The station began broadcasting on 1 January 1937. Prior to that, a station owned by the Mockler Brothers, with the
call sign 2MK, had existed in Bathurst, first broadcasting on 31 October 1925. 2BS was not always the intended call sign - 2BX was also considered. A station located at Meadow Lane, which was to serve both Bathurst and
Lithgow, was also projected to start in 1925 with the call letters
2LE. That station never eventuated. In the 1950s, it was discovered that 2BS's signal was interfering at night with the signal of Melbourne station
3AK. That forced 3AK to become a daytime-only station, having previously been an overnight station. The problem was fixed in the 1960s by switching to directional antennas, which led to 3AK commencing 24-hour transmission. At that time,
Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) owned both stations. In 1969, ACP sold 2BS to Ron Camplin, who owned the station until mid 2019. 2BS is an
adult contemporary station with a prime target audience of 25+, playing music from the 1950s onwards. Its Breakfast and Drive programs are produced locally, with other programs being networked:
John Laws,
John Stanley, and the
Continuous Call Team from
2GB Sydney. 2BS recently opened FM repeater stations in the surrounding towns of
Blayney,
Oberon and
Sofala. While 2BS has been promoting itself as a rarity being one of the few remaining locally owned commercial broadcasters in Australia, however radio industry website Radioinfo sources say a sale of 2BS and BRock Bathurst was imminent in 2018. In June 2019, the Camplins sold Bathurst Broadcasters to the Bill Caralis-owned
Broadcast Operations Group, which holds the license of
2EL in the adjacent radio market of
Orange. ==See also==