Australia Day done differently: A look back at Skyshow

38 years ago today – for the first time – Perth ‘didn’t look down.’

That was the instruction from 96FM’s Fred Botica to the tens of thousands of revellers who turned out with their torches and FM radios that night: Keep your eyes on the sky.

The way we mark Australia Day has changed over the years, and no more so than in the West

Radio Today has been looking back at the phenomenon known as Skyshow, where fireworks are synchronised to music, providing radio listeners with a powerful interactive experience.

It’s remembered nationally as one of the most spectacular radio promotions of the 1980s, with roots firmly planted in Perth.

Skyshow has been an institution in Perth since 1985, but former 96FM Managing Director Gary Roberts told Radio Today that prior to that, the local Australia Day celebrations were rather more sedate.

In an interview with Pip Doyle, Roberts noted it was something of an embarrassment from a national point of view:

“If they were lucky, they got about 3000 people and they’d drag out some tired old acts.”

A baseball game in California – where Roberts got a taste of America’s July 4 celebrations – would prove a game changer.

“A good mate of mine was the program director of (radio station) KGB in San Diego and he told me what they were doing on July 4.”

Roberts flew over to see how the concept worked, though he had to sit through a baseball game first.

“At the end of it, the fireworks would go off and they had a tailor-made soundtrack for it.”

Roberts recalls it was quite a windy night. Fallout from the fireworks blew over the nearby carpark and the vehicles in it had to be repainted.

But the show was an eye opener, to say the least.

At that time, no such concept existed in Australia.

Convinced it could work in Perth, Roberts set about tracking down a pyrotechnic crew and organising a similar show to the one he’d seen, but this time on a river, instead of in a stadium.

The concept ticked all the boxes for radio, according to Gary Suprain, who was Program Director at Melbourne’s 3XY when the station took on Skyshow as a major promotion, running five events over five consecutive years.

He tells Radio Today “It was probably the biggest radio promotion at that time, I would say, in Melbourne.”

Suprain says the technical side of Skyshow was surprisingly simple.

“The technology we used was just standard video timecode. We were laying the music down and then there were edit points, and those edit points were in the form of electronic pulses. Those pulses matched certain key points in the music.”

Skyshow took on a life of its own.

“Austereo’s ambition was to run a Skyshow in every city it had a station in,” Suprain remembers.

He recalls sitting in the Melbourne office of then- Austereo boss Paul Thompson, chatting about the Skyshows in Adelaide and Melbourne.

Suprain says Thompson was waiting on a phone call that day, about whether the network’s bid to buy 2Day FM in Sydney had been successful.

“Well, blow me down – ten minutes later the phone call comes. He says ‘We’ve got it! We own 2Day FM!’”

I said “I guess we need to do a Skyshow in Sydney.”

Suprain was promptly instructed to jump on a plane, fly up to Sydney and get it sorted.

“That’s how Sydney New Year’s Eve actually started.”

“A lot of people don’t realise Sydney Harbour never did a fireworks show prior to that.”

But getting Sydney’s Skyshow up and running was not without its challenges.

Suprain delivered a big power point presentation in the Harbour City to all the major stakeholders, and says he was feeling quite chuffed with himself, until a senior police officer declared “This is going to happen over my dead body, mate.”

“He said ‘Do you know how much violence goes down on New Year’s Eve? There’s no way this is going to happen.’”

I said “We’re not thinking of doing it at midnight. We were thinking of a nine o’clock family show.”

“He stopped dead in his tracks and said ‘Oh. Well in that case, we’d support it.’”

Suprain says ironically, the City of Sydney originally rejected the idea.

The Melbourne Skyshow started out at the site that is now the Tennis Centre, but space was tight and the location impractical, prompting organisers to hunt for an alternative venue.

Albert Park Lake turned out to be the obvious choice, but not everyone was happy about the new location.

Suprain recalls it drew the ire of high-profile anti-duck hunting campaigner Laurie Levy, who worried about the impact fireworks might have on the feathered inhabitants of the lake.

“We said ‘Laurie! We are not out to murder the damn ducks!’”

Despite ruffling a few feathers (excuse the pun), the Fox FM Skyshow at Albert Park Lake became an annual extravaganza, coinciding with Australia Day celebrations.

Gary Roberts notes the narration side of Skyshow was very much about telling a story and celebrating either what had been achieved by Australians in the last 12 months or the history of the country and why that was significant. Finding the right music to accompany it was the challenge.

“It’s actually bloody hard to put together, but when it’s done well, it kills.”

When asked by the City of Perth how many people might attend the first Skyshow, Roberts said “About 30,000.”

They got more than they bargained for: 170,000 people turned up.

The 1988 Perth Skyshow – held in Australia’s Bicentennial year- was massive.

“We got half a million people out to see it. It still holds the record.”

On reflection, Roberts says Skyshow achieved what it set out to do.

“You look back on that and go, ‘well, that was a bit significant.’”

“It changed a lot of things and got people to actually be proud about being an Australian.”