Because 101.3 is Already used in Noosa as a Community Station, Bridge FM would’nt leave 99.7 anyway, But 89.9 can be used for Narrowcasting in the Brisbane CBD for Special Events. 4KQ’s fine as it is on 693am.
Community stations can be moved. They don’t always get a say. Many would disagree with 4KQ being fine on AM.
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It’d be good to one day have 4KQ on FM…provided that the station’s current Classic Hits format (and that local Brisbane feel, somewhat reminiscent of what 2WS used to be like for Western Sydney) continues.
Not sure if many up there would want their own equivalent to WSFM/Gold, which is pretty much what I think a KQFM would eventually become.
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I am not a Brisbane person but be careful what you wish for. I think I listened more to 2uw and 2ws when both were AM stations. I remember I couldn’t wait until both were FM. 2ws was ok for the first 10 years on FM, MIX was ok to start with but was extremely repetitive and safe. Moral of the story, now I think , what if one of stations wasn’t FM? Maybe we would of had a 4KQ in Sydney. Sure maybe commercial radio was better in the 80s and I do have my rose coloured glasses on.
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Spot on @laoma. If 4KQ was to move to FM it would definitely change format to target a younger audience - similar to WSFM and 97.3 could also move younger, although Nova is still a 50% shareholder in this license so they would have an input and I don’t think they would want 97.3 to become a direct competitor with Nova 106.9.
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However, ARN would have to be careful if they shifted 4KQ demos not to cannibalise the 97.3 audience. ATM in the Brisbane market, it is the closest station to WSFM which is why 4KQ works so well now.
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I suppose the most relevant thing out of Perth might be a decision that the ACMA are willing to do conversions to FM for stations in competitive markets.
Brisbane/Adelaide might seem very farfetched, but regional areas where they can’t access the current AM-FM conversion scheme would be a good next step.
Especially where it would just be a matter of cleaning up allocations that have resulted in a proxy FM conversion.
With Brisbane, converting all stations would seem likely impossible - so it would have to be an auction - perhaps they could have an open auction for a new FM frequency but allow the existing AM stations to count their AM license as an offset of the final value? I think something like that has been used in the past but my brain doesn’t go that far…
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I agree the Brisbane situation is likely to result in an auction - either a new licence or just auction off 1 or 2 conversions (e.g. 4BK to B105). Potentially if they can only find two FM frequencies they might give one to the ABC and auction the other as a conversion.
Also agree it’s likely that if Perth goes well they’ll move to allow conversions in competitive markets. That might be why they held off re-planning Qld which was on their forward plan but then removed. There are a lot AM stations in competitive markets in regional Qld, probably the most in Australia (e.g. 4CA, 4MK, 4RO/4CC, 4GR/4WK/4AK, 4SB, 4GY - the list goes on and on).
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Having “ABC Classic Music” to be DAB only in some markets is an interesting concept. They may need to increase the bit rates to higher than 80 bits. I know 702 AM in Sydney is a real powerhouse as are most of the capital city AM frequencies. I am concern that up the Putty road for example won’t not get great FM reception. Even parts of the Blue Mountains may have issues.
If 2BL was to go FM, I’d reckon they’d simulcast with 702. As you say there are some remote areas like the Putty Road and even out the back of the Blue Mountains (Little Hartley, Megalong Valley) that wouldn’t get a usable FM signal, but receive good coverage from 702.
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You can also see from Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast radio ratings that the 50kw ABC metro stations are well utilised outside their immediate area even with the presence of a local ABC station on FM.
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If the ABC Local stations in metro markets ever go FM, you’d think the existing AM services would have to remain on-air indefinitely.
As for ABC Classic…it’s not hard to imagine fans of that station/classical music in general being the type who’d be extremely vocal about a move to DAB+ only and having to put up with compressed audio streams!
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Agreed. It would piss off a lot of ABC Classic FM listeners if it went to DAB+ only.
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I wonder if 92.9 FM needs some sort of “syncing” (I forget the proper term), ie put a repeater on top of the blue mountains at Wentworth Falls as high power (same sync) … and also one in the current location on 92.9 FM. Maybe potentially they could switch off 702 AM.
If they made 92.9 powerful enough from the Blue Mountains , to cover the eastern area of Sydney perhaps 92.5 FM on the Central Coast can change locations and be at Bouddi National Park to enhance coverage on the Northern beaches. I understand they may still have a local breakfast? Could be a gap there.
The problem with broadcasting a high powered Sydney fm station from the Blue Mountains (Kurrajong Heights, Wentworth Falls, Mt Tomah) etc is the deficiencies in coverage in the Eastern Suburbs, Northern Beaches, and the Harbour side suburbs.
ACMA could for a start change the specs of the National fm services at Gore Hill to 150KW OD. I believe they have similar specs to the commercial fm stations.
@RFBurns would be able to confirm that.
RE Little Hartley as mentioned in the earlier post by @dxnerd i can get the Sydney fm stations quite well there on my car radio, they seek in quite a few places.
You would need to find a site that can provide blanket coverage from Bathurst to Little Hartley / Megalong Valley for the CW Suite of ABC National fm stations.
The problem is Ovens Range does not cover as well to the east as Mt Lambie does.
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All the FM’s at Gore Hill share the same antenna array (except FBI who use a small side-mount array), so both the Commercials & the Nationals have the same specs.
The main FM antennas at Gore Hill & Artarmon are pretty much the same, & while they are DA, for arguments in here, both are as good as being OD.
Making one or both OD, would be of little benefit, you’d have to be way out towards the edges of the reception area & only small parts might gain a little bit of a stronger signal, anywhere within the Sydney basin you wouldn’t really notice much or any difference anywhere & the likelihood of it throwing more signal over the Blue Mountains would be negligible.
If I get a chance over the next few days I’ll go through all the documentation at work & find the pattern for the Main FM array at Artarmon, I can’t post all the details here, but can generalise where the lobes are strongest & where they pull back, but I can tell you IIRC the weakest lobe by far at Artarmon, is the one out to the East, so power isn’t wasted going out to sea.
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I’ve read through the antenna documentation at work for the Artarmon Commercial FM antenna & spoken to our Engineer about it, & can give these following details.
Gore Hill may differ slightly to Artarmon, but I don’t have access to any technical documents about it, it’s possible it might be a bit more OD, & I’m not sure on the direction of the antenna or tower faces at Gore Hill?
Artarmon is a 4 sided, 6 bay (levels), panel (24 panel total), Right Hand Circular, VHF Band 2 88-108MHz array.
It’s an unequal power split, phased directional array with a 4:4:1:1 power split, which means 2 faces have 4 times the power of the other 2 faces going into the elements (not resultant ERP power levels which will differ because of the element, panel & face phasing).
The 4 faces are named A, B, C, D, with face A centred at 63 degrees from True North, physically face B is at 90 degrees to face A & so on around the tower, electrically their relative phase is different to their physical.
Power splits are face A-1, B-1, C-4, D-4.
Horizontal & Vertical polarisation radiation patterns differ, but for ease of understanding (hopefully), I’ll indicate rough power levels for the horizontal pattern, as if you were standing on top of the tower looking down over the antenna.
Using True North as the 0 degree start point, there’s a notch about 9 degrees which is -8 dB from full power, this comes out with a lobe at about 27 degrees which is around -5dB from full power, this lobe reduces down to another notch at approx 63 degrees (flat on face A) around -12dB from full power, there’s another lobe at 105 degrees which is around -6dB from full power, this goes down to another notch at 135 degrees falling to about -12dB from full power, this goes out to another lobe at around 187 degrees which is -6dB down from full power, there’s another notch at about 208 degrees which is around -8dB from full power, we then go out to the main power lobes first one at 230 degrees, (just off physical centre of face C) which is around -0.9dB down from full power, this comes in to a deep 2 degree wide notch at 275 degrees which is about -7dB down from full power, then there’s another main power lobe at about 293 degrees which is about -0.9dB from full power, there’s another small notch at about 315 degrees which is around -3dB from full power then we go out the the last main power lobe at 340 degrees which is about -0.9dB from full power.
Full power is 150kW ERP, sorry I can’t be more accurate & it’s detailed what I’ve said, but hopefully you can understand or make out the pattern, as you can probably tell/make out, to achieve the deep notches (essentially North & South), but more so the deep 2 degree notch at 275 degrees, at no point in the horizontal radiation pattern does the Artarmon Commercial FM antenna array push out full power at 150kW.
I don’t have the time right now, but if someone wants to do the calculations & work out what power levels are actually (roughly) pushed out in what directions, you’re welcome to do it & post back here, they will roughly meet the licence specs listed by ACMA, taking into account no point reaches full 150kW, so all points will be a -?kW figure.
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A wasted frequency on the Gold Coast is 95.7 News Radio because the News Radio service from the Northern Rivers would be able to be heard there(I can pick it up in Logan) So shut down 95.7 and make it available for Brisbane
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Except that those buildings that are shaded to the south may struggle to get an adequate signal. Perfectly fine if you have a good line of sight to the south though.
And you could say the same thing about Radio National too (96.9 and 90.1).
Classic FM and Triple J are time zone based programs however.
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A possible solution for moving the 4 Brisbane suburban community stations to make 99.7 and 101.3 available for commercial licences for the conversion of 4KQ and 4BH to Fm:
100.3 Wynnum to move to 92.9
101.1 Logan to move to 91.3
99.7 Redcliffe to move to 93.7
101.5 Caboolture to move to 100.1
I understand 101.3 is more difficult as community stations will also need to be moved in Noosa and Murwillumbah but there should be plenty of available frequencies for those community stations to move to in their respective markets.
I still think it’s a remote to zero chance that there will be any Am to Fm conversions in Brisbane, however this is an option for moving the Brisbane suburban community stations.
Sydney and Melbourne would have a similar problem, there are many more suburban community stations in those cities. 0.4 spacing from the city-wide frequencies would be an option.
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