Would they have been stripped for non use or something?
I wondered this too. If a licence doesn’t go to air for a particular timeframe, does it automatically get surrendered? I feel like this has happened/been discussed in the context of a couple of community stations in the past.
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I reckon that’s the reason. Or it could be an eccentric relative of the Camerons firing up the transmitter.
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Unless the ACMA can find a Suitable FM Frequency In Ballarat for Narrowcasting.
Sort of. As it’s a a narrowcasting licence they can’t get competition from a full blown commercial station. By definition a narrowcast station is limited enough in what it’s allowed to broadcast this it can’t provide an effective competition to commercial stations. But it’s certainly a case of they might as well own it so that someone else can’t. The same story is replicated in many other markets.
Not automatically, but there is a process someone else could go through to claim it as being unused and trigger an auction. Different processes for HPONs and LPONs as LPONs are given out for virtually nothing while HPONs have at times been auctioned for quite sizable amounts of money.
I’d say what’s happened is that now that Geelong Broadcasters are virtually independent and 3CW is no longer leasing the licence, they’ve decided to use it to put something to air. Any delay between now and when 3CW shut down would just be because it would be a fairly low priority in their whole operation.
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The stronger “Use it or lose it” rules only applies to LPONs; 1341 is high-power.
In this case, the broadcast licence for 3GL was never fully given up - more correctly, a new 3GL broadcast licence was created when the “old” 3GL converted to FM as K-Rock, as the 3CAT licence of the latter kept the 1930 start date. (Similar situation to some of the other Victorian FM conversions, where the AM station was reborn as a new licence afterward.)
This might’ve been fine at the time - indeed, briefly it could have been run as commercial - as I’m not sure they had quite combined with Bay FM at this point (can stand corrected on which absorbed the other, this post from last year suggested Grant got Bay FM a little before Hoyts sold K-Rock to them, but the time difference would’ve been minimal so, details 
)
That’s only useful paired with an apparatus licence - and the current HPON licence was only activated in July, so even if it was low-powered, I think that’d be too early for use it/lose it to apply.
Given the various few services in community space where “seniors” is seen as a valid community (Five-O Plus, Capital Community Radio in Perth, etc), I suspect 50s/60s would probably be arguable as narrowcast - it’s a bit of an abandoned format in commercial space after all; that age is more or less in “Silver Memories” territory now.
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Oh no, just checking the Melbourne-based SDR right now and 3GL appears off-air once again.
Hoping this is just a temporary thing…
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I was listening to 3GL yesterday from the Mornington Peninsula and it sounded fantastic. Sadly - this morning it was just static.
I had a feeling this might happen. That’s why I recorded this for posterity:
I have heard murmurings in circles that this was just a test broadcast, with a launch happening sometime next year. The cynic in me says that they were just keeping the seat warm for the likes of Vision. 1341 could save many souls after all, particularly those lost on Bass Strait or simply adrift on the Spirit Of Tasmania (from Geelong).
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that’s what I said before. I will not be surprised if Vision Christian, Vision Australia Radio (RPH), RSN or SEN will get this licence full time.
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1341 3GL back on air sometime in the last hour or so.
May have been some work been done on the site or something
I can imagine Vision Christian might be interested as AFAIK they don’t have any AM or FM transmitters in Melbourne/Geelong apart from some off-band AM frequencies?
Vision Australia/RPH, SEN and RSN would be well enough received in Geelong from Melbourne. I can’t imagine they’d have much need for a Geelong AM relay.
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Yep, 1611 and 1665 for Vision Christian Radio in Melbourne.
3RPH has a Geelong service on 99.5 FM - this now feeds the 882 Warnambool service.
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Off air feed or just the program?
I was referring to program feed. Originally 882 (and the FM service before it) was a relay of the Melbourne service, this appears to have changed during the pandemic.
Mildura was also consolidated into being a Bendigo relay around the same time.
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Ditto Warragul which now relays Melbourne but previously also had local programming.
You’re right, pretty sure they all changed together at some point over summer 2020-21.
A TX that hasn’t actively been used in the past two or so years could have also developed some issues over that time? Issues that may present once again when it’s turned back on 24/7 for a while? 
Hoping it comes back online soon, and for a while. I’ll be back down in Sleepy Hollow from this weekend, and would love to hear it live with my own ears (and own radio)
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Gone again.
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