Also decent reception across the bay into West Gippsland. I am guessing running at full power. Seemed to be pips on the hour, no ads or announcers.
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As someone who grew up listening/dxing to the old AM classic hits stations from around the country with my parents in the 90s Iâm actually really loving listening to this revival via Melbourne SDR atm - itâs like being a kid again and/or in some type of strange 60s time warp
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Receiving it by Skywave into the NSW Southern Highlands, was playing Fats Domino followed by a jingle.
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For those not in Melbourne you can pick it up via Kiwi SDR, find the closest SDR via this map
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Better than 3MP?
Had a brief listen today, I have to think at this point playing 60s is just as narrowcast of a format as Country or Dance formats that commonly get a run on HPONs.
If it was FM Iâd instantly assume pirate, but Iâd have to assume this is coming from the old 3CW site, but it still feels fishy - some engineer having some fun over the holiday period? The signal seems very strong so I canât imagine itâs anything other than a real AM broadcast site.
Otherwise, does any aspect of the ACMAâs rules on âuse it or lose itâ apply to high power narrowcasters? Theyâve done a push on wasted LPONs before - but this suddenly lighting up all this time later might just be to ensure that the license isnât surrendered?
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Just saw this on Facebook, posted yesterday. No idea of the accuracy of this information:
Word on the (James) street is 3GL is in the process of being re-launched on 1341AM in the Geelong area.
More information is expected from Geelong Broadcasters in the New Year but test transmissions are now being conducted.
(apologies if this has already been shared here. Iâd not seen it)
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Somethingâs altered the equation, yes.
Of course, as in Ballarat, the big commercial owner has effectively kept hold of the old AM to prevent any real competition - which in a just world would have the ACMA looking hard at them for such a BLEEP move.
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Hmm very interesting if itâs only a HPON licence thereâs not much Grant can do though. I suppose if they argued a AM station playing 50/60s music is niche now thoughâŚ
The 50s and 60s would be the equivalent of music from the early 1900s playing on 1980s radio.
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Somethingâs motivated them to do this but we donât know what. Must be pretty important if they feel the need to revive 1341, though.
2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Racing Radio
Different to Ballarat
In Geelong, 1341 is owned by the same owner as the two commercial licenses, but is for Open Narrowcasting. 3CW used it for a long time but no more.
In Ballarat, 1314 is a commercial license owned by someone differerent to the other two licenses, which are on FM.
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Ron
The people who own 1314 are very close buddies with the people who own the Ballarat FMs. Likewise, Grant keeps old of 1341 for the same reason. So, my post is truthful.
Would they have been stripped for non use or something?
I wondered this too. If a licence doesnât 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 thatâs 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 itâs a a narrowcasting licence they canât get competition from a full blown commercial station. By definition a narrowcast station is limited enough in what itâs allowed to broadcast this it canât provide an effective competition to commercial stations. But itâs certainly a case of they might as well own it so that someone else canât. 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.
Iâd say whatâs happened is that now that Geelong Broadcasters are virtually independent and 3CW is no longer leasing the licence, theyâve 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 âUse it or lose itâ 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 âoldâ 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 mightâve been fine at the time - indeed, briefly it could have been run as commercial - as Iâm 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 wouldâve been minimal so, details 
)
Thatâs 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 thatâd be too early for use it/lose it to apply.
Given the various few services in community space where âseniorsâ 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 - itâs a bit of an abandoned format in commercial space after all; that age is more or less in âSilver Memoriesâ territory now.
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