Took a trip to Long Reef point yesterday (on Sydney northern beaches). It has great reception of the Central Coast stations. Newsradio was interesting you face one way (using my Sangean with headphone wire) you get i98 FM you face the other way its News Radio. It was pretty clear to my ears depending where you stand. Your “body” shields the signal. No sign of 2HD on 91.7 but I am sure I could get if i tried harder. Is 801 AM (SEN Track) on air now? I could not get it. That is unusual.
Coast FM (on 96.3 FM) sounds great. @RFBurns Classic hits sounds better on FM (in my view much better than the current DAB options in Sydney on 2CH or even 2UE).
It’s been mentioned on another thread that it has gone off-air.
I agree. Personally, I prefer Coast FM over all the local commercial stations. Musically, it has gone less soft, and at the same time, has gone a bit more modern, as in more skewed towards the 70s/80s, but still playing the odd 60s there. It’s a bit reminiscent of what 2GO sounded like in the 2000s, back when it was owned by RG, then MRR.
The Central Coast is quite lucky to have a decent community radio station that has a consistent music format on weekdays.
Yeah i remember going fishing when 2GO was FM 108 with Grandpa / Dad in a boat and losing interest with the fishing. I just enjoyed using my walkman and enjoy the classic hits rather than the fishing itself. Coast Rock FM was also a great listen too.
I think you meant 90.5 there.
Yes my bad, still tried Alive FM/2HD on 90.5 it was basically static there. SWR could get signal there on the peak… That station has an excellent site. Along with HHH FM was pretty poor.
Is 801 AM (SEN Track)
Yes my gut feel was it had been posted previously.
That’s probably because the station manager at Coast FM was the station manager at 2GO back in the 80’s when it was owned by WESGO. The Coast FM Program Director was also a DJ at 2GO back in the 90’s (I think he was there?), so yes they’ve very much wanted to turn Coast FM into that period of time, especially after 2GO changed to Triple M.
Thanks, I’ve worked hard on the processing recently, I took 5 weeks holidays from my TXA work from mid-January this year, & much to my family’s dismay, I spent 95% of it sitting re-writing the processor settings & listening intently to lots of music to get it sounding good. It also helps that pretty much the entire Classic Hits music library is now .wav audio & the studios are now also fully digital AoIP.
I’m hoping I’ll have more time over the next few months to work on getting song title & artist, now & next onto the RDS & web stream.
For those wondering about SEN Track Gosford on 801kHz.
I’ve just been in contact with the tech that looks after the site (Sydney based).
Not long after it came back on air after the recent floods (last month), they had a direct lightning strike & it blew up 4 of the 6 Power amplifiers in the transmitter, so they were running very low power for a while, & that repair has just been given approval to go ahead by SEN.
SEN are supposed to be monitoring it, but haven’t notified the tech that is been off air again for a few weeks now, he thinks they may have more damage from the lightning strike & it’s taken the last 2 Power amplifiers out now too?
Apparently it’s a major repair needed to the TX & they will be starting on that soon, but may find other problems now, so it’ll be back on air some time soon, but they can’t give a timeline at the moment.
Just for laughs, I emailed Star 104.5 last night, asking them why they had not played “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush - despite its #1 chart position.
This morning I actually received a reply from the PD telling me that they would be playing it. And they just did - for the first time, I believe.
I heard them play it around 10:30am this morning,. BTW I have heard them play it before in the last couple of weeks, it is not on high rotation like at Nova, Hit 101.3, and i98.
I was listening to Star 104.5 online a couple weeks back and heard it during the day. I think it was around lunch time? It’s really nice for the PD to take time to reply to you too. That’s rare.
Just listened to 107.7 for the first time in a while. The playlist was great, with some rarer tracks (eg. Ship of Fools by World Party) that I really enjoyed. However, the station felt quite automated and “empty” without an announcer.
Star has announcers on the weekend, even though they’re almost certainly voicetracked, and it feels more live as a result.
Looking at the latest (and previous) Central Coast ratings and Star104.5 is proof that lower cost local content can be a winner (so long as the music and announcers are right).
There is no need for big name metro shows in regional centres. Star104.5 is proof that local can work.
NewFM could very easily do the same just with a few minor tweaks to their music strategy.
I don’t mind the current NewFM imaging. I feel it’s their positioner and music strategy which needs improvement. The majority of their announcers are half decent as well for the market. And overall, the station sounds good considering it runs on Simian.
I feel the announcer standard for NewFM has dropped substantially since about this time last year. Some decent announcers left and boycotted the network.
Coast Rock FM was also a great listen too.