And their logos never looked ANYTHING like that.
That looks more like the old X13 / X107 FM logo.
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SCA still owns trademarks for KOFM until August 2027, so it wouldāve cost the show producers a lot to get permission (assuming SCA granted it) to use KOFM.
I donāt know if thereād still be any sort of copyright on the actual old 2KO logos, but they probably changed the look just to be safe?
Oh & @TV.Cynic when they first converted to FM it was known as 2KO FM 102.9, the bumper stickers at that time were written like that (as I wrote, not the sign in the TV show).
That looks nothing like the 2KO studios either, but until you get past reception, most radio studios just look like a normal office reception area, & incidentally I think it was about 1988 when 2KO moved into their new studios on the Pacific Hwy at Charlestown, coming from inner city Newcastle studios at the East end of Hunter St with a Hits & Memories format in AM Stereo?
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Given the setting of the show in the late 80ās they should have gone with AM branding - Perhaps Stereo 14!
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Maybe thatās why itās 2KO, not KOFM in that programā¦ Would 2KO need to be a separate trademark again?
If both were trademarked, it would have been cheaper to go with a fictitious callsignā¦ I always thought 2NW would have been a good one for Newcastle.
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2HD have been announcing on air this morning that thereās maintenance/upgrades today between 8am-4pm on the new Belmont North translator service on 90.5Mhz to make it better.
Iām listening on AM today, but apparently theyāve had a few complaints about 90.5 not being very good today & saying thatās why.
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Is that the Charlestown studio?
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Supposed to be Iād guess, but no itās a fake made up one.
Charlestown reception area was only small & on the middle level, (sort of a satellite mezzanine level), Radio Studios were downstairs from reception, & main offices & TV was upstairs from reception.
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Heard a song on the 90.5 2HD FM relay during their Saturday morning networked program today, unfortunately it was 100% mono.
Couldnāt get 97.5 well enough here at home to cross check.
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2HD play quite a bit of music on Breakfast & Iāve been listening on the way to work the past couple of days on 90.5FM & Iām almost certain all the music & therefore programs are 100% mono, & this is local programming, so they are either feeding the transmitter with a mono link, then Stereo encoding at the transmitter, or the 2HD studios are still wired in Mono, though I thought Brandon mentioned some time ago they had been rewired in Stereo a couple of years ago?
Itās been a long time since Iāve listened to the Port Stephens translator on 97.5FM, so donāt know if thatās full stereo, but it never used to be, it was always āfake stereoā, mono program transmitted in stereo.
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Iām pretty sure Iāve heard music in proper stereo in the past on 97.5, but itās been a while since Iāve been up near Port Stephens or received it well enough to check when music is on.
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I finally remembered to bring some of the radio test gear home from work, & had time to do some test comparisons between 2HD 90.5 MHz Belmont North translator, Hit 106.9 & NEWFM 105.3, this afternoon. These tests were done with the test antenna inside my garage at Floraville NSW, I disconnected the GPS, so my exact home location wasnāt plastered all over the internet.
2HD was on network programming out of the Newcastle (2HD) studios.
2HD 90.5 Belmont is definitely a mono program with a Stereo pilot. I canāt say where the true stereo starts & ends, or if it even starts anywhere at all, but I can say without a doubt, the FM translator output is stereo with no channel separation (mono).
If you look at the Stereo Quality graph on 2HD, thatās mono audio (no stereo separation), whereas NEW & Hit have stereo separation.
I also noticed that the Stereo Pilot on 2HD doesnāt vary with the program, itās fixed at 7.1kHz.
Being a percentage of the overall modulation level, it should vary in itās frequency as the program changes, but it doesnāt, & that has me a bit perplexed as to where & how itās being generated & injected, as itās obviously not being related to the rest of the modulated signal, the RDS frequency does change as normal.
Normal Stereo Pilot is recommended to be 9% of the 75kHz deviation, RDS levels are recommended to be 5% of the 75kHz deviation & should vary in size relating to the deviation. In 2HDās case, the fixed pilot will sometimes be a higher percentage & sometimes a lower percentage of the overall deviation, as it seems to be a fixed (not variable) level.
The first 2HD graph set is playing Goanna - Solid Rock, the second 2HD graph set is playing Richard Harris - MacArthur Park, Hit was playing Pink, & NEWFM was playing Nickelback.
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Iāve sent 2HD an email to enquire if stereo content will be made available.
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Nice captures there RFB. Have actually been looking at getting one of those portable DEVA monitors.
Based on that Iād put money on the 2HD stereo encoder being at the tx site, most likely an onboard one in the exciter. Program audio is dead center mono and looks to be compressed to the high hilt too.
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Went for a drive to Nelson Bay today.
Gave me an opportunity to test out 2HD on FM.
90.5 couldnāt be received in Nelson Bay itself, but could be received from Bobs Farm south, and RDS kicked in from Salt Ash. Was occasionally scratchy until Williamtown, but pretty solid from there.
97.5 appeared to be in mono, same as 90.5.
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Went for a drive down the Central Coast today, first time Iāve been able to do that since August.
I was interested to see how 2HD 90.5 fared down that way.
It was rock solid until Norahville, and then started to break up down to The Entrance, I suspect the trees in Wyrrabalong National Park were the main reason, as it improved again around The Entrance and Bateau (once out of the trees).
As @RFBurns has noted, it starts to break up consistency once past the Forresters Beach TX site and naturally gets worse further south as it gets hilly from there.
At Marie Byles Lookout at Killcare Heights, 2HD FM was dominant over Alive 90.5, this could be received with RDS previously.
And coming back up the M1, 90.5 somewhat ironically had better reception than the Newcastle FM commercials south of the Doyalson interchange. It was rock solid again on the M1 all the way back to the Newcastle interchange and back home to Charlestown.
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Great observations @Radiohead. I wonder if thatās because of great LOS up at Killcare Heights or over spec?
This is the Newcastle coverage they were hoping for, de facto FM conversion of 2HD for the entire Lake Mac City Council, southern portion of Newcastle RA1.
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At Lake Munmorah Sydney AM back in the 80s/90s was about the same strength as Newcastle AM when i was growing up. (use to holiday a lot up there esp in the 80s). Newcastle FM wasnāt great except JJJ / ABC Classic FM in the latter years. Overall Newcastle Commercial FM was similar to Sydney FM too. 2HD 90.5 FM should cover Lake Munmorah well (better than 1143am), have not been there recently. I did listen to ABC Illawarra on 97.3 FM there too, it was pretty good reception in those days. The community radio station 2Macq FM on 97.3 FM wasnāt around back then.
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It does indeed.
And youāre right, Sydney AM isnāt as good as it used to be up here.
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There is a pirate station on 89.3MHz.
I could pick it up in the Newcastle CBD and Merewether, thatās as far as I drove today.
It plays Reggae & Rap style music with no station IDs.
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Yes, I am getting that here at Charlestown too.
It seems to get out a fair way.
That seems to be the same one that was on air 1-2 years ago.
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