2SM
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| City | Sydney, New South Wales |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Sydney |
| Slogan | News, Talk, Sport and Entertainment |
| Frequency | 1269 kHz AM |
| First air date | December 24, 1931 |
| Format | News talk |
| Power | 5kW |
| Transmitter coordinates | 33°50′01″S 151°04′12″E / 33.8336°S 151.0700°ECoordinates: 33°50′01″S 151°04′12″E / 33.8336°S 151.0700°E |
| Callsign meaning | St Marks Church |
| Former frequencies | 1270 KHz AM (1931–1978) |
| Owner |
Broadcast Operations Group (Radio 2SM Pty Ltd) |
| Sister stations | Dance Super Digi Fun Super Digi Gorilla Radio Zoo Digital |
| Website | 2sm |
2SM is an Australian radio station, licensed to and serving Sydney, broadcasting on 1269 kilohertz on the AM band. It is owned and operated by Broadcast Operations Group. The SM call sign is taken from the initials of St Mark's, Drummoyne; a church built by James Meany.
2SM's programs are heard across the 2SM Super Radio Network in regional New South Wales and Queensland, consisting of 32 AM and FM stations.
In 1975 2SM introduced its famous denim zipper logo, although the logo is inextricably linked with 2SM, according to radio historian Wayne Mac it was actually created for Brisbane pop station 4IP by a company called Eagle Marketing and was subsequently picked up by other stations including 2SM, 3XY and 2NX.
James Meany a parish priest at St Mark's Drummoyne; raised the finances to allow Archbishop Michael Kelly to form the Catholic Broadcasting Co. Ltd, which obtained a licence for radio 2SM in 1931. The station was opened by Archbishop Michael Kelly on 24 December 1931, and was owned by the Roman Catholic Church. Religious programming was, for most part, not its focus but not surprisingly, for most of its life 2SM followed a conservative line in its programming and was promoted as "The Family Station".
In 1958 2SM moved to premises at 257 Clarence St, Sydney but for the next five years it maintained its conservative family-oriented style. At the time, the station was run by General Manager Bill Stephenson, who started his radio career at 2UE in the '40s before moving to 2SM in the 50s; he later received an OBE for services to broadcasting. In September 1963 Stephenson oversaw a radical overhaul of 2SM's format when the station finally commenced 24-hour service. In those days it was still common for radio and TV stations to close in the late evening and, as many readers will recall, this practice persisted in commercial television well into the Seventies. 2SM was relaunched as a Top 40 station, featuring with Australia's first team of disc jockeys, dubbed "The Good Guys"—a US radio inspired format subsequently copied by 3AK, 5KA, 6PR and others. This set the trend for years to come, with 2SM relying heavily on adapting of formulaic programming strategies sourced from American commercial radio, which in turn were then picked up by other stations around the country.
Searching for an alternative, in early 1967 2SM became the first station in the country to adopt the new "talkback" technology which enabled presenters for the first time to broadcast phone conversations with members of the public. In November 1968 2SM reverted to an all music format In 1969 2SM aggressively fought to regain the youth audience it had lost to 2UW. During 1970 2SM established itself as one of the most promotionally active and innovative commercial stations. Rod Muir successfully transplanted the American "More Music" format to Sydney, making minor adaptations for the Australian market. With stringent format policies applying to music flow, commercial content, what announcers said and the placement of jingles, 2SM redefined the whole premise of music based radio in Australia. Key to the More Music philosophy was a strictly limited, high rotation play list of around 30 songs and which at peak times reputedly included as few as 15 songs in one three-hour shift. The new format had several significant effects. First and foremost, it brought to an abrupt end the days of the true "personality" DJs, as exemplified by 2UW's Ward "Pally" Austin and 3XY's legendary Stan "The Man" Rofe. The rigid formatting restricted the on-air presentation, replacing it with a highly affected, American-style presented by a largely faceless and interchangeable roster of "rock jocks". But even more significantly, the "More Music" format took programming decisions out of the hands of DJs and put them into the hands of consultants and back room programming executives.
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