cuts it imposed on the ABC. It was a historic moment in Australian radio, when the station decided to hire a female disc jockey and, excluding the first experimental FM licences, was granted the first new radio licence issued in any Australian capital city since 1932. In its early years 2JJ's on-air staff were mainly recruited from either commercial radio or other ABC stations. Later, in another first, the roster also featured presenters who did not come from a radio industry background, including singer-songwriters Bob Hudson and John J. Francis, and actor Lex Marinos. Francis commenced broadcasting in the Saturday midnight-to-dawn shift in 1975, and the program became so popular that it was expanded to include Friday and Sunday nights two years later. The foundation staff of January 1975 were: Webb and Ron Moss (co-ordinators), Ros Cheney, David Ives, Sam Collins, Holger Brockman (aka Bill Drake), Caroline Pringle, Bob Hudson, Mike Parker, Iven Walker, Arnold Frolows, Di Auburn, Margot Edwards, George "Groover" Wayne who often called himself "G" (the hard 'G'), Graeme Berry, John Arden, Colin Vercoe, Alan McGirvan, Pam Swain, Graeme Bartlett, Tony Maniaty, John Arden, Keith Walker and Michael Byrne. Other popular presenters of the 2JJ period included Austin (a former producer for talkback radio king John Laws), Mark Colvin, Jim Middleton, Russell Guy, Mac Cocker (father of musician Jarvis Cocker), and Keri Phillips. Several of the original team developed successful careers at the ABC: Mark Colvin hosted ABC Radio National's current affairs show PM; Jim Middleton hosts Newsline with Jim Middleton on ABC Television; Keri Phillips isa long-serving presenter and producer on ABC Radio National and Ros Cheney was Arts Editor of ABC radio until her dismissal in 2001 (during the controversial regime of Jonathan Shier). 2JJ's programming policies were considered a radical departure from the formats of commercial stations. In 2005 Austin published a recollection from Colin Vercoe, one of the station's first music programmers: "In those days it was the early disco stuff and if it was black they just wouldn't play it." Although the station was primarily oriented towards a pop-rock format, the range of music programmed on Double Jay in its early years music was far wider than any of its commercial rivals, encompassing both mainstream and alternative rock and pop, experimental and electronic music, progressive rock, funk, soul, disco, the emerging ambient, punk and New Wave genres of the late 70s and,