AM To FM Conversions

No real reason, just a story from ABC Hobart. A couple of posts in this thread in the past couple of days.

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the conversion of 7BU & 7AD have been delayed by 2 or more weeks. So won’t be until mid to late March (according to the station when I emailed them).

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Yes, I noticed on their websites that the countdown to the conversion has been extended by 3 weeks.

Reminds me of the launch of DAB radio in 2009 which was postponed about half a dozen times from memory (at least for Sydney).

Has it really been a decade?

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Where did that time go? I was at the official digital radio launch in Martin Place in August 2009 when nearly all the commercial stations had an OB there.

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Correct. I have a link or two to it here:

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According to posts on 7AD & 7BU’s Facebook pages responding to listeners re AM-FM conversion, their FM frequencies will be switched on early next week, with their AM frequencies to be switched off by the end of this month. The reason for the slight delay was due to parts not arriving on time.

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Still nothing on 98.9 today, I saw one of the 7AD cars yesterday which has the new frequency on the logo.

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Looks like 7BU listed for official FM switch-on for Fri 22nd March (from count-down clock on their website).

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7AD has started testing sometime after lunch today. Am also getting something on the 7BU frequency but it’s patchy currently in Devonport so not sure if it’s something else. It was playing different to 7AD and had Hughesy, Tim and Kate.

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I think the 100.9 I’m receiving is H!T 100.9 from Hobart.

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That’s good!

Is the sound quality on 7AD FM good?

Yeah, definitely noticed the difference to AM as expected. He was stressing that it was a trial currently but was telling people to tune in for the 5 at 5 to experience the true difference in sound.

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The 2018-22 FYSO progress update has been released, which contains the details the latest on what’s happening on the AM-FM conversion: https://www.acma.gov.au/-/media/Strategy-and-Transition/Information/Word-document/FYSO-progress-update-Jul_Dec-2018-docx.docx?la=en

Key points:

  • Scottsdale (7SD) expected to finalise between April & July once agreement is reached with the licensee about the continuation of AM transmission.

  • Lithgow (2LT) will not be consulted before June 30, in which it will be restored to workplan when licensee agrees to transmitter specifications.

  • Consultations for Bega (2EC) & Cooma (2XL) will proceed by the end of this month. It, along with Goulburn (2GN), had been delayed due to the complexity of flow-on changes required to existing services.

  • 2GN is pending necessary third-party agreement for a frequency change. If agreement is reached, consultation would occur between April & July.

  • Nowra (2ST) had been delayed, as ACMA has not accepted the licensee’s proposed transmitter specifications on engineering grounds. It’s unlikely that a new proposal would be submitted & approved before July-September.

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Still holding a gun to the head of Midwest Broadcasters, licensee agreeing to transmitter specifications sounds quite the ultimatum.

2BS signal is great in Lithgow, should be no reason against reciprocal coverage in Bathurst.

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I can see why Mid West Radio are playing hard ball with ACMA, considering Bathurst Broadcasters and Mid West Radio’s transmission sites are so close to each other, and both border the coverage area of the adjacent licence area.

Yet ACMA approved 2BS Fm to operate at 5KW towards Lithgow where they are most likely enforcing the 1KW towards Bathurst for the proposed 2LT Fm conversion.

ACMA need to compromise and allow 2LT and Move Fm to broadcast at 5KW towards Bathurst. The 1KW directional Move Fm service from Mt Lambie still gets into Bathurst quite well though.

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Does this mean 2GN have to do a deal with Sky Sports Radio for a frequency swap from 1368 to 94.3? If agreement cannot be reached will they have to stay on 1368 permanently?

Are Grant Broadcasters trying to get 2ST approved with the same specs as Power fm from Knights Hill to use the existing Power fm array.

Is ACMA blocking the proposed transmitter specifications of 2ST Nowra so there will be no overspill of this service into the licence area of 2ST Bowral as crazy as it might sound?

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It’s possible, similar to what happened with 3YB in Warrnambool, which they swapped frequency with Vision Australia Radio (3RPH) to convert to FM. Problem is that 94.3 has the potential for adjacent-channel interference with 2BRW Braidwood (94.5), as well as co-channel interference with 1WAY’s Tuggeranong translator in certain parts.

It’s worth noting that 94.3 was proposed for a 2nd commercial FM licence when the Goulburn LAP was being consulted on back in 1998 before allocating the licence for a HPON service.

Don’t forget that Wollongong particularly also comes into consideration on why ACMA rejected 2ST’s proposed transmitter specifications, probably due to complaints by i98 & to a lesser extent, Wave FM, of potential overspill that 2ST would cause into the market. I mean, i98 & Wave FM already have enough trouble by the Sydney stations’ overspill into the market.

With that in mind, I think 2ST would need to transmit out of Cambewarra Mountain instead of Knights Hill due to the reasons above.

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I get that i98 would complain about overspill into Wollongong from a proposed 2ST Service from Knights Hill, but if they approved Power Fm in the first place why would they not approve a new service from there with roughly similar specs.

Are ACMA admitting we made a mistake licensing Power fm from this location as we did not consider the overspill into Wollongong when the service first went to air?

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It probably won’t happen realistically, but shouldn’t Power FM be moved to Cambewarra Mountain if ACMA’s findings reveal that it’s the ideal location for 2ST’s FM service to be transmitted from?

Also, how good (or otherwise) is reception of Sky Sports Radio 103.7, 2UUU 104.5 and Kix Country 105.3 from Cambewarra Mountain in the Wollongong market?

Probably because 2ST is programmed towards a distinctively different market/demographic to the other three Wollongong/Nowra commercial stations. If their FM service were to be transmitted from Knights Hill, I suspect 2ST would likely be listened to by a not insignificant amount of people in the Wollongong radio market.

As the market’s most dominant broadcaster, i98FM/WIN would likely have the most to lose from a 2ST FM service transmitting from Knights Hill. Grant Broadcasters probably wouldn’t care that much, just as long as people are listening to at least one of Wave FM, 2ST or Power FM.

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