Online Radio Box does provide the log for SWR Triple 9 on their website, which you can see here: SWR 99.9 FM playlist
And yes, I agree with you that it’s probably the best FM station in the Sydney metro area in terms of music variety, probably our closest equivalent to what River 949 (a commercial station) is to Brisbane. With that in mind, C91.3 in Campbelltown, a commercial station, should be sounding more closer to SWR Triple 9 than with Sydney’s CHR commercial stations.
Is this visible from the M7?
Wondered if the four legged tower on the hill east of the M7 when south of the M4 is a part or whole of a tower that was once situated elsewhere. If so, where from?
Yes, it’s on the tower atop the big hill on the eastern side of the motorway. I haven’t been up there myself, but I daresay a 360 panorama taking in the CBD, Blue Mountains, and Mount Gibraltar (Mittagong) would be on offer.
There are a few towers in that area. These are the tower coordinates: -33.861864, 150.850878
There is a 4-element folded-dipole array on the tower. The tower is owned by Vertel.
I am actually going up there today for maintenance. I might take a few pics
Here are some photos of SWR’s Transmitter site and gear.
Unfortunately there are quite a few trees blocking what would be a great view, otherwise I would’ve taken some sort of panorama.
Welcome to the forum, Alex, and thanks for the shots!
I assume the ‘Compact Flash’ slot is for backup music, in case the STL goes down.
Alive 90.5 has one for when the program feed goes dead. My guess is that the one for SWR is for the same purpose.
Thanks for the welcome! Long time reader, first time writer haha.
Correct, the CF card has music on it with imaging. I went up there to replace the files with new music that has current “SWR Triple 9” imaging on it.
The 1RU unit below the CF card player detects silence and MPX signal loss. Therefore, if there is silence greater than approx 30 seconds or if the STL fails, It triggers the player to start and switches the input to the transmitter from the STL receiver to the CF card player. That way there is at least some sort of content going to air if something were to fail along the chain before the transmitter.
FBi in Sydney will become available via DAB+ again from June 5, replacing FBi Click.
More: https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/fbi-click-be-replaced-945-dab
…and with that, I believe all of Sydney’s metro-wide community radio stations will be available on DAB+ from June 5. When the switch happens, will Sydney be the only city in Australia to have all of it’s metro-wide community radio stations simulcasting on both analogue and digital?
In any case, FBi Click had been transmitting on Digital Radio in lieu of the main station since mid-2014.
I noticed on Friday morning 101.3 Murwillumbah was back on air with again a very strong signal - the car autoseek locked onto it at Ormeau, not bad for a station whose licence supposedly ends at the NSW border
Caught a bit of chat in a morning surf report slot - Mark mentioned to his guest that they had to relocate their transmitter which saw them off-air for about six months, but seemed to suggest those issues had been resolved. Station is IDing as 101.3 FM and carried a Murwillumbah-based sponsor’s ad in the few minutes I was tuned in
I haven’t been able to receive 101.3 in Brisbane yet. For me the Noosa Community station occupies frequency whereas last time around the NSW station could be heard over the top of Noosa.
Some changes underway with programming on Brisbane Bayside community station Bay FM according to this article. They’ve dropped the John Laws Morning Program, and are now playing “mainly popular music from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, with some recent songs and classics from the 1960s”. They’ve brought in a couple of radio consultants for guidance.
According to research by McNair yellowSquares on behalf of the CBAA, Community Radio in Australia has had its highest national listenership on record at 5.362 million listeners a week.
Read more here: https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/community-radio-listening-reaches-new-heights
i have been listening to vision FM the last few days via streaming in my car. i know it gets hate around here but they serve the christian community extremely well - argubly much better than the qusi-commercial city stations i have heard, and even much better than inspire on digital
Just been looking at the log and it really is an impressive playlist for variety. It’s a shame SWR isn’t on DAB in Sydney. I’m surprised this station doesn’t get more of a mention on here.
SWR is my default music choice in the car; the mix is 50% contemporary hits and 50% classic hits. I’d prefer an 80-20 split in favour of classic hits. The variety is, as you mention, impressive and does not shy away from the more obscure material.
Is Andrew Bartlett still doing his Monday bfast show on ZZZ? Following the resignation of the female Greens senator, on count back, Andrew Bartlett will make a return to the senate once the formalities are complete:
http://www.4zzzfm.org.au/program/burst-of-brisbane-for-breakfast
@NRN11 do you know?
@RFBurns there seems to be an audio problem at Coast FM right now, the sound only seems to be coming out of the right channel, and the low seems pretty low?
