A golden voice familiar to many across the New England North West, a local living legend of radio has retired (his last day was Friday December 23, 2011).
Don Thomas was born and educated in Glen Innes, and commenced his radio career as an announcer at the 2AD’s Glen Innes Studio on 6th March 1967. The Glen Innes Studio closed in 1969.
In August 1973, he returned to the radio, re-joining the 2AD staff as night announcer before moving into the Sales Department and then Programme Manager. In July 1977 he was transferred to 2MO Gunnedah as Assistant Manager.
Don Thomas was appointed 2MO Station Manager in 1978, where he worked with the only automation system used in the Network (2MO, 2TM, 2AD, 2RE). The automation system was designed for unattended operations by announcing staff. Don was manager when the station turned 50 years old on 16th June 1980, after which he was appointed Station Manager of 2TM in October 1984 where he was also part of the station’s 50th Year celebrations on 27th February 1985.
On 6th July 1987 Don returned to 2AD as Station Manager, a position he has held for over 23 years. During his time at the station, 2AD increased its service to 24 hours a day, moved from playing vinyl records to compact discs and then to all music being played from a computer hard drive.
In 1997 the Company was granted an FM commercial radio licence (FM100.3), which started broadcasting at 10.03am on July 1 that year serving the New England area, at this time 2AD’s format changed to playing classic oldies targeted at the over 40s audience, leaving the FM to target the 18-39 year old listeners.
Radio as an industry has seen dramatic changes, interestingly a lot of these within Don’s time at 2AD – Radio went from playing 45s and albums to compact discs to digital storage (wav and mp3 files). From wire records to tape records to cassettes to mini discs to computer hard drives. Transmission systems moving from broadcast lines to microwave links to satellite links to digital links via the internet – with the on-air announcer’s programme not only coming from the 2AD Studios, but at times from a studio in either Sydney, Newcastle, Tweed Heads or Tamworth.
As Manager of 2AD in its 75th Year (2011), Don has expressed his pride in the contribution that the station has made to the community through the years. “The future of radio is truly exciting – with the arrival of digital radio into regional Australia still to come, and who knows…. I believe that local radio will continue in our region. People appreciate the immediacy and local content that reinforces their sense of community,” he said. “The internet cannot replace that.”
Story: Gary Fry
