Happy 10th Birthday Nova 93.7

It was 3pm on December 5, 2002 when Nova 93.7 in Perth officially launched. 10 years ago today.

Some of the original team included Gary Roberts (Managing Director), Shandra Moran (Promotions & Marketing), Natalie Locke (breakfast), Tim Blackwell (arvos/drive), Daniel Underhill (Creative – now PD), Stephen 'Gus' Lloyd (Chief Engineer), John Dawson (Financial Controller), myself as Music Director and many more fresh faces below…

The build process from an empty shell to a functioning radio station was a once in a lifetime experience for many of us.

These pics show the build nearing completion…

Reception with racks Hallway leading to studio's
On-Air studio and another

After months of building, planning and preparation it all came down to this moment, 3pm December 5…

The Red Hot Chili Peppers were playing in town the night after and were in Perth for a couple of days beforehand, the timing couldn't have been better.

As launch Music Director I remember we made the decision to let the guys choose the music for the first 20 minutes – no rules, whatever they wanted !!!

Someone in the team had spoken with their management to get a list of songs for us to source for the launch. Their manager told us…

"Don't worry about it, Flea can just plug in his iPod"

Our response ?

"His what ?" (iPod's were still relatively new and there was no way we wanted to plug that in and launch the station with it)

So instead, we went out and scoured CD stores all over Perth to find the songs they wanted to play. This is what we played during their time on-air…

 

Can't stop Red Hot Chili Peppers
Cities in the dust Siouxsie and the Banshees
Last Night Syd Barrett
Now I'm here Queen
Californication (live) Red Hot Chili Peppers
One Aimee Mann
Taught Us Quirk
By the way Red Hot Chili Peppers

Speaking of that moment when Nova 93.7 officially launched, which included an F bomb from Flea in the first few minutes (listen below), Tim Blackwell (now Nova network drive host) remembers…

"It was all very nerve racking!

Not only was I told I was going to be the first voice heard on the station, but in the same studio would be television cameras to cover the launch, Dean Buchanan, Lord Rothermere (the big cheese at DMG UK, the man in the suit in the pic below) and then throw in one of the biggest bands in the world – the Red Hot Chili Peppers!

They were running late (of course) and were only supposed to stay for 20 min but ended up hosting the entire hour with me. We played some of their favourite tunes and they called my mum live on air so Flea could ask if I was breastfed!

Then, they thanked us for having them and asked if they could play a song for us live. The only live act planned was Jebediah who had their instruments set up in the next studio… The Chili’s grabbed them did some minor re-tuning and played ‘By The Way’."

This was much to the disgust of some of the Jebs members who thought "who do they think they are ?"

They are the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS !

Hear the launch audio…(it's in mono, apologies for that)

https://radiotoday.com.au/music/NovaLaunch.mp3
or hear it here

Hear what caused Flea to let fly with an F bomb…

https://radiotoday.com.au/music/NovaLaunchSwear.mp3
or hear it here

 

 

The original on-air lineup was:

Breakfast : Damo, Nat and Craig (Damian Clarke, Natalie Locke and Craig Weston)
Mornings : Chris 'Buzzby' Monahan
Arvo's/Drive : Tim Blackwell
Nights : Justine McKell
Weekends : Mason Edwards

Nat (right) has notched up 10 years too. Back in 2002 it was rare to have a female anchor a show, she says the secret to her longevity is "Don't get fired." Good advice Nat 😉

Over the 10 years Nova 93.7 have recalled some of their memorable moments.

  • We’ve dropped and destroyed two cars from a crane
  • Destroyed our original Nova Ambos with dynamite and a monster truck
  • Broadcast live from every corner of Perth in ‘The Bus’
  • Shaun’s challenged (and beaten!) Premier Colin Barnett to tennis, twice, at Wimbletown
  • Nathan broke Cameron Diaz’s world record for lying in a hammock with the most-number of bunnies
  • We’ve partied with Swingers, Bogans, Pimps and Redheads
  • We’ve given away First Class flights around the world
  • And we’ve also taken listeners to Singapore, Bali, Esperance, Kalgoorlie… in Economy
  • Plus, Nathan & Nat even met the Her Majesty the Queen (without Shaun… who wasn’t invited… and hasn’t recovered!)

Congratulations to all involved in 10 years of Nova 93.7. I'm sure Gary will have the champagne flowing freely today. Enjoy !!

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