6PR PERTH

6PR, known as 6PR Perth, is a commercial radio station based in Perth, Western Australia. Owned by Nine Entertainment, its focus is on news, talk and sport, and is Perth's only commercial talkback radio station. It commenced broadcasting on 14 October 1931.

The History of 6PR

Radio in Australia was just twelve years old when 6PR commenced broadcasting on 14 October 1931. 6PR was founded by Electrical and Music warehouse company Nicholson's Limited, which operated the station from a studio above its music showroom at 86 Barrack Street. The signal was broadcast from the Applecross Wireless Station. In October 1939 its first relay station 6TZ came on air at Waterloo, 108 miles from Perth, using overhead landlines. This station had to generate its own power, so the on-site technicians had to be familiar with diesel power generating plants.

During World War II, 6PR set up a triple diversity receiving station at the home of George Moss, its only studio technician at Mount Lawley. This was to receive the BBC Radio nine o'clock news from London. George would record this via a landline to the studio on to an acetate disk for replay first on 6PR and then it was taken by bike to 6WF for rebroadcast on the ABC at 9.30 pm. After World War II, AWA's first Broadcast Transmitter was installed at Collie with 6CI relaying the 6PR programme. In 1955, new studios opened at 340 Hay Street East with three studios. This enabled the station to programme the country radio stations separately.

In June 1960, 6TZ-CI began broadcasting from a Studio built at back the Nicholson's Shop in Bunbury, Local programming was from 6 am until 2 pm weekdays and 6PR's programmes for the duration of the weekend. In 1963 the Victorian Broadcasting Network purchased Nicholson's and Nicholson's Broadcasting Services, selling off the electrical and Music Warehouse divisions of the organisation to Vox Adeon. The broadcasting business was retained and operated under the name Nicholson's Broadcasting Service Pty Ltd.