Cannon Hill and Fairfax

A move to the suburbs and Fairfax buys in.

In December of 2004 4BC moved into new premises, a purpose built radio station at suburban Cannon Hill. By previous standards it was pure luxury. There was brand new digital equipment, offices for every program, plenty of parking and great staff facilities. The station line-up at the beginning of 2005 was John Miller and Ross Davie on Breakfast, John Laws doing Mornings, Afternoons with Peter Dick, Chris Adams on Drive, Greg Cary hosted Sports Today and Ian Maurice looked after Nights. It was a formidable collection of experienced and professional talent. The General Manager was David McDonald and Greg Cary also held the role of Program Director.

It was pure News Talk radio with plenty of talk-back and caller interaction, lively and sometimes probing interviews and lots of entertainment interspersed with local news from the 4BC newsroom which was headed by News Director, Steve Speziale.

In mid 2005 there was a line-up change that saw Peter Dick join Ross Davie on the Breakfast program and John Miller move to Drive. Greg Cary moved into the now vacant Afternoon slot while remaining as Program Director. It was a time which saw the Breakfast Program achieve some of its best ratings of all time.

In mid 2007 Fairfax Media announced a scheme to acquire the assets of the Southern Cross Network and while it sold off some assets to Macquarie Broadcasting, the metropolitan radio stations stayed in the Fairfax fold.

Toward the end of that year the man they called the “King” of radio, John Laws, decided to hang up the Golden microphone. It would leave gaping hole in the 4BC schedule. Filling those shoes would take a broadcaster of exceptional ability.

At the beginning of 2008 Greg Cary stepped into those shoes and took over Mornings on 4BC, a Queensland-wide show from 9 until midday. News Director Chris Adams also took on the roll of program Director. In the middle of that year, Michael Smith, who had been developing his skills in a 7 to 8pm program moved into the Drive slot. There would be little change to the line-up until the end of the year.

In January of 2009 the 4BC Breakfast program saw the arrival of Jamie Dunn and Ian Calder. Jamie had been number 1 in Brisbane Breakfast radio at B105 for more than 100 surveys in succession in the 90s and early 2000s. Peter Dick moved as a solo performer into Afternoons and Sports Today also saw changes with Ian Maurice joining Peter Psaltis in the 6 to 8pm timeslot. Walter Williams moved into Nights to take over where Ian had left off.

At the beginning of 2010 the 4BC line-up was Jamie and Ian in Breakfast, Greg Cary doing Mornings, Peter Dick in Afternoons, Michael Smith in Drive, Peter Psaltis and Ian Maurice hosting Sports Today and Walter Williams at Nights.