 1979. 2SM still rocked way above any other radio station, but my favourite DJs were drifting away, and the first free concert of the year took a subtle but noticable change in direction. It was Sunday 18 February at Victoria Park, and the line-up was Dragon, The Angels, Split Enz, Kevin Borich and Sports. There were parachutists landing on the stage and amongst the 60,000-strong crowd there seemed to be a lot of safety pins through noses and some scary-looking people.
The Angels, taking the 2SM freebie from pop to punk	Split Enz at Victoria Park. You can't see their faces but you can see their costumes.
The rougher crowd didn't mean we didn't have fun. By this time I was such an old hand at 2SM free concerts that my friends knew they didn't have to get there until the last moment. I'd be there early in the day with Robyn to grab our space, and Marcus, Peter and anyone else who wanted to join us would get there before show time, make a bee-line for the front centre of the stage, and then walk in a direct line into the crowd. Just far enough back for a good view and good sound they would find yours truly.	Deb and Marcus and matching puka shells groovin' to the moovin'... and the Cinzano
Now check out this clip and see if you can find me in the crowd!

1979 was a busy year for me as I was doing my HSC (final year high school leaving certificate) but 2SM concerts seemed to alleviate some of the stress. Two smaller-scale freebies held at the Hordern Pavilion that winter were good fun. Tickets were given away for free through fairly easy-to-win phone-ins. On Saturday 28 July 1979 the English History concert (apt seeing as I was had just finished my HSC Trial Exams) was held starring Jon English, Air Supply and Gillian Eastoe with King Dog. Jon English was having great success with his double album greatest hits set, English History, and the back of the stage was draped with a huge Union Jack. Don't know that he'd get away with it in today's republic-focused patriotic times, but it seemed okay then. It was also the time when The Knack were sweeping across the world with their huge hit "My Sharona," and 2SM got them to Sydney for a free show, again at the Hordern Pavilion, on Sunday 19 August 1979. Sydney-siders might be amused by this entry from The Knack's tour diary (which seems to have its dates mixed up): August 22, 1979 Sydney, Australia We checked into the Seaville Townhouse, which is the hotel in Queens Cross where all the rock groups stay. We were amazed to read the welcome sign on front of the building, The Seaville Townhouse welcomes Jim Nabors and The Knack. It was like we were being billed as his backup band! We met him and hes a nice guy. When we run into him, all of us go Shazam! or Gaaawleee!

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Rocktober 1979 ended on Sunday 4 November with the Concert of the Decade. This was I believe the most momentous concert that has ever been staged in Australia. Ever. It was Barry Chapman's concept, to bring together all of the Australian artists from the 1970s who had had major hits, on one bill, on two stages, in one day. Apparently everyone told him he was mad, that it couldn't be done. But Barry didn't become my hero for nothing. He pulled it off, and brilliantly, as 180,000 people could attest. This was also stress relief at its most potent, scheduled as it was smack bang in the middle of my HSC exams.

The fact that I did not do so well in my General Studies exam the next day could possibly have been due to the fact that my mind was still on the steps of the Opera House forecourt.

The scene at 6.30am

Settling in for a long day's waiting... Oh well, we'd been waiting a whole decade for this concert!

Even though a few of the major Australian acts of 1970s were unavailable, including Little River Band and AC/DC, this was a line-up that no Big Day Out has yet equalled: • Radiators • Mental as Anything • Misex • Cheetah • Colleen Hewett • Captain Matchbox • Russell Morris • Jim Keays • The Mixtures • Dragon • Ted Mulry Gang • Doug Parkinson • Mike Rudd • Hush • Bob Hudson • Ol' 55 • Max Merritt • Stars • Neale Johns • Stevie Wright • Norman Gunston • Kevin Borich • Richard Clapton • Aunty Jack Team • Jo Jo Zep & the • Falcons • Marc Hunter • John Paul Young • Marcia Hines • Split Enz • Skyhooks • Jon English • Sherbet

There were many many highlights of the day... having Marc Hunter back on stage with Dragon (he'd left the band at that stage)... Hearing Mike Rudd sing "I'll Be Gone" in one of the more poignant performances... Neil Johns' amazing delivery of his Blackfeather hit "Seasons of Change"... Stevie Wright's most memorable performance of "Evie Pts 1, 2 and 3," immortalised on film and shown regularly these days on MusicMax... and the last major performance of Sherbet, who quickly and sadly fizzled out after that, before resurfacing a year or so later as The Sherbs. The finale was an all-star salute to Johnny O'Keefe with"Shout" and "Move it Baby, Move it." As Moove Flavoured Milk was the sponsor of the gig, it was the least all those rock stars could do to thank them.

Pretty good snaps for a little 110mm camera, hey?

"There will have to be a TV special made of this!" declared Barry Chapman at the end of the concert. "Now let's get the hell out of here!!" He, the 2SM jocks and all the stars of the concert cruised around the harbour on a boat and partied into the wee small hours.
The rest of us picked ourselves up, and went back to our lives, our HSC exams, whatever. The TV special must have gone to air, because I have a promo to prove it.
But I must have been overseas because I never saw it on TV, one of my life's biggest regrets. Happily, after years of asking around about it, a kind visitor to this website sent me some precious footage which I will now treasure forever. It is quite something to re-live some of the best moments of one of the best days of music that ever was. Click through to my Concert of the Decade page to see images from the special. They're better than those snapshots from my 110mm camera! You can click on the image strip below to go through to some awesome visual memories. And at least in the intervening 29 years I was able to re-live some of the better moments of the concert on The Concert of the Decade album for posterity.

I always look back at the Concert of the Decade not only as one of the most amazing days in my life of music, and not just as a celebration of the most wonderful decade that ever was, but as something that signalled the end of an era. 2SM never rode so high again as it did in the early summer of 1979.

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The late 1970s saw 2SM flying high on the airwaves, in the ratings, and in the clouds — having moved into the beautiful glass tower on Blues Point Road in North Sydney which I so loved to visit after school on many a day, and admire from a distance as I drove over the Harbour Bridge.
It's worth pausing to reflect on just what a statement that glass tower was, its neon "2SM" sign beaming across Sydney Harbour. Back in the late 1970s, that seven-story structure was a sign of opulence and success that no other radio station in Australia had been audacious enough to flaunt. When the station moved into the "palatial palace" a groovy promo was devised to celebrate. Click here to hear all about it.
But by 1980 things had changed, and continued to change. I'd graduated from high school and started travelling overseas. By the time I got back to Sydney in late 1980 the radio scenario was quite different. Two new FM stations had joined the fray — 2MMM FM and 2DAY FM — and many of the top DJs who had left 2SM already started turning up on the FM airwaves. I resolutely ignored the new FM stations for as long as possible. Particularly as 2SM put in a fine effort in 1981, due largely to Ian MacRae and the Hon Nick and their Royal Wedding hijinx. I have to admit that by the time I was ensconsed at the University of NSW in 1982, I found myself dabbling in a bit of 2DAY FM, mainly because one if its announcers (I can't really think of him as a DJ), Tim Webster, was a huge Eagles fan and constantly played and talked about "the boys." I was still a 2SM girl at heart, and hung on tenaciously. But then Ian MacRae left at the end of April 1982 and the only ones left were David White and George Moore. I wrote a long letter to George, sharing in great detail my history of 2SM-aholicism, my experiences and memories, and told him that if he were to leave the station then I would have to give it up, too. He later confessed my letter had struck such a chord that he had been carrying it around in his suitcase for months. Nevertheless, in April 1983 George Moore left 2SM and almost immediately started on air at 2DAY FM. Sadly, reluctantly, I went with him.

After the demise of 2SM as I knew and loved it, the Hon Nick Jones wrote an article for the Sydney Morning Herald Guide which I have hung on to all these years because it said it all. If you don't mind the yellowed paper, click the image at right to read it. (You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Through the 1980s and 1990s 2SM underwent many transformations — talk back, country music, you name it. There was a period in the mid-'80s when 2SM experienced new glory with the "Rock of the '80s," (which then Program Director Ian Grace pointed out to me in an email you can read on the Feedback page), but by then I was long gone. In 1996 Rod Muir took over management and programming of 2SM with the intention of reviving the 2SM of the 1970s, denim logo and all. At that time rock historian Glenn A Baker wrote a media release with a decent history of the station that beautifully encapsulates all I have related here and more. There was a lot of goodwill for 2SM's revival, but it didn't work. FM radio was too entrenched, and times had changed. Muir offloaded 2SM and moved on again. Today 2SM languishes at the very bottom of the Sydney radio ratings. I'd like thank Wayne Mac, that walking encyclopaedia of Australian radio history, for finding my 2SM page and loving it enough to offer help and advice. The page is getting better all the time; you never know when something new will appear so keep checking in. If you have any memories or artifacts from the glory days of 2SM I'd love to hear from you, so drop me a line.

Because I have been receiving so much wonderful feedback, I now have a 2SM Feedback page. Check out what visitors to my 2SM page have had to say.

If you remember the '70s, remember 1270. (Hear the promo.)

And don't forget... (Yep, you can hear this promo, too. Click the logo.)

Even better - check out this fantastic clip!

This 2SM online shrine became just a bit more famous in March 2004 when I was interviewed for The Guide. Click here to see a copy of the article.

The excellent Milesago website has a detailed page on 2SM here. It borrows extensively from my glorious page but also provides some good historical information about the station before and after the period I celebrate. For a less detailed but also enjoyable rundown of other radio and music television that has inspired me through my life, check out my Australian Music and Media page. Then you can find out about my own humble on-air efforts on my BAY-FM page.

If you want to connect with other former 2SM junkies, head on over to the 1270 2SM group on Facebook.

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