99.9 is also 3BBB Ballarat.
I thought Smart FM was 99.1, Goldfields FM uses that too.
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Add to that 2CS and 2MC. Not officially FM conversions but spun as if they were.
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Not trying to confuse things further, but it’s my understanding that 3CV became Star FM in October 1998. That day in October was the was the biggest shake up in the history of Bendigo commercial radio to date. Three things happened, One, 3CV vacated the 1071 am frequency moving to 91.9 FM as Star FM(I have seen on online that Star FM was radio 3CV Pty Ltd) with more of a hot ac format, Two, 3BO FM (very sadly now just another MMM clone) changed to a softer format, I remember some young friends being dismayed saying they’ve killed 3BO! Three, a new licence 3EL, issued to A.M.I. Radio began on 1071 as Easy Listening Victoria, later Easy Mix 1071, now Gold Central Victoria. The call sign 3EL has never been used on air. A.M.I also set up 2EL on the old 2GZ frequency, 4EL Cairns, on the old 4CA frequency and on 1026 am, 4MK’s frequency. All had an Easy Listening format.
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It’s complicated, but you’re confusing licences with branding, call signs and company names.
The original 3CV AM licence for 1071 never BECAME Star FM, even though it appeared the station did move to FM. Star FM was a supplementary licence allocated to 3CV (1071). The owners, 3CB Broadcasters Pty Ltd then owned both the original AM and new FM licences.
Then they changed the callsign of the original licence for 3CV (AM) to 3EL at or before the time it was sold to the Easy Network. But the AM LICENCE itself remained as it was, just with a new call sign.
3EL wasn’t a NEW licence, it wasn’t “issued”, but rather it was still the original licence that was issued in 1938, just with a changed callsign.
To the listener, the new Star FM appeared to be a conversion of 3CV, but technically it wasn’t a conversion. It was a brand new licence. Lots of examples of implied conversions of stations which have nothing to do with the actual AM licence converting to FM. Anyway, it’s all semantics behind the scenes and to the listener the station would have appeared to convert to FM
The company name 3CV Broadcasters Pty Ltd is irrelevant as the new owners DMG radio just acquired the company. The company name is just a wholly owned subsidiary of the current owners of the FM licence.
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Albury was one of those? 2AY scored a supplementary FM and “converted” 2AY to FM and created a “new” station on the AM frequency “1494AM” but the AM station was still officially 2AY. Then they backflipped and put “2AY” back on AM and rebranded the FM station to something like (IIRC) “B104.9”
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Yes - B for Border.
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Yep, exactly.
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Spot on. Way things were generally marketed at the time was that 3CV listeners should switch to the “all new 3BOfm” which changed from hit music to best songs of all time and people looking for hit music should try 91.9 StarFM as a brand new station.
This approach was taken due to brand strength of 3BO fm which was seen as strong by DMG at the time
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And then DMG ran 3BO into the toilet before trying (and failing) to sell both stations to RG Capital
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Yes, 3BO had a very strong brand in the region. Even if some of us referred to it as “The Perspiration Station”.
It employed local DJs nearly 24/7, had a well listened to and respected local news service, and apart from their decent 6-9am Breakfast show is now a Triple M Network repeater station.
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They should have milked this.
“Stinking Up The Airwaves on 3BO”
“Here’s another stinker on 3BO”
“What’s that smell? No matter, it’s 3BO”
“C &C Music Factory think they know sweat, but we’ve been sweating for decades. 3BO.”
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How many Rexona ads did they run?
3bbb ballarat is voice fm
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ACMA’s Five-Year Spectrum Outlook 2025-30 has been released this week.
In that document, re updates for AM-FM conversions in competitive regional markets:
The only change since March (when the Draft FYSO 2025-30 was released) was that Bunbury had progressed to In-market licensee agreement.
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Again, this is all moving at a snails pace. What’s even the next step after In Market Agreement?
And it’s beyond belief that ARN haven’t even expressed interest in converting 4CA, 4MK, 4RO, 4CC, and 4BU, amongst others. What possible reason would they have, apart from being useless? I guess they thought they were buying Triple M but that was a year ago!
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agree. Look at the ratings for 4CA, 4MK, 4RO and 4CC 
ARN have rocks in their heads.
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Why not 93.9 and 95.5 off Mt Kynoch, same specs as 100.7, move 4TAB HPON to 99.9? Gold Coast shouldn’t be an issue?
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Absolutely they would be going backwards. In fact I’m not sure they already aren’t 
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The question is: If and when 3EL (Gold 1071) converts to FM will the transmitter be located at Mt Alexander or somewhere closer to Maryborough (the existing 1071 AM transmitter is at Carisbrook)?
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95.5 might be too close to the new 2TM FM. There is still 95.9 that was vacated by community broadcaster in the Brisbane Valley/Esk area that hasn’t been replaced.
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