What a fascinating indictment on the ACMA (and the agencies before them). Commercial, community, national: a station should be free from interference within its service area. I wonder whether Life FM (105.1) or Phoenix (106.7) have ever been wiped out by the high-powered Melbourne stations on those frequencies? In car, Life - and presumably Phoenix - drops out well before Kyneton where 3MMM blasts in.
Speaking of Kyneton: drove up to Bendigo on Sunday afternoon and caught some of Fresh 101.5. In quite a long sponsorship block, I noticed several sponsors based in Kyneton. Felt quite unusual on first thought, but consulting the RRL and sure enough, Kyneton is within Bendigo RA4.
Looking at the maps further raises some anomalies:
- As you might expect, Bendigo RA1 (Hit 91.9, MMM 93.5) has the widest footprint, with the licence area extending north to the Murray River - encompassing Echuca and Kerang - as far west as St Arnaud and Maryborough in the south. It stops short of Daylesford, yet the spa town is included in Bendigo RA2 (Vision Aus 88.7).
- Bendigo RA4 (Fresh 101.5) encircles but does not serve Daylesford. Uniquely, it does however cover Woodend - home of Highlands FM.
- Bendigo RA5 (Life 105.1, Phoenix 106.7) is limited largely to Bendigo and surrounding suburbs, stopping short of Marong to the west and, perhaps short-sightedly, the rapidly growing Huntly to the north. The smaller licence area at least makes sense when considering the frequency choices for these services, co-channeling with high-powered Melbourne FMs.
- Bendigo RA3 (KLFM 96.5) is most peculiar: another frequency not in line with other Bendigo services, yet with a wider area to the west and east of the Bendigo urban area than Bendigo RA5, along with the enclaved inclusion of Castlemaine - albeit one that requires the 106.3 repeater.
The precedent of DAB+ in Hobart suggests that, should the rollout ever extend into Bendigo, all five community stations would be eligible for spectrum on that multiplex, with the service area matching that of Bendigo RA1. For Life and Phoenix, this would represent a significant extension to their current licence area; for Fresh and Vision, this would at least theoretically be a reduction on their FM service area (in excluding Woodend and Daylesford respectively).
And this is before we even venture into Maryborough…