Their coverage is excellent up there with ABC Illawarra. When the fires were impacting the Central Coast hinterland areas Hit / Triple M coverage was not even close to that of 2ST / Power fm.
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An editorial piece on Radioinfo by Jason Morrison, News Director for Seven News Sydney (and former presenter on 2GB & 2UE), about the role of local commercial radio stations on the South Coast of NSW during the bushfire crisis.
Have a read here.
Also from Radioinfo, on another article:
In an example of radio industry cooperation during adversity, commercial network Grant Broadcasters is working with the ABC on the South Coast of NSW to keep transmissions on air during the fires in that area.
The ABC, through its transmission provider Broadcast Australia (recently renamed BAI Communications) asked if it could share Grant Broadcastersā nearby transmission mast and infrastructure, and has now combined its transmissions onto the Grant Broadcasters antenna.
BAI has also established additional temporary low power facilities at Batemans Hill for ABC Local Radio (operating on 101.9 MHz) and ABC television (operating on Channel 41). As this facility operates from a lower altitude and at lower power than those at Mt Wandera, its coverage will be largely limited within the town of Batemans Bay.
Read more here.
Notice on the bold above that the frequency is normally used by ABC Classic. Itās probably most likely a misprint on Radioinfoās behalf.
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Apparently not, hereās the details from ABCās own reception site:
TV AND RADIO OUTAGE (BATEMANS BAY 2536)
ABC Radio National, ABC Classic and ABC News on Radio services in Batemans Bay/Moruya from the transmission site at Mt. Wandera are currently off due bushfires at the transmitter site. We apologise for the disruption to your service. A temporary Batemans Bay Moruya transmission service has been established for Local Radio service has been re-tuned to 101.9 FM. A temporary ABC TV service has been established at Batemans Bay which reliably covers Batemans Bay and Moruya. As power restores across the community the extent of coverage will continue to be assessed. If you are not receiving this service, we recommend performing a full factory reset and on your digital equipment and a rescan. Alternatively, you can live stream the ABC broadcasts by following the links: ABC TV NSW Live Stream : ABC iview ABC South East NSW Live Audio - ABC listen Radio National live player - ABC listen ABC Classic https://radio.abc.net.au/stations/news/live More faults and outages
Thereās also another for TV outages further south:
TELEVISION OUTAGE (BATEMANS BAY 2536)
The ABC Digital Television service in the Narooma area from the transmission site at Buckridge Lookout is currently off due to bushfires. The ABC is aware and working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. We apologise for the disruption to your service. As an alternative, you can live stream the ABC broadcast by following the link: ABC TV NSW Live Stream : ABC iview More faults and outages
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Iām guessing 103.5 is running low power from Mount Wandera, using the 2EC/Power mast? The temporary tx on 101.9 would probably have an even smaller footprint than the TAB station on 96.3.
Looks like it will be an extended outage similar to that experienced in Gippsland in 2009. 103.5 cannot be heard up here at all so itās an almost completely clear channel for DX.
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My reading of the above is that 103.5 is off totally at the moment, and Local Radio is the only ABC radio service available on a temporary frequency and at a lower power.
Iām guessing 103.5 isnāt suitable for use at a lower power possibly because itās too close to 104.3 Power which must be operating normally.
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Yes, could be a TX or combiner better suited to 101.9 from the temp site. Perhaps the equipment for the temp site is already tuned to 101.9. Thereās a range of contingencies to consider.
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It will be interesting to see if what weāve seen over the last week or so will change how ACMA approach AM to FM conversion.
For me, the lack of diversity of broadcast sites is just as concerning - while it may not have made a difference in some cases this time around given the broad spread of the fireground, there is limited resilience to failure (regardless of means)
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B-Rock (and maybe 2BS FM) is one of the few exceptions to this in the regions; they have a licensed 100 watt backup transmitter on the roof of their studios in the centre of Bathurst. That wouldnāt exactly provide blanket coverage but itās something.
I reckon this was designed with bushfire in mind; the main tx site at Mount Ovens is very bushfire prone.
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2ECās AM TX at Kalaru has remained on air throughout the regionās bushfires? Thereās the proof.
A legacy from the Camplin era. How many of Billās earlier acquisitions have this?
From memory UGFM 106.9 now have a backup transmitter at their local studio in the township of Alexandra. Several of their transmitters are in bushfire prone areas, as surviving Marysville residents will attest to . On the subject of Marysville, re radio history, Flow FM (Freshstream as it was known then) had their TX installation destroyed by the firestorm at the time, the owners never replaced this service TX after the firesā¦
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Probably because the whole of Marysville got wiped out completely I think? No point putting it back on then I suppose.
The town has been rebuilt
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ABC Radio Adelaide has been doing a great job of bushfire coverage (for Kangaroo Island) yesterday and right now in the early hours of Friday morning
Sidenote: playing the SEWS tone for only two rings is not effective!
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Fairly sure thatās against the rules too. Most ABC broadcasts Iāve heard start fading it out on the fourth or fifth ring
Itās better this morning but IMO broadcasters really should let the tone ring a min 8x before beginning to fade.
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ABC Gippsland caught erasing news articles
This is the story that ABC Gippsland deleted, their commercial counterpart never deleted their story:
This matter was raised numerous times on the ABC Gippsland facebook last week and deleted every time.
It is significant as the area that protesters prevented hazard reduction in winter burned last week.
Readers have reminded the ABC of deleting the article, most of which you can view here:
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The posts were from September and October which is I believe when the protest and planned hazard reduction burns occurred.
In the end the planned hazard reduction burns did occur but covered a far smaller area than originally planned.
āScaled back the planned burns. The original plan was to burn 370 hectares but reduced it to 9 hectares.ā
Take that as you will though, was it the protestors or was it poor weather conditions that lead to the reduction in area from 370ha to 9ha?
Either way, some potentially dodgy editorial decisions going on at ABC Gippsland.
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While the charge is significant, I donāt know how I feel about it being led by a ānewsā source of this nature.
There could be reasons for removing an article of such a nature which could be considered inflammatory (pun definitely not intended) at this sensitive time. It might be good however for the ABC to explain that though, if that is indeed the case
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Yep - SEWS is meant to be sounded for 15 seconds according to the national guidlines (sourced via the DFES website)
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