Rádio ABC Western Plains

The ABC had big plans for Dubbo in the '90s.

The original idea was to establish a large regional base for all of New South Wales on land near the Dubbo Golf Course.

It would house studios for all statewide programs and administrative operations as well as provide a local breakfast show for the Western Plains district. It would also see all Rural programming based in Dubbo.

As with so many bold plans, money was an object and the regional headquarters plan fell through.

However, an election promise had been made by the Prime Minister to establish some kind of broadcast facility in Dubbo and the Federal Government expected the ABC to deliver and so plans were drawn up to establish an ABC presence in the city.

An office was opened in August of 1992 and by October of the same year a regional studio had been established. The studio was named after retired ABC journalist, Laurie Mulhall who had dedicated 30 years of his life to the ABC.

Once again though, funding came into play and a further decision was made to provide a small outpost with only three staff instead of a full regional station. The output would offer a local breakfast show for the Western Plains region with breakfast News and a daily Rural Report for the primary sector of the region.

The administration of the Dubbo Outpost would fall to the existing regional station in Orange, which would give up some of its vast listening area to the new outpost.

The newly created studio would cover a region from Wellington, north to the Queensland border and from Coonabarabran, west to Wilcannia.

On May 17th 1993 the Dubbo studio went to air. The first presenter was Tim Benjamin with Kim Goldsmith as Rural Reporter and David Bone the local journalist.

All other programs were networked from other sectors of the ABC with the Morning Show continuing to cover the Central Regions of NSW from Orange.

The new outpost went to air with the call sign "Western Plains Radio".

In August of 1994 the ABC rebadged all its regional stations giving them greater individuality so the Dubbo outpost became known as 2CR Western Plains using an Aboriginal fish design from Brewarrina as its logo.

The station operated as an outpost for the next 8 years before a new package of Federal Government Funding opened the opportunity to expand.

The ABC Board decided to install a brand new afternoon show in Dubbo, which would network to all of Inland NSW. At the same time it was thought, with the additional staff on deck, that a management structure should be established at the office so the new afternoon presenter was given the added task of administering the outpost as Executive Producer, later to be known as Senior Broadcaster.

The Afternoon Show was established on December 3, 2001 and went to air in January 2002, hosted by Chris Coleman and produced by Georgie Klug.

Over the next 6 years the station continued to offer a local breakfast show, which had been extended to 9am and a networked afternoon show between 2 and 4pm Monday to Friday with a staff totalling 5.

In June 2007 a major listener blackspot was dealt with when a new transmitter was switched on in the Dubbo City area on 95.9FM.

By late that year two of the three Regional afternoon shows in NSW has lost their presenters, which gave thought to a review.

It had also become evident to the ABC that the demands of the local audience had changed significantly since ABC Western Plains, as it had become known, had been established. A review of the Dubbo outpost's services and other regional programs in NSW was conducted in September of 2007.

A meeting of all Regional and State Managers was held in Sydney and it was decided that Dubbo should have its own morning show to better service the needs of the Western Plains audience.

Further it was decided that ABC Western Plains should be a stand-alone regional radio station with its own manager and so in 2008 the station severed its administrative ties with the ABC office in Orange making it a complete Regional Radio station for the first time.

In April of 2008, Andrew Dunkley was appointed to the position of Regional Program Manager, the first official "Manager" based in the Dubbo office.

On June 17 2008 ABC Western Plains launched a new Morning Show between 8.30 and 11.00am covering all the issues and stories of the district.

The first Dubbo based Morning Show presenter was appointed. Dugald Saunders took up the role with Justin Huntsdale transferring from Afternoon producer to the new program team.