Are you guys getting closer to a test transmission?
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Hopefully. We are still waiting on ACMA’s response, but we have a very exciting pre launch happenings coming soon before the end of this month. 
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Do you think you’ll actually get an opportunity to put a compelling case to ACMA for a full-time licence if you’re allocated, what, 24 hours of airtime?
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More likely we will get a Temporary licence to broadcast for a day or so per week. If one of the other community licences pull out as we suspect they might then it be more possible for us
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Sure, but in the long term how are you (or any of the other groups) able to prove the viability of the service if you’re timesharing with 3 or 4 other groups?
Not having a go at you, I think it’s farcical that there’s soon to be 5 competing groups all sharing the one frequency.
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I agree, I have worked hard to grow Starter FM online first to get the name out there so that if we were to get a FM TCBL licence, we would use it as an extension but still heavily promote our online side to listeners and advertisers where we can offer a 24/7 solution.
Ultimately though it would have been better if ACMA had given out sperate frequencies to each group to show what they can do or give each station 3 months or so of 24/7 broadcasting to see if they are able to succeed.
I remember the bad old days of the old aspirant broadcast quotas (as in the 90s) when the “then” regime only allowed 90 days a year per aspirant. I found the SWR FM idea rather novel as they broke the days up in such a way where they broadcasted Saturday and Sunday all day (48 hours) for 45 weeks of the year, where then the station would be shut down for maintanence dureing January.
It would at least stretch the days out, and give everyone a regular opportunity to broadcast on one hand, and others to listen on the other, and it would keep the station focused with a presence in the community that would be hidiously hard to keep now if you have to time-share with four other stations over a weeks timetable.
But uh yes, I can get very sentimental about those days at the GreenHouse at Aquilina Reserve Rooty Hill. Too me they were the best days of SWR FM and the most stable, I left around early 1998, and I believe there was some upheaval during 1999 2000. During the GreenHouse days, the OBs and the Small Day Ins were the most memorable, but more often then not the hassles management had with the transmitter as I recall it was located on the top of one of the rides at Australia’s wonderland.
It could only be attended to when the ride wasn’t in operation, as the machineries counter wait would prevent anyone climbing up the structure during use, so if the transmitter screwed up Saturday morning, it was bye bye to a whole weekends programming, as repairing the transmitting antenna would present it’s first opportunity on Sunday night into Monday morning. The following week management would then have a whole heap of pissed off programmers, and some refusing to pay airtime fees, because they felt nothing went to air and all the so called argy bargy, oh, it was all so much fun.
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Interesting story, how was the coverage when it worked that is. 
Here is a bit of light reading about the SWR-FM transmissions from the “Space Probe 7” ride at Wonderland Sydney.
Apparently coverage of SWR from Space Probe was good, but after a few months it all went pear-shaped. Disagreements after Wonderland management changes resulted in the end of Space Probe being used as a SWR transmission site.
I remember that green house very well. I used to go there in 1997 as part of a radio course that used to be run from Mount Druitt TAFE.
At the time I lived in the Blue Mountains, I could receive SWR FM reasonably well in Leura. It was covered in some noise in Stereo, but very clean mono signal. Sometimes overnight, the signal would almost be clean stereo, with only very very slight noise, but this would often be on full moon nights. Not sure about radio transmission technocalities, but I “think” moon positionings do play a part in FM reception. When the transmitter was moved back to the Mt Druitt TAFE building, my reception in Leura was a very week mono signal, which would get marginally better over nights.
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Maybe reception improved when SWR played ‘Come On Eileen’, too.
‘Eileen…toora to Leura…’
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Given there are no Sydney-wide FM frequencies available, is it an option to apply for the vacant Sydney-wide community AM frequency on 783 kHz? I assume the holder of that licence would be entitled to access the DAB+ community spectrum?
I cannot see what is wrong with 89.5 MHz, the closest broadcast if I am correct is Goulburn.
Would not be usable for Sydney wide, but certainly locally based community radio.
Could 89.9 and 89.5 be used simultaneously to allow two community stations to run test transmissions in Windsor?
This would allow each aspirant more time to prove their worth to ACMA with the 89.9 frequency being the one allocated.
Starter fm on 783khz AM, dance music on AM does not sound good. Does anyone remember when Raw Fm was on 1476 AM from Penrith.
It was around the beginning of 2006. It did not last long.
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I was suggesting 783 kHz more so as a pathway to DAB+ since only Sydney-wide community stations get access to DAB+ and that’s the only Sydney-wide frequency available.
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I’m a bit late coming to the party, but can somebody explain the format of SWR Triple 9 FM?
Just looking at their program guide online & I quite like the fact they’ve kept the “miscellaneous” programming away from breakfast & workdays.
Is this allowed by the CBAA? I suppose so - given the large amount of community programming outside of workdays.
Well done to SWR. A clever & strategic way to getaway with a consistent format on a community radio station.
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There are a few other general (ie. non-specialist) community stations around that have a consistent format on weekdays.
These include, to name at least a few:
- Coast FM 96.3 - Central Coast, NSW
- 2NUR 103.7 - Newcastle
- 94.1FM - Gold Coast
There’s also Sunshine FM on the Sunshine Coast, but that’s classified as a ‘Mature Age’ specialist community station.
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And Radio Metro the reverse on the Gold Coast for those of ‘immature age’.
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If it’s filling a gap in the market I think it’s fine, I have an issue when it’s just an excuse to commercialise a format and ran by ex commercial guys who found themselves out of the commercial sector.
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Many of us do.
Has-been radio abounds.
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