Does anyone know is there anyway for ACE to bring back back 2ch and 4kq as DAB only stations?
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Yes, if they can find a licensee (eg Nine, ARN, SCA) who will lease them out say 48 kbps of DAB spectrum in Sydney and/or Brisbane.
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I am not sure why they would/should? ACE already has 2UE and 4BH? And 4BH is doing very well. And as we’ve seen in Melbourne, ACE having 2 stations tends to have the effect of just splitting the audience between them.
Also the 2CH and 4KQ call-signs still belong to SEN.
Yes, I doubt ACE would want to fragment the 4BH audience in any way. It’s going great.
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They could just rename 4BH 4KQ.
Since they stopped having an announcer it seems to have gone downhill.
not sure why they could
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I highly doubt they could, given SENQ’s official callsign is 4KQ.
Anyway why would they? 4BH is doing as well as 4KQ ever did, and 4BH arguably now has more heritage value than 4KQ. It’s been around longer actually.
2026 - SEN gives 1170AM back to Ace who revive the brand and format of 2CH
It could happen! Thinking of 3MP and 3GL. Keep the dream alive!!!
“2CH…EEEEEEEEASY 1170”
Ace in Melbourne clearly can’t work out how to position two AM music stations in a market, can’t see Sydney or Brisbane being different.
There’s also the flexibility that not having the baggage of living up to the expectations of the 2CH or 4KQ formats means for them. I still think it’s their biggest problem with Magic in Melbourne - people don’t think of a fairly up tempo classic hits station when they hear the name “Magic” in Melbourne - they think of the dreary station their grandparents listened to, “hits and memories” to fall asleep to…
4BH being blown up by the Magic rebrand, frequency swap and the Talking Lifestyle/MSR experiments left them a pretty clean slate on what that brand means in the Brisbane market, and 2UE has been talk for so long that any music format was novel and unique.
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I moved from Sydney to Melbourne in 2017, completely checked out of Sydney radio and years later when I got into DXing AM I kept thinking 2UE must just have a “music overnight” program or something because they were irrevocably linked with conservative shock jocks in my head. I was really surprised to learn they had become an all-music station while I was away. It’s weird to see them with “friendly” branding because it was such an aggressive, dark station when Alan Jones and the like were on
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First they have to start playing more 90’s music. A good even mix of music from 60’s to 90’s will suit Magic/2ue/4bh fine
Do you think they would play 90’s music on AM, since most people listened to new music in the 90’s on FM
2UE has been playing more 80s since the switch to the Magic feed, and Smooth Vintage has followed suit, by also playing more 80s.
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In the metros yes, out in the regions it wasn’t a guarantee to even have a top 40 hits station on FM. Mildura for example didn’t get commercial FMs until the late 90s
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4BH play 90s music on AM all the time. 4KQ used to as well.
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Who has an AM radio any more? Even oldies like me have DAB+ and streaming. 
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Agree.
in my car, i do. It’s a 2015 model but only came with AM/FM radio.