A pity, because those services really should be on AM!
You’ve just answered your own question.
Don’t know if geoblocking live streams to specific local regions is technically possible, but I wouldn’t be overly surprised if the radio networks eventually do what the commercial TV networks already do with their live streaming services by determining what stream(s) you can access by using IP addresses and possibly also asking website/app users to sign up for accounts.
Shhh dont give them ideas 
Don’t forget that you can make a submission to ACMA if you’re that way inclined. Incorporating evidence, such as the coverage maps that Ant has shown, may at least earn your submission a brief glance (before it gets “round filed”).
Unfortunately, though the choice of 107.7 for 2GN is poor, most of the interference will occur beyond the boundaries of the Goulburn licence area. 2GO will likely interfere just north of the boundary (Uringalla Creek).
95.1 would’ve been too close to Power FM Nowra for 2GN to be allocated there, especially if the 40kW ERP is left intact in the direction of the Southern Highlands.
I went with 95.1 as it is not in use in Tuggeranong. As others mentioned let’s go with 97.9 as an alternative to 107.7.
For those wondering about the low power 7AD and 7BU, I checked at lunchtime and they were still operating but I think 7AD may be even less power, I tried tuning 7AD right in the middle of Devonport and the quality was the lowest I’ve heard it before. Will listen again over the weekend.
My coverage maps suggested the same. Remember these maps are urban 66db/ rural 54db coverage. I also have the option to do mobile coverage. This will extended the coverage of 2GN and 2GO and create a bigger area of interference.
I will look at this tomorrow.
I’ve heard it all before about the FM sounds better than AM argument, but I for one, am not too excited about these conversions happening, & if I was one of the station owners in a solo market, I’d be waiting a while before even considering the change, I think some may be sorry, but it’ll be too late then to go back.
For example go from Sydney to Brisbane up the New England Hwy. there’s big areas along the drive where you can’t get any FM radio reception & that’s in the car where the signal can be lower strength & you can still listen, live on a farm trying to use a portable or home stereo, & the no FM reception areas become even larger, though in comparison you can listen to AM radio pretty much the entire way.
I’d say most station owners are falsely thinking, hey our current FM station gets out there pretty well & far, so lets make them both the same?
However as we’re seeing, they’re not identical specs, in most cases we see the new TX is directional & lower power, compared with the existing FM of higher power & omni-directional, & in some cases the new FM is at a different TX location, so coverage areas are not going to be anywhere near the same.
I think they’ll find not only is the new FM service not as great a coverage as the AM was, but it’s probably not going to be as good as coverage as the existing FM service, & they’ll lose the older listeners (who the AM station is usually targeted at), to the ABC (who’ll still be on AM).
To be honest I’m not looking forward to losing 2XL & 2GN on AM to DX at night enjoying the music mix when I can’t sleep, & before you say, “but you can stream it on your phone”, well yes I can, but I prefer to listen to the radio even on AM with night sky wave.
The perception that everyone now streams radio is so false it’s astounding, I read something a few weeks back (wish I could find it again) about how few people actually do stream radio. Most of the time any metro station in Australia would probably have less than 1000 concurrent listeners streaming online, regional stations most of the time probably less than 100 concurrent listeners. Much like DAB+, it’s talked up, but mostly imaginary, but that’s off topic for here.
I did a simulation of the mobile (car) reception of 2GN /2GO 107.7 for interference in the Southern Highlands, and found the interference to be not as bad as first thought.
The main areas of significant co-channel interference will potentially be around.
Hill top - with 2GO received on north facing side with LOS towards Sydney / Central Coast and 2GN facing south.
Top of Macquarie Pass
Bowral bypass where motorway cuts up through the hill, 2GO will potentially dominate here as this has LOS to the north
The Gib, north facing lookouts will have strong 2GO, south facing lookouts 2GN
Sutton forest along motorway- at 8.75KW the 2GN signal will be weak in patches, with the competing 2GO signal at similar strength, there is potential for co-channel interference.
2GN should be strong enough on the car radio to be free of co-channel interference from 2GO in the town centres of Mittagong, Bowral, Moss Vale and Berrima, however it will be significantly weaker than Eagle fm which is at 40KW.
And lastly tropo, ducting is quite common in all seasons from the north and allows Sydney fm to be received along the route down to Lake George. Strong ducting from Sydney and the Central Coast could cause major co-channel interference to Marulan.
Again 107.7 is the wrong frequency choice for the proposed fm conversion of 2GN with 97.9 being a better option to avoid interference from 2GO.
I’m not too sure about that. I did the same simulation of mobile reception through the same website as the one you used, and find that 2GO is more likely to dominate 107.7 rather than 2GN in the centre of Mittagong.
I can certainly get where you’re coming from RFB. But the FM plant will be a lot less costly to maintain despite the capital cost of setting it up.
Like others, I can’t see why the specs of the converted stations shouldn’t be the same as the supplementary licences. It’s stupid.
I must have entered the data in differently to you, I had the strong 2GO reception to the north of Mittagong at Hill Top.
on my mobile coverage map Mittagong has the weakest 2GN fm signal of all the Southern Highlands towns, so 2GO could potentially dominate here.
Same for me. I was talking about the centre of Mittagong, not the area around Colo Vale/Hill Top, in case anyone’s confused.
For that particular simulation, I used 33/44 under ‘Custom’, which would be about the same as ‘FM Car Receiver Stereo’.
Rechecked my map and it matches with yours, no 2GN Fm reception in Mittagong town centre. With 2GO being the receivable signal. In Bowral 2GN Fm received instead of 2GO.
Thank you
I agree with you about streaming figures being way over rated. I think very few people apart from us who are interested in radio stream it.
But I disagree about DAB+. If anything I think that’s under rated. Especially given penetration into cars. I hear DAB+ in shops everywhere
It’s only really the Guyra to Tenterfield stretch that is lacking in FM radio coverage.
Glen Innes, located in-between those two places, have FM translator services for Gem FM, ABC RN, SBS, community station 2CBD & Sky Sports Radio. Deepwater, between Glen Innes & Tenterfield, has a local service for 2CBD.
True, though they are fairly low powered and not strong enough to provide coverage from Guyra up to Tenterfield.
I have no problems with FM reception along the New England Highway. FM 100.3 (Armidale) is strong most of the way to Glen Innes, though weaker as you drop off the Divide at Ben Lomond. From that point you can tune to Glen Innes (Gem FM) and further on, Rebel and Breeze from Tenterfield.
I’m pretty sure I checked last night and both 7BU and 7AD were still going on AM. Tried again this afternoon in Ulverstone and tonight in Devonport and 7BU was completely unintelligible so I reckon that 558AM is now gone but 900AM was still going strong… or not so strong as it was.