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Believe it or not, there WAS life before SWRFM. Here, we present a grab bag of files illustrating audio life before SWR was even a dream in the founders’ eyes – mostly sourced from audio cassettes.
To begin with, we’re going to take you WAAAY back to.. 1979!
During the school holidays one balmy Summer in his bedroom in North St Marys, a 14 year old Paul Matthews has set up a few cassette decks, a microphone and a small mixer on his desk. The older host is his brother Keith. The results were almost certainly embarassing yes.. but there’s no doubt that this recording represents the very earliest “radio broadcast” and set the stage for bigger things to come.
The Madness Begins. And remember.. you’re listening to content from an AUDIO CASSETTE that was originally recorded in 1979 (suffering more than a little print through) and surviving 25 years and transcribed in 2004
There are a number of unique audio grabs on this recording originally sourced from AM commercial radio of the day, including Kenny Everett’s “Captain Kremine” radio series and a complete 2UW Radio jingle.
The “History of SWRFM” document reveals that SWRFM had it’s origins with Enayat Khan and Paul Matthews’ involvement with 2VTR (Hawkesbury Radio) in the early 1980s. In particular, the program on SWR known as “Inphase” (which still airs weekly on SWRFM today) originally came about as a program presented on 2VTR during 1987 and 1988.
Here we present three undated, original program logs of “Inphase” as presented on 2VTR:
Inphase concluded at 2VTR in late 1998.. however Paul & Enayat wouldn’t stop there. The seed had been sewn and there was just too much good music to play. So at a power of 200 microwatts on 99.6MHz, the odd Saturday night would be spent at Paul’s place “presenting” inphase shows that were never heard outside the suburb.
So let’s tune in and listen now to those lost programs…
The creation and happenings around the WOW FM test of March 1991 are of course well known and mentioned in the “History of SWRFM” document.
Audio recordings of the WOW first test are few and far between. But here we’ve found two short excerpts, both outlining the three way outside broadcast established between Penrith and St Marys, the latter using an early form of crossbar link.
Virtually everyone you hear in these excerpts ended up at SWRFM:
The “History of SWRFM” document of course spills the dirt on how WOW FM effectively split to create SWRFM. It also split again a year later and created another aspirant known as AIR FM. Any enemy of WOW was an instant friend of SWR, so it wasn’t unusual for broadcasters to cross pollinate between test broadcasts presented. Inphase was no exception.. so here’s evidence that yes, once upon a time, “Inphase” was heard on AIR FM Penrith!