I think your referring to Shayne Bartlett… Shayne isnt the chief engineer or state engineer… He is playout systems/automation support administrator and has been there for a long time… Shayne is a good engineer.
He has a young guy there (cant remember his name) who is the “chief engineer”
Yeah, my GM used to be Shayne’s GM at 2GO.
Could’ve sworn he was chief engineer, cause a couple of years ago when I was looking for work at 2GO & spoke to the 2GO GM he said he’d pass my details onto the state chief engineer & mentioned Shayne.
He’s also the guy at SCA we deal with about the TX site, & initially about me getting a master key to access the TX site, so I can look after our TX, after the old engineers who looked after it retired.
I know he’s a good engineer, if he’s not chief, that explains why 2GO is so crap, (technical wise), he can only do what he’s allowed.
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That’s exactly what I was thinking!
sorry guys… didnt mean to annoy 
I made a mistake, wrong post of mistaken identity.
Found him, moved to Nova:
This guy: John Pearce - NOVA Entertainment | LinkedIn he works for Nova in Sydney now. JP always looks young, I dunno how he does it!
Yeah JP has been at Nova for a years now…I saw him at NAB in Vegas last year… he is a decent guy
We were both ACRA winners in 2015 
Yes, I do remember that year. Two worthy winners.
I think you will find that Shayne is still the Chief Engineer but he has a few techs that look after the day to day operations at 2GO and SEA FM. I use to work for Shayne awhile ago and he was there for any assistance but would let you look after the day to day operations but would also assist with special projects etc. The location of of the Central Coast studios makes it a little more difficult to get audio to the TX site, with multi hop and IP links etc, but I will have to say it is 2017. I was reading a forum that they only installed new Nautel transmitters as backup and kept the old NEC transmitters as there main transmitters, I find that very hard to believe as I was pushing for new exciters like 12 years ago, as to be honest they were shocking for audio. I would say they kept one NEC and purchased new exciter and a new transmitter for each station. Anyway I have a lot of respect for Shayne and I’m sure they will get the RDS backup again and have there audio problems sorted out. They have some of the best equipment at Harry Parry Drive after there studio upgrades a few years ago. Also good to see that radioengineer doing well on the Sunshine Coast.
Regards,
Shaun Stapleton
Thanks Shaun, I thought Shayne was Chief Engineer.
From what Shayne’s told me, I understand the TX’s at 2GO were replaced with Nautel’s about 2 - 3 years ago?
At SeaFM, I’m not sure if they’ve done the connections yet, but they were planning on using the 2 x new Nautel VS300’s (in the rack) as exciters & continue using the old NEC’s as the PA’s?
Shayne was hoping SCA would approve replacing both SeaFM TX’s with new Nautel’s within the next couple of years.
AFAIK both the SeaFM NEC’s are still main & backup, if they haven’t done the connections yet, the VS3000’s are both backup exciters.
2GO now has RDS station name info back on.
Just static slogan text on the 2nd line, still no “Now Playing” info though.
SEA FM is still the same as this as well.
I’m now back home from Tasmania & here’s what I observed on the RDS front down there, with static text on some of them.
Hobart
Hit 100.9 - "HIT100.9"
7HO FM - “7HO FM” (Static text: More of Hobart’s Best Music back soon…)
Triple M - “Triple M” (Static text: 107.3 Triple M - Greatest Hits 80s, 90s to Now)
Launceston
LAFM - “LAFM” (Static text: LAFM - Launceston’s Best mix of News Sport Talk & Music)
Chilli FM - “ChilliFM”
Devonport
Sea FM - “SeaFM”
All of the above Hobart & Launceston stations have the “Now Playing” info, with a static text when a song isn’t playing (ie. talk breaks, ad breaks). Can’t say for sure on whether it’s the same for Sea FM Devonport.
It’s also worth noting that LAFM & Chilli’s RDS is also present on its Launceston City translator services on 100.3 & 101.1 respectively, which would mean that both stations have AF for radios that are capable of it.
Good report! I’m pleased to see all Hobart/Launceston commercial FMers have Now Playing info.
But one thing… does having RDS automatically mean they use AF?
If so, one thing that has perplexed me is why WSFM doesn’t have RDS/AF on 88.3 and 99.1?
No
I’ve never seen AF used in Melbourne.
I can’t see any opportunities for AF to be used in Melbourne?
ABC Classical Melbourne > ABC Classical Bendigo
SBS Melbourne > SBS Bendigo
SBS Melbourne > SBS Gippsland
SBS is very high powered tho.
Also Hit Melbourne > Hit Bendigo
Etc
Ah I thought you meant metro area transmissions.
I can’t see “Hit Melbourne” (FOX FM?) working with Hit91.9 as an AF set up since they carry different programming and ads the majority of the time.
It only really works if they are the same on air 24/7.
Got 2BLU 89.1 Katoomba with RDS today in the car on the Swansea Bends (about 120 kms north of Sydney).
