3AW

3AW is a talkback radio station based in Melbourne, Australia, owned by Nine Entertainment. It broadcasts on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station.

3AW was established when a company formed by Allans Music, JC Williamson's and David Syme (then publishers of The Age newspaper) was granted a radio broadcasting licence, with the first broadcast on 22 February 1932. The A in 3AW comes from the names of "Allans" and "The Age"; and the W is from "J. C. Williamson".

It is the only one of Melbourne's original eight stations that has retained its original name. (In comparison, Sydney, the only other Australian city with eight original stations had, until 2022, five of them still using their original names, but there are now only three such stations, namely 2GB, 2SM, 2UE.)

3AW has consistently appeared high in ratings surveys.

In 1931/1932, 3AW was one of two organisations that applied for a licence for a new Melbourne radio station; the other contender being the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne. At the time, the Postmaster-General's Department was responsible for the issuing of all radio station licences, and it came out in favour of the 3AW application on the grounds that it had recently issued a licence to 2SM Sydney, on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. However, a condition was placed on the 3AW licence to the effect that they had to provide one hour of free broadcasting to the Roman Catholic Church, at a time decided upon by the Church; hence The Catholic Hour was broadcast every Sunday night at was then a peak listening time, namely 9.00pm.

The fact that The Catholic Hour was originally broadcast in peak listening time is emphasised by the fact the program was preceded by two of Australia's most listened-to programs, namely Quiz Kids and Caltex Radio Theatre

In latter years, the nostalgia program Remember When was broadcast both prior to, and after The Catholic Hour. Therefore, in the 1990s (confirmation needed) 3AW management, ignorant of its history, decided to scrap The Catholic Hour and let Remember When continue right through the evening. Not surprisingly, the Church objected and the Australian Communications and Media Authority was called in to adjudicate. Their compromise decision was that the program should continue, but that the time should be decided upon by 3AW rather than by the Church. Not surprisingly 3AW moved the program to an hour that had the least listeners of every time in the week; namely midnight to 1.00am on Sunday mornings. This meant that there were hardly any listeners to the program and, within just a few months, the Church scrapped The Catholic Hour altogether!

In 1938 the Macquarie Broadcasting Service was formed, with stations right across Australia, including 3AW in Melbourne. In 2015 the Macquarie Media Group was acquired by Fairfax Media and the name was changed to Nine Radio under which it currently operates.