This photo shows some, but not all, of the founding 4ZZ/4ZZZ staff members in late 1975.
The photo was taken by Gordon Curtis on the first day of broadcasting on 8th December 1975.
Pictured (anti-clockwise) are Jim Beatson (station coordinator), Stuart Matchett (announcer), John Woods (announcer), Sue Horton (volunteer producer), Gordon Curtis (admin. volunteer), Rob Cameron (journalist), Gay Walsh (announcer), Marian Wilkinson (journalist), Carole Ferrier (volunteer announcer), Ashleigh Merritt (volunteer announcer), Helen Hambling (announcer), Brian Watson (volunteer announcer), Ross Crighton (programming coordinator), Ian Nicholson (volunteer announcer), and Evan Kelly (volunteer announcer).
Those seen in this photograph are the staff and volunteers that were present in the building at the time. Others, such as 4ZZZ journalists, were out in the field doing their jobs and were therefore unavailable to be in this photo.
In addition to those seen in the photograph, other 4ZZ staff members and volunteers from December 1975 include Bruce Dickson (journalist), Harry Throssell (journalist), John Stanwell (financial coordinator), Ross Dannecker (technical coordinator), David Aberdeen (technical 2ic), Kevin Hayes (construction coordinator), Buck Samrai (front desk), Mim Weager (front desk), and Alan Knight (volunteer journalist).
Additionally, there were the following volunteer announcers who were on-air in December 1975, namely, Mark ("Brack") Bracken, Dennis McDermott, Ian Campbell, David St. John, Greg Lee, Judith Crighton, Barry Thomas, Gus Strachan, and Lyndal Kearney.
Some of the numerous volunteer construction workers who built the original radio studios in record time before the launch on 8 December 1975 include David Aberdeen, Bill Beattie, John Boardman, Anna Bourne, Tony Bourne, Mark Bracken, Gerard Champion, Gordon Curtis, Deborah Corbett, Judy Crighton, John Firth, Margot Foster, Andrew Herington, Sue Horton, Lyndal Kearney, Evan Kelly, Mary Kelly, Geoff Kong, Don Little, Ralph Loveday, George Lucas, Kev MacKay, Tom Maize, Paul Marshall, Michael Mayer, Ashleigh Merritt, Bill Michael, Ian Nicolson, Buck Samrai, Peter Skinner, David St John, Paul St John, Lorraine Terry, and Brenda Mattock. (This list does not include the names of any of the full-time staff most of whom also helped with the construction effort.)
In addition to the roles mentioned above, there were several staff and volunteers who worked tirelessly on station planning and submission-writing efforts. This group included Jim Beatson, John Stanwell, Marian Wilkinson, Helen Hambling, Sue Horton, and Ross Dannecker.
Gordon Curtis (who is also in the photograph) writes: I took this photo on the day the station (then 4ZZ-FM) on the first day of full transmission. This pic shows everyone in the station at the time. As I recall the group was set up in the room between the two on-air studios inside the studio complex at St Lucia. Back in those days some people were reluctant to be photographed but thankfully they obliged me and were recorded for posterity.
Just for the record I developed and printed the picture myself. The picture was taken with a very sexy Konica SLR which had aperture and shutter priority as well as full auto exposure as well. The lens was a standard 50mm Konica lens and was the equal of any Canon or Nikon of its day. In those days, I had a complete darkroom and was able to use a very nice Italian enlarger to print these and other pics.Programmme and announcer lineup for the first weeks of broadcasting in December 1975...