In early 1930 he upgraded his equipment to wireless telephony and began broadcasting experimental programs to the Nation's Capital and immediate environs.

The station was officially opened on 14 November 1931 by PE Dean CMG, Secretary Department of Home Affairs.

[3][4] In February 1932 Ryan hired his first broadcasting cadet, a 17 year old George Kenneth Barlin from Taree.

[5] By December 1933, 2CA had increased its transmitter to 500 watts and moved to a small purpose built studio in Molonglo[6] (now Fyshwick), on a low hill close to the Queanbeyan–Canberra road (near what is now the intersection of Hindmarsh Drive and Canberra Avenue).

[9] Later that year, Ryan sold 2CA to Denison Estates, owners of 2GB, and the station began to operate under the name of Canberra Broadcasters Ltd as part of the Macquarie Network.

[10] On 18 December 1937, Prime Minister Joseph Lyons laid the foundation stone of the studio building at 4 Mort Street, Canberra City, next to the Civic Theatre.

Seventy-five guests travelled from Sydney for the event, which included an edition of the "Tummy Club" show broadcast from the railway station.

[13] In July 1938 Sir Hugh Denison announced a further expansion and reorganisation of the Macquarie Broadcasting Service with a capital of A£250,000.

Affiliated stations in the new network were 2CA Canberra; 2GB and 2UE Sydney; 2WL South Coast; 2HR Hunter River; 3AW Melbourne; 3HA Hamilton; 3TR Sale; 3SH Swan Hill; 4BH Brisbane; 5DN Adelaide; 5RM Renmark; 6PR Perth; 6KG Kalgoorlie.

Canberra's second radio station, ABC's 2CY, was officially opened by Prime Minister Lyons at 7.50pm on Friday 23 December 1938.

[26] In 1946, with the war over, 2CA was eager to put forth its image of leading commercial radio station, with a comprehensive program schedule.

The post-war line up was advertised in the 1946/47 Radio Listeners' Annual as Phil Desmond (Top of the Pops, Who, Crosby Croons); Len Major (Breakfast and Saturday Dance); Reg Adams (Newsreader and Afternoons); Bruce Stokes (Luncheon and Friday Swin); Graham Connolly (Evenings) and Rex Morrisby (Sunday Listener Arranged Programmes).

[28] On Thursday 3 January 1957 another new rival came to town, with the opening of Canberra's first drive-in cinema, Starlight, in Watson.

Though lucrative, it provided scant entertainment for Canberra's large teenage population, many preferring nearby Goulburn's 2GN which played more current music.

[37] However, the station commenced 24 hour broadcasting the previous day on Friday 1 December 1967,[38] with its first Midnight to dawn shift hosted by Tony Hansen on the following Monday.

[43] The station stopped broadcasting horse racing on 1 October 1979 and received a new format of a mixture between top 40 and rock, with more news, aiming at the 18-39 age group.

2CA manager Ron Collins stated the week before the format change that there had been some justified criticism that 2CA and 2CC sounded very similar to listeners.

2CA at the time, offered a service combining local, national and international news in a bulletin designed for Canberra listeners.

[51] On 26 February 1988, John Fairfax announced it had sold Macquarie Radio Network to a Queensland-based consortium, Sonance Limited.

[52] The next day, on 27 February 1988, 2CA's new sister station FM104.7 and 2CC's KIX 106 officially launched at 8am, following three weeks of test music broadcasts.

[53] Both stations were a week late in launching owing to their frequencies causing interference with other FM signals, requiring filtering equipment to correct.

[58] The 2CA studios had to be evacuated on 29 November 1993 when a man crashed his car into the ground floor of the Jolimont Centre and tried to blow up the building.

[62] 2CA broadcasts to the Canberra and Southern Tablelands region of NSW, including Yass, Bungendore and Queanbeyan.

[citation needed] In 2019, 2CA and its sister station 2CC moved into state of the art purpose built studios[63] on Bellenden Street, Crace, in a multi-million dollar broadcasting complex, the Canberra Radio Centre.

National radio programmes like Pick-a-box, Nestlé's Theatre Royal, and Caltex Plays were staples on the station.