River 949 Ipswitch celebrates its 25th birthday today.
The station first went to air on the 25th Feb 1990, with Guy Dobson on air and 4BC presenter Walter Williams.
Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale spoke to Marnie and Aaron this morning about the role the station has played in reporting on the community…and how the media has changed in the city.
“It’s good to have newspapers but in those days it was not so much about social media — it was just more out there to have something where there is a natural disaster so people could listen – like myself and everyone else – to stay tuned to our radio station,” he said.
To mark the station’s 20th anniversary, Geoff Harrison, who was in his first job in Ipswich when the station began, contributed these comments to radioinfo:
“The launch of 106.9 QFM (4QFM) by the Ipswich & West Moreton Broadcasting Corporation 20 years ago was a completely separate entity to 4IP… the station formerly known as 4IP is now 4TAB.
“My old friend Paul Tully may have climbed the 4IP tower to protest against it moving to Brisbane in the early 70’s but again nothing to do with the 20th Anniversary… He was and is a master of publicity and a good bloke who knows his community.
“The very existence of QFM may heve been born out of Ipswich wanting its own radio station again but for a long time in its early life was viewed by many long-time locals (listener’s & business community) with suspicion that history may repeat itself.”
In 2008, the station was bought from Fairfax Radio by Grant Broadcasters.
Look back at some of our coverage of the station’s history at this link.
Happy birthday River.