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3Mp3MP began transmission July 21, 1976, as Melbourne's seventh commercial radio station and the first new commercial station in over 40 years. The original licencees included a consortium of businessmen and media identities. Unlike other Melbourne radio stations that were based in the inner city areas, 3MP - as the callsign "MP", which stands for Mornington Peninsula, implies - was based in the south eastern suburb of Frankston. The station broadcast on 1380 kHz (changed to 1377 kHz in 1978) from the suburb of Rowville. 3MP's initial music format was a less edgy version of the popular "More Music" format employed by #1 rated 3XY. In 1985, rival station 3AK suddenly dumped its Beautiful music format, despite strong ratings. The perception of management was that the format did not attract the sort of younger, more impulsive, listeners that had high disposable incomes so therefore were seen to not be attractive to advertisers. 3MP saw the gap in the market left by 3AK and within two weeks of 3AK's format change, 3MP had completely revamped its music library, on-air personnel and image to adopt an Easy listening format. 3MP went from being a modest rating station to became a strong competitor in the ratings even up against the almighty FM stations and dominant talkback station 3AW. In 1993, 3MP's owner Wesgo bought out rival station 3EE and began simulcasting the same program format on both frequencies. Upon instruction from the Australian Broadcasting Authority in 1994, Wesgo had to split the stations into separate formats. 3MP retained its existing Easy Listening format while 3EE was relaunched as Magic 693 with music from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s and weekend AFL broadcasts. Magic 693's ratings went up and 3MP's gradually came down. Southern Cross Broadcasting ended up buying 3MP and 3EE from Wesgo. Southern Cross had also closed 3MP's newsroom and replaced its news bulletins with those provided by 3AW. They kept 3EE to complement their top rating talkback station 3AW, and 3MP was sold to Goulburn Valley Broadcasters. In 2001, 3MP was transferred to Data and Commerce Limited who already owned 3AK. In 2002, 3MP relocated from its studios in Frankston to inner suburban Richmond where it would share facilities with 3AK. 3MP is currently rating around 3% of the Melbourne listening audience. External link
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