The Vault
BY Staff Writer June 16, 2016
The Vault June 21, 2012
The Vault: 2WL Wollongong
From 'The Vault' comes this story from Wollongong in 1980; the full story, or at least the details that are known, can be seen here.
2WL, now known as Wave FM, was an iconic radio brand in the Illawarra in the 70s and 80s in particular. For anyone who lived in Wollongong at that time, the logo at right was a sticker on back of cars all over the market.
In November 1980, 2WL went off the air briefly. The reason given was a 'slight technical hitch', which was certainly glossing over what had actually occurred.
That day, a tornado had hit the city near Port Kembla, lifted one of the transmitters off its base and smashed it into the ground. Never a good day at a radio station when that happens.
See the photos below, and if you can shed any further light on what happened, let GD know here.
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I remember back in the 80’s anxiously sitting by the radio waiting for my favourite songs to come on & hitting the record button to make cassettes of all my favourite songs. I loved the hourly giveaways every weekend & was totally addicted to winning every weekend. To increase my chances when there were less people listening I would set my alarm for 1am Friday or Saturday nights & listen for the que to call the radio station to win prizes. I won records almost every weekend, plus movie & concert tickets on POSITION 13 2WL AM RADIO (Now 96.5 WAVE FM). I actually won 13 hundred dollars from the station when I was 13 years old‼️ I was in Year 8 at Oak Flats High School in 1981. The competition was called “Triple Tracks” & they had to always play 3 songs in a row without the announcer talking or playing any ads. I was actually having a bath whilst listening to the radio & they only played 2 songs & then the announcer started talking. I jumped out of the bath wrapping my towel around me as I ran to the old dial home phone & was the first caller through! I couldn’t believe it! That was a lot of money back then in 1981, especially for a 13 year old kid. I had my name printed as a winner on a whole page in the Illawarra Mercury which I still have, but they spelt my name wrong!! & I still have a cassette recording of my voice ringing up & being told I won the $1,300 – however I have nothing to play it on to listen to it. I won so many prizes the station actually BANNED me from entering any more competitions‼️ So I used to ring up & use various relatives names to claim the prizes. I had the hugest record collection. One night while holidaying in Port Macquarie my dad managed to pick up the radio waves from all that distance & when I rang up & won the announcer could barely believe that I was in fact calling from so far away. NOW IT’S “SPOTIFY”‼️ & I’M IN THE TOP 1% OF LISTENERS‼️ My dad was an absolute radio & TV fan, who had a massive collection of 2WL Radio memorabilia, everything from every sticker they made to every newspaper article & ads about the radio station. When he passed away on 1.1.11, the family gave everything in his collection to WAVE FM who were very grateful to receive such historical memorabilia. They gave us many gifts in return, such as free movie & concert tickets. Glad to have been able to share that history with them as 2WL & WAVE FM was always our favourite radio station & still is today.