ABC Radio Sydney (official call sign: 2BL, formerly 2SB) is an ABC radio station in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia. It is the flagship station in the

ABC Local Radio ABC Local Radio is a network of publicly owned radio stations in Australia, operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ABC Local Radio stations broadcast across the continent using terrestrial transmitters and satellites. Its programm ...

network and broadcasts on 702 kHz on the AM dial. The station transmits with a power ( CMF) of 3,110V, which is equivalent to 50 kW (the maximum permissible in Australia) from a site west of the

Sydney CBD The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or ...

History

ABC Radio Sydney is the very first public radio station in Australia officially and formally formal full grand opening night ceremony took place in

at stroke of night 8:00:00pm Sydney Time on 23 November 1923 Its very first callsign was ''2SB'' where ''2'' denotes the

State State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and ''SB'' stood for Sydney Broadcasters Limited. The callsign was changed to ''2BL'' when Broadcasters Limited took over the business. In May 1928 the Sydney Broadcasting Company was formed to take over stations 2BL and 2FC. A year later a consortium of entertainment companies founded the Australian Broadcasting Company Limited (ABC) to supply programme material to 2BL, 2FC and similar "A-class" stations in other capital cities. 2BL became one of the inaugural stations, along with sister station 2FC, in the government-owned Australian Broadcasting Commission (also ABC) network when it was founded in 1932. In 1946, it became the flagship of the National Programme, forerunner of

Radio National ABC Radio National, more commonly known as Radio National or simply RN, is an Australian nationwide public service radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. ...

. It also began carrying parliamentary broadcasts. In 1963, it swapped formats with 2FC and assumed that station's old role as flagship of the Interstate Programme, which eventually evolved into Local Radio. However, it continued to air parliament until 1988. The 2BL callsign was gradually phased out in 1999 as the station was renamed to 702 ABC Sydney, before another name change in 2017 which saw the station simply become known as ABC Radio Sydney. In the second radio ratings survey of 2012,

Nielsen Media Research Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

recorded ABC Radio Sydney's share of the local radio market as the second largest at 10.3%, behind commercial talk station 2GB. Most ABC Local Radio stations in New South Wales simulcast ABC Radio Sydney's programming when not airing local shows for their areas. The exception is 999 ABC Broken Hill, which relays

ABC Radio Adelaide ABC Radio Adelaide (call sign: 5AN) is the ABC Local Radio station for Adelaide. It is broadcast at 891 kHz on the AM band, on DAB digital radio and on the ABC Listen app. It is also available on Digital TV on channel 25 in Adelaide. ...

due to Broken Hill being on Central Time. In November 2023, ABC Radio Sydney celebrated its 100th birthday. The station marked the occasion by removing the

time signal A time signal is a visible, audible, mechanical, or electronic signal used as a reference to determine the time of day. Church bells or voices announcing hours of prayer gave way to automatically operated chimes on public clocks; however, au ...

pips which had long been heard at the top of each hour before the hourly ''ABC News'' bulletin. On 6 May 2024, ABC Radio Sydney commenced broadcasting from the ABC's new facility at 6 & 8 Parramatta Square in

Parramatta Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...

after relocating from the ABC's Ultimo headquarters. ''Mornings'' with Sarah Macdonald was the first program to broadcast from Parramatta after the facility was officially opened by Kim Williams, David Anderson and Andrew Charlton.

Programs

Daily scheduling

*''Breakfast'', with Craig Reucassel – 5:30am to 8:00am *'' AM'', with Sabra Lane – 8:00am to 8:30am *''Mornings'', with Hamish Macdonald (Monday to Thursday) and Kathryn Robinson (Friday) – 8:30am to 11:00am *'' Conversations'', with Richard Fidler and Sarah Kanowski (

) – 11:00am to 12:00pm *''The World Today'', with Andy Park – 12:00pm to 12:30pm *''Afternoons'', with James Valentine – 12:30pm to 3:00pm *''Drive'', with

Chris Bath Christine Bath (born 13 May 1967) is an Australian journalist, radio and television presenter and news anchor. Bath currently hosts Drive on ABC Radio Sydney and '' 10 News First Weekend'' on Network 10. She has previously been host of Eve ...

(Monday to Thursday) and Dom Knight (Friday) – 3:00pm to 6:00pm *'' PM'', with Samantha Donovan – 6:00pm to 6:30pm *''ABC Sport Daily'', with Patrick Stack – 6:30pm to 6:45pm * ''Evenings'', with Renee Krosch – 6:45pm to 10:00pm * ''

Nightlife Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, ...

'', with Philip Clark (Monday to Thursday) and Suzanne Hill (Friday to Sunday) – 10:00pm to 2:00am * '' Overnights'', with

Trevor Chappell Trevor Martin Chappell (born 12 October 1952) is a former Australian cricketer, a member of the South Australian Chappell family which excelled at cricket. He played 3 tests and 20 One Day Internationals for Australia. He won the Sheffield Shi ...

(Monday to Thursday from Melbourne) and Rod Quinn (Friday to Sunday from Sydney) – 2:00am to 5:30am

Other programs

* ''Thank God it's Friday'' is broadcast every Friday with

Charlie Pickering Charlie Pickering (born 29 August 1977) is an Australian comedian, television and radio presenter, author and producer. Pickering currently hosts ''The Weekly with Charlie Pickering'', a weekly news satire television show on the ABC (Australia ...

and features a roundup of the week's events, featuring various Australian comedians. TGIF is also available as a podcast. * ''Norman the Quiz'', the pet-name for what used to be simply known as "The Quiz", is hosted by Renee Krosch every Monday to Thursday evening. It is broadcast to all of

and the ACT * ''The Mighty Challenge'' is a quiz broadcast at midnight (local time) by Phillip Clark. * "Bludging on the Blindside" with Rampaging Roy Slaven and HG Nelson, broadcast Saturdays during

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

season from noon to 2:00pm. * ''Grandstand'' is the ABC's sport program, which is generally broadcast from 12 noon on a Saturday and Sunday * ''Speaking Out'' (Radio National), with Larissa Behrendt

Former presenters

* Deborah Cameron *

Mike Carlton Michael James Carlton, (born 31 January 1946) is an Australian former media commentator, radio host, television journalist, author and newspaper columnist. He formerly co-hosted the daily breakfast program on Sydney radio station 2UE with Pete ...

* Angela Catterns * Andrew Daddo * Dom Knight * Julie McCrossin *

Andrew Olle John Andrew Durrant Olle (28 December 194712 December 1995) was an Australian radio and television presenter who mostly worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Early and personal life Olle was born in the Sydney suburb of Hornsb ...

* James O'Loghlin * Clive Robertson * Adam Spencer * Virginia Trioli *Sally Loane * David Dale *Frank Crook *Ray Taylor * John Doyle *John Hall * Margaret Throsby *Bruce Menzies * Simon Marnie * Sarah Macdonald

External links and references

702 ABC Sydney

ABC Online {{DEFAULTSORT:ABC Radio Sydney ABC Local Radio, Sydney Radio stations in Sydney Radio stations established in 1923