I taped a number of radio station airchecks during my holiday trip in Australia in April 1986.
Various rock stations, like 2ws 2sm 3xy eon 3rrr 3ak 4am 4ca 3mmm 2day 8ha 2sm jjj

Enjoy

I heard the first recording this arvo.

I remember John Elliott's attempt at buying BHP back then. It was a laugh. He'd have less of a chance now with BHP being the world's second-largest company - I doubt any single entity would have the capital to take them over. For those that forget, John Elliott was the boss at Elders IXL which owned Fosters Brewing, the Elders Pastoral Company and Henry Jones - the maker of IXL jams. I think the biggest problem with all the billionaires of the 1980s was the amount of credit they were relying on. Only Robert Holmes a Court, Kerry Packer and Frank Lowy were using their own money to get big at the time.

I'll listen to the other recordings over the next few days.

The problem then was that Australian banks had just been let off the leash to invest shareholders money as they saw fit, and to borrow foreign money to magnify their investment pool. They were all kidding themselves that they were geniuses based on how much money they were spending, and paying themselves 1000 times what they had earned as bank clerks ten years earlier. When it ended in tears, every Australian had to pay to bail them out through tax levies, high mortgage rates and low deposit rates. A few went to gaol, but not enough.

Sound familiar at all? The names change, the jargon changes, but the game continues...

Maven