About Triple M 6TZ

Triple M 6TZ

Triple M 6TZ is a commercial radio station serving Bunbury and the South West of Western Australia. Broadcasting on 963 kHz AM under the historic 6TZ call sign, it is one of the oldest commercial radio stations in regional Australia, first going to air in 1939 — the hundredth commercial station licensed in the country. Owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo, it carries the Triple M network's adult-contemporary format with local breakfast and drive programming from Bunbury, alongside its FM sister station Hit Southwest.

Overview

The station transmits on 963 kHz AM with 2 kW of power from Waterloo, serving the Bunbury RA1 licence area, and is retransmitted on 1134 kHz AM at Collie (the former 6CI, now listed under the 6TZ call sign) and on 756 kHz AM at Busselton and across the Margaret River region, with translators also noted at Augusta and Margaret River. Its format is adult contemporary, aligned with the Triple M network's regional offering, and programming is in English. Local programming has historically been produced from the station's Bunbury studios on weekdays; in 2025, while repairs were being made to the Bunbury studios after a fire, the Triple M breakfast show was broadcast from studios in Busselton and Perth.

No standalone website address for the station has been load-verified; Southern Cross Austereo's regional station pages sit within the triplem.com.au domain (the station's page is listed as triplem.com.au/southwest), and the station is presented on the LiSTNR streaming platform. In line with this profile's sourcing policy, that address is noted as an attributed candidate rather than a verified official site.

History

6TZ was launched in 1939, in the year Australia faced the prospect of another world war. Its first broadcast made it the 100th commercial radio station in Australia. Newspaper accounts of the launch reported clear reception for miles around the South West, with congratulatory telegrams arriving from new listeners. In October 2019 the station marked eighty years on air with a three-hour anniversary special on its breakfast and drive programmes, bringing back past announcers to reflect on their time at 6TZ, giving away $80 an hour to listeners and celebrating with a birthday morning tea for staff.

The 6TZ, 6NA Narrogin and 6CI Collie stations formed the radio division of the Golden West Network until 1988. The network that became RadioWest was formed in the early 1990s, at one stage owned by DMG Radio, playing "real music variety" to a 35-plus audience across eleven AM stations in the southern half of Western Australia. In 2004 RadioWest and its sister Hot FM stations were sold to Macquarie Regional RadioWorks, and in 2011 the merger of Southern Cross Media with Austereo created Southern Cross Austereo.

On 15 December 2016, as part of a nationwide brand consolidation described by the company as the biggest rebrand in Australian radio history, the RadioWest stations were rebranded as Triple M, bringing the regional AM stations into line with the metropolitan Triple M brand. In the South West, 6TZ became Triple M Southwest, paired with the former Hot FM station on 101.3 FM, which became Hit Southwest. The rebrand moved 68 regional stations under the two national brands — Hit, aimed at listeners under 40, and Triple M, aimed at men 25 and over — to simplify the company's proposition to advertisers and listeners alike.

Programming

Triple M Southwest's schedule combines local and networked programming. The local breakfast show — historically "Alan For Breakfast" — and the afternoon drive programme with Cliff Reeve have been the station's local anchors, with local programming produced from Bunbury on weekday mornings. Networked Triple M content, including sport and entertainment programming, fills the remaining hours. Because the South West market differs from other Triple M WA markets, the station has at times carried different evening programming from its sister stations — for example, airing its own drive content where other Triple M WA stations carried networked sports programming.

The station's audience is the adult market of the South West: Bunbury, Busselton, Margaret River, Collie, Bridgetown and the surrounding districts — one of the fastest-growing regional areas of Western Australia, with an economy built on mining, agriculture, tourism and the wine industry of Margaret River.

Ownership

Triple M 6TZ is owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo, one of Australia's largest commercial radio and television companies, through the licence-holding entities Radio West Broadcasters Pty Ltd and Elldale Pty Ltd. The ACMA records for the 963 kHz Bunbury transmitter (station ID 2352872) show the broadcaster as Radio West Broadcasters Pty Ltd with a current licence running to 2 August 2030 and an on-air status of normal programming.

Southern Cross Austereo was formed in 2011 from the merger of Southern Cross Media Group and Austereo Group, and operates the Hit and Triple M radio networks nationally alongside regional television services. In Western Australia the company pairs its Triple M and Hit stations market by market — in Bunbury, 6TZ on 963 AM as Triple M Southwest and 6BUN on 101.3 FM as Hit.

The Golden West Network era

Before RadioWest, the South West's AM stations were part of the Golden West Network — the same group that operated regional television across Western Australia. 6TZ Bunbury, 6NA Narrogin and 6CI Collie formed the network's radio division until 1988, a reminder of an era when regional radio and regional television were commonly owned and cross-promoted. The Golden West Network's television arm would later become part of the Prime and then Seven regional television operations, while the radio stations charted their own course through DMG Radio, Macquarie Regional RadioWorks and ultimately Southern Cross Austereo.

The RadioWest network that emerged in the early 1990s eventually comprised eleven AM stations: 6TZ 963 Bunbury (1939), 6CI 1134 Collie (1947), 6TZ 756 Busselton (1995), 6BY 900 Bridgetown (1953), 6VA 783 Albany (1956), 6WB 1071 Katanning (1936), 6NA 918 Narrogin (1951), 6AM 864 Northam (1934), 6MD 1098 Merredin (1941), 6KG 981 Kalgoorlie (1931) and 6SE 747 Esperance (1982). Each carried the "real music variety" positioning aimed at the 35-plus audience, with most programming local to each market and network input from hubs in Bunbury, the Gold Coast and Albury.

The 2016 rebrand

The December 2016 rebrand that turned RadioWest into Triple M was the culmination of two to three years of planning inside Southern Cross Austereo. Announced in September 2016, it moved 68 regional stations under the Hit and Triple M banners: 43 stations joined the Hit Network, including the former Hot FM stations, while 34 joined Triple M. Heritage stations in some markets were given transition branding for twelve to eighteen months to introduce listeners to the change. For advertisers, the consolidation meant a single point of purchase across the networks — Hit to reach listeners under 40, Triple M to reach men 25 and over — replacing a portfolio that had grown to some 78 stations under 30 separate brands.

Technical footprint

The 963 kHz Bunbury transmitter operates from the Radio West site at Wireless Road, Waterloo, with a 77-metre mast and 2 kW of transmitter power. The ACMA record (station ID 2352872, licence 10165273-1) lists the broadcaster as Radio West Broadcasters Pty Ltd, trading from Southern Cross Austereo's South Melbourne offices, with the licence current from 2 July 2025 to 2 August 2030. Translators at Augusta, Collie and Margaret River extend the signal across the coastal and inland South West, while the 1134 kHz Collie and 756 kHz Busselton retransmissions ensure the AM service reaches the full licence area. The station also streams nationally through the LiSTNR platform, where SCA promotes its AM services in full stereo — a tacit acknowledgement that the digital stream now outshines the medium-wave signal for audio quality.

The station in the South West

Few regional stations can claim eight decades of continuous service. From its 1939 debut as the country's hundredth commercial station to its place in the national Triple M network, 6TZ has been the South West's companion through war, the postwar boom, the mining expansions and the rise of the Margaret River wine region. Its call sign — still 6TZ after all these years — remains one of the most recognised in Western Australian radio.