2GB BJ: Before Jones

With the release of Survey 7 on Tuesday, there’s one thing you can count on: Alan Jones will notch up his 100th consecutive survey win on 2GB.

As everyone knows, 2GB, the once great flagship of the Macquarie network was struggling in the years before Jones and Ray Hadley defected from 2UE 12 years ago.

Back in 1926, at the dawn of radio in Australia and 15 years before Alan Jones was born, 2GB entered the market as a “Theosophical Broadcasting Station.” It was 30 years before the advent of television which meant the broadcasting day was upside down. 

Nights, 6 pm – 11:30 pm was the most important time-slot, breakfast the least important and least expensive. Mid dawns didn’t exist. 24/7 broadcasting was still some time off.

By 1937, with a positioning statement “You’re never alone with radio in the home,” advertising sales were booming with the base rate for a one hundred word commercial (35 seconds or so) in prime time was set at 3 pounds, 7 shillings and 6 pence. Translated to dollars and cents: $6.35. Add another pound for preferred placement.

For more on the history of 2GB and hundreds of other Australian, NZ and international stations go to www.radioheritage.net

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