Frequency 720 kHz AM | First air date 4 June 1924 Power 50 kW | |
 | ||
Audience share 10.3% (August–October 2013, Nielsen Survey #8 2013) | ||
ABC Radio Perth (call sign: 6WF) is a radio station located in Perth, Western Australia, operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and broadcasting at 720 kHz AM. It is the flagship ABC Local Radio network in Western Australia.
Contents
History
6WF transmitted its first broadcast on Wednesday 4 June 1924. It was originally owned by Westralian Farmers Co-operative, and operated from a studio in the Westralian Farmers building in Perth. The Premier of Western Australia, Philip Collier made a speech on-air to mark the opening of the station.
The station was equipped with a transmitter that was the most powerful allowed under Commonwealth regulations. It was intended as a source of "information and entertainment to rural areas". The station's original broadcast footprint covered most of the state of Western Australia. In 1929 the radio station was sold to the Australian Broadcasting Company. As a result, the radio station moved from the Westralian Farmers buildings to the ESA Bank building on the corner of Hay and Milligan Streets in Perth. When the Australian Broadcasting Commission was founded in 1932, 6WF became part of the national network.
The station moved again in 1937 to the Stirling Institute building located in the Supreme Court Gardens, St Georges Terrace. Despite the fact the building had been built 21 years earlier as a temporary structure it became the home of 6WF for the next 23 years.
In 1960 a specially built 23 studio building complex was completed at 191 Adelaide Terrace and the station moved there during that year. This building was to provide the home for the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra for a number of years, running alongside three separate radio stations.
These buildings lasted 45 years, until it was decided that new buildings must be built. A site was commissioned and the radio station moved to its new offices and studios in East Perth in March 2005.
The Adelaide Terrace site was sold to property developers in 2008 who have proposed demolishing the structure and erecting residential buildings. The transmission tower was demolished in January 2011.
News and current affairs
ABC Radio Perth produces news bulletins unique to Western Australia, which are broadcast between 5:00am and 10:00pm on weekdays, and between 6:00am and 1:00pm on weekends. National bulletins are broadcast outside these times.
The station also broadcasts national news magazine programs - AM, The World Today and PM.
Talk
Throughout the day and evening, ABC Radio Perth broadcasts a variety of talk shows. Breakfast on weekdays, presented by Eoin Cameron from 2002 until March 2016, has consistently been the highest rating breakfast program on Perth radio.
Sports
ABC Radio Perth broadcasts a range of sports coverage syndicated through the network under the name ABC Radio Grandstand, including Australian rules football and cricket.
The station is one of two that broadcast Australian Football League matches in Perth; the other is 6PR. The station also broadcasts West Australian Football League matches.
Production
ABC Radio Perth and ABC Local Radio stations in Western Australia produce less content than their counterparts in the rest of Australia. This is primarily because Western Australia's time zone is two hours behind Australian Eastern Standard Time, or three hours behind Australian Eastern Daylight Time, and most national programs are broadcast live across Australia, at a time earlier in Australian Western Standard Time.
Unlike all other state capital ABC Local Radio stations, 720 ABC Perth does not produce a weekday evening program, or any weekend programs except for Saturday Breakfast. A weekday early morning program was formerly produced, but terminated as a result of funding cuts in November 2013 and replaced with a program compiling content previously produced during the day.