Yeah 89.5 Apollo Bay is full FM quality, so likely satellite fed. That also leaves it open to airing this in a malfunction:
100.3 Braidwood is fed from Canberra DAB now. There was one occasion where the signal broke up while I was listening, possibly due to electrical interference at the transmitter site (co-sited with 2BRW and other comms infrastructure). It’s still a much better solution than relaying a very noisy 666 AM.
88.5 Captains Flat has been off air for a while now. It previously relayed 666 directly off air; signal was still noisy but better than the signal received at Braidwood.
Just out of curiosity, what was on 603 AM Nowra before it became RN, and when did it change? I know it started around '89 (cause RN Hobart moved off that freq), but what aired on it before?
Also when did the SBS stations in Wollongong start operating?
I think it might have been Local Radio, a relay of 2WN Wollongong (1431). 1431 doesn’t cover the Shoalhaven region that well, hence the need for a separate Nowra transmitter. Remember 97.3 was unavailable until WIN4 switched off in 1990/91.
Not sure when 1485 SBS started but 1035 was around 2003/04. I remember because I used to get unfettered reception from Newstalk ZB in 2002 or so and then lost it soon after.
It started on 30th August 1979. The day before, its Newcastle service was launched on 1584, which moved to 1413 (the old 2KO frequency) on 29th March 1996. I remember SBS started its 1035AM service in around late 2005. Its 1485AM service is still on air to this day.
As for the 603AM ABC Nowra service, that was launched on 31st January 1989 as an RN service, whilst 2WN became 97.3 ABC Illawarra on 15th May 1991, after WIN had vacated the VHF 4 frequency on 31st March that year. At around the same time, ABC FM (now ABC Classic) moved from 107.9 to 95.7.
WIN vacating VHF 4 allowed the launch of Power FM in October 1991 (nearly 30 years ago now!), as well as the FM conversions of 2OO (i98FM) in June 1992, 2WL (Wave FM) in July 1992, 2KA (One FM, now The Edge) in October 1992 & 2WS (now WSFM) in June 1993.
Sources: SBS, ABC and Department of Transport & Communications’ annual reports
Probably to have a standard 3 letter FM callsign. Others such as 3GI/3GLR Gippsland and 2TR/2MRR Taree maintain different callsigns for their AMs and FMs. Illawarra was a straight FM conversion so no need to retain the AM callsign.
This took longer to assemble than I anticipated so I hope it’s of some interest! Assorted Aussie AM stations recorded in Hamilton, New Zealand during the first half of 1994. Includes Sydney’s Country 2SM, Gold 1269, 2UW, Mix 106.5 and more…
The weather theme used on 2UW at 3:46 has also been used by Wave FM in Wollongong from around the mid-90s until about the mid-2000s. I recall 2GN also used that theme at around the late 90s/early 00s.
As for 2UW in general in the months to the FM conversion, interesting to note that their positioner at that time was “Sydney’s Greatest Hits of the 60s & 70s, and Your Favourite Songs from the 80s & 90s”, and that they no longer called themselves “Classic Hits 2UW” by that point. No doubt they were trying to have a point-of-difference to 2WS-FM’s “The Best Songs Of All Time”, as I’d imagine plenty of 2UW listeners have switched over to 2WS when the latter converted to FM in June 1993.
For those old enough to remember I’ve stumbled across DirtyDonkers.com’s Mixcloud account which has several unscoped airchecks of Wild FM Sydney during 1997/ 1998. The on air presentation is surprisingly polished for OBs from nightclubs!
At the time of the above aircheck, 2Day came very close to toppling 2MMM off the top of the Sydney radio ratings for the first time, with only 0.2% separating the two. 2Day wouldn’t knock 2MMM off the top spot until the 1st half of the following year.
As it happens, I’m currently digitising some 2MMM audio from the same era and hope to upload that in the coming week. In fact, I think it’s from the same day as the 2Day FM upload so it’ll be interesting to compare the two.
