If it weren’t for a certain transmitter in Perth, 96FM simply wouldn’t have been heard in places like York, Northam or Mandurah.

Former 96FM announcer Steve Gordon told Botica’s Bunch it was the first time that people outside of the metro area heard “city radio”.

“Our transmitter was up in the hills, all the AM stations were down on the flat, so you couldn’t hear them outside of Perth.”

In 1984, Gordon was on the 96FM airwaves from 7pm until 10pm, admitting he was probably responsible for a lot of people missing their education.

“Not a lot of homework got done.”

But a 10pm finish also meant heading out to see a band after work… and Gordon would go to all of them, often ending up having a couple of beers afterward, where friendships with bandmembers would strike up.

“Paul Kelly remembers that I fought Gary [Roberts] to get him on the playlist when he first appeared,” he said.

“He remembers,” Lisa said, “We spoke to [Paul Kelly] the other day and he pretty much suggested that it was you that really got him to the Perth audience.”

Gordon agreed.

“Well, yeah, I started it, but obviously the station eventually got behind him… but you can’t just throw new artists out there, you have to creep them in, bit by bit,” he said.

“But Perth is still his biggest market after Melbourne, and he remembers that.”

Gordon also told a story about 96FM… that actually happened in France.

“I was working for another station at the time, and we had taken a dozen listeners to Paris for a week,” he began.

“It was a time when 96FM was omnipresent… it was everywhere you went.

“You walked up the mall, [it was] coming out of doorways and those groovy boutiques, and you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing those T-shirts - it really annoyed people at other radio stations.”

Back to Paris.

“So, I’ve wandered away to have a bit of a look at things on my own,” he said and described heading up the Eiffel Tower.

He said that he went up the famous landmark, first in a lift then took a spiral staircase up another level.

“As my head came out of the staircase, I didn’t see the Champs Elysees or the Arc de Triomphe,” he said.

“It was a bloke in a 96FM T-shirt.”

“Fair dinkum, I thought, ‘is there nowhere in the bloody world…?’”

Lisa deadpanned: “Did it say 96FM Rocks the Eiffel Tower?”

Catch the full chat with Botica’s Bunch up top