Michael Gorey

ABC Radio 3GI in Gippsland is celebrating its 70th anniversary. One of the staff there found my Fitzroy memories in a Google search, in which I referred to the station, and asked me for more information. Here it is …

I was born in 1967. My childhood and youth recollections of radio are pretty limited. In the early days we had access to three local stations: 3TR in Sale (later moved to Traralgon), 3UL in Warragul (later moved to Traralgon) and 3GI (ABC in Sale).

There were no FM stations. I can’t remember when they arrived on the scene; late 70s perhaps.

My main interest in radio before the mid 80s was to hear the football from Melbourne. 3GI and 3TR drove me nuts because they also covered the races. We were lucky enough to pick up a scratchy 3LO signal in Traralgon, and that was my preference, especially when they broadcast Fitzroy.

On those occasions I tuned into 3GI and flicked over to 3LO whenever a race came on. 3GI wasn’t too bad, in that they only broadcast the Melbourne races. I think they used to give dividends for Sydney and Adelaide, but that was it. 3TR was hopeless. They broadcast everything with four legs.

I used to stay with 3GI into the evening to hear whether Traralgon won. There was a good wrap of local footy results.

My general memories are less distinct. I probably listened to the news occasionally, but nothing specific stands out.

I had a close involvement with 3GI after I started in journalism, especially while working at the Gippsland Times in 1988 and Stock and Land 1989-90. In 1989 and 90 I was also publicity officer for the North Gippsland Football League.

I dated one of the journalists at 3GI a few times. It never became romantic, but we remained good friends and she later attended my wedding.

I remember some of the personalities. There was a long-time journo, Neil Munro, who must have been +20 stone. A real gentle giant with superb elocution. A magnificent voice that you don’t hear much today.

In my football publicity role I used to record match previews and provide scores. The producer and announcer was Gippsland sporting legend Kevin Hogan, another gentleman.

I lived at Maffra and generally recorded my previews in the Sale studio. I forget which street it was in, but it was an old cream-colored building and the studio was up a wobbly flight of stairs. The whole place had an old-world feel about it, more like some of the newspapers I worked at than a modern radio station.

Because I worked later for Stock and Land, I came to know the rural reporter. I forget his name, but gee he could drink! On a few occasions I provided market reports for him. Can’t say I enjoyed getting up at 6am to read the highlights from a Bairnsdale store cattle sale.

Amelia will correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the station manager in 1990 was Richard Peach. His claim to fame, I got told, was that its his voice you hear on the talking clock when you dial 1194. That made him something of a celebrity.

It was a running pub joke (and he joined a few sessions) that it must have taken him years to record “on the third stroke it will be 9.44 and 30 seconds, etc”. It was done by some technological magic, of course, and he didn’t have to record much at all.

I left Gippsland in 1991. On later occasions when I returned home the radio was mostly FM and they no longer broadcast the races. The station is still based in Sale and I think they’re in the old 3TR building on the highway, which is much newer than the previous home.

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