And I remember hearing Casey Kasem on a Perth station in 2001 (not sure which one). By this stage he had long departed AT40 though and was running his own countdown, Casey’s Top 40.
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Indeed that was once the URL for 96FM, although the earliest version of the page on the archive.org database is from January 1998 - which seems to be after the Triple M brand had been phased out:
https://web.archive.org/web/19980110053348/http://triplem.ii.net/
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Here are the coverage maps of interest for the Edge 96.1 at 5KW, 25KW, and 150KW from the current Wentworth Falls site.
25KW seems to be the sweet spot if the Edge 96.1 was to be a Western Sydney licence and to provide coverage similar to the old 2WS 1224 licence. The current Katoomba licence ends at St Marys, but as we all know it booms out over most of Sydney at the present 5KW.
Also interesting you can see the shading of the escarpment at Emu Plains through to Kurrajong, 25KW improves the signal deficiency, 150KW almost eliminates it.
Finally a 150KW coverage map which would provide metro coverage over most of Sydney except for the far eastern coastal suburbs and northern beaches.
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Great maps!
Though running at 150kw would cause overspill to the west - as it’s been said, when you run at that high a power, its hard to engineer it so that in other unintended directions,it runs at anything less than 1/10 th of the maximum ERP.
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I need subtitles on this thread!
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The limitation of Nortel, omnidirectional coverage maps only!!!
You would need to change the broadcast antenna to something similar to what Power fm is using with high front to back ratio. This may allow you to achieve 150kw to the east, and 5Kw to the west to keep you out of Lithgow, @RFBurns would know if there is any Fm broadcast antenna that could achieve this.
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It’s interesting the extra power can theorically fix the shadow issue. Although I wonder in reality it would at Kurrajong, I dont think there would be a clean signal like the footlands Adelaide?
Thanks for the maps. Maybe ABC local radio if they were to convert to FM it might be worth considering that site.
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There will always be some degree of multipath in the lee of a range. The total signal will be stronger at 150 kW but whenever multipath is present, audio will be distorted and not pleasant to listen to.
I’m pretty sure this has been discussed previously, but it’s a wonder the original One FM never applied for a translator in the lower Blue Mountains to replace the old 1476 AM at Penrith. Take 99.1 off WS FM and give it to 96.1, on the proviso that a true local service for Western Sydney be restored.
Again, I think I see a winged boar on the horizon.
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From memory when I did previous coverage maps for Kurrajong Heights for the Edge 96.1 the shading was not as bad around Emu Plains as it is from Wentworth Falls.
Kurrajong Heights has some negatives, being lower and further east then Wentworth Falls you would need a higher ERP to provide the same level of coverage as the existing 5KW OD Wentworth Falls licence. You would be look at 50KW DA to the west. At 5KW to the east the coverage over the Sydney metro area would be slightly less too, this would be welcomed by ACMA!!!
ABC local radio would go to Gore Hill if they were allowed to move to fm but that is not going to happen.
I do remember the Am frequencies when I was living at Oatley, in daylight hours 1476 was much stronger then 783 which was very weak. However after dark both frequencies were not receivable.
I am speculating here, If the ACMA of today was to allocate the Katoomba Fm licence under their no overspill policy the 5KW OD service would probably not get approved. It would most likely have similar specs to Move / 2LT.
A translator at Hawkesbury Heights / Mt Riverview would then be required to cover from Woodford to St Marys. It would be flea powered at best 200W-500W to prevent the metro wide overspill we enjoy today.
You can see why Mid West Broadcaster are so dirty with the specs of their licence compared to that of 96.1.
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this is why I can’t understand why ABC local radio broadcasts a stereo pilot on Cann River 106.1. Being very hilly, multipath is a big problem exacerbated by having the stereo on. FM mono would perform much better.
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Hawkesbury Heights / Mt Riverview
Could this site cover the upper mountains (eliminate the need for Wentworth Falls) or does 2ka include Mt Victoria? ie Westward increase power to 5kw
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Same with all of the country outlets of ABC local radio in Victoria at least. They all broadcast mono audio. Turn off the pilot!
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Yes, it does.
Here’s the licence area map for Katoomba RA1 for reference: https://channelfinder.acma.gov.au/licplan/defmaps/documents/maps/la_380.pdf
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Yeah I think Mount Victoria gets good reception from Sydney? Might be depends where you are. Next time I should see how well 96.1 / 101.1 / 99.5 get into Mount Victoria or is affected by the terrain. I am sure Mt Riverview might struggle.
Another option if the redrew the map having Horsley Park as part of 2ka’s area it could beam westwards at full power (very directional) and should get to the upper mountains with ease.
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Its nice to hear Bringing it back on SWR FM playing 50 and 60s music similar to the stuff they played in the old days on 2WS jukebox Saturday. I remember back then I did not really enjoy it a lot, but in our old family holiday house in the Central Coast, I remember tuning around on a Saturday night with my parents and others from my parents generation tuning into a variety of stations playing rock and roll music . In those days (in the 80s) there were a lot of stations playing that type of music on the AM Band on a Saturday night.
Its great community radio still has this variety of music especially when programmed by individuals. Radio brings back memories and generally a streaming service can’t do it as well as radio in my view.
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The Katoomba licence should include Kurrajong Heights to the border of the Lithgow licence. The Edge and 2LT / Move from Wentworth falls cover this area fine.
The Sydney fm stations get into Mt Victoria at a similar strength to the Edge. 2LT and Move Fm are much weaker due to the terrain shielding, lower ERP, and lower broadcast antenna height compared to the Edge.
When MWR first started broadcasting from Wentworth Falls from their original antenna much lower down the tower, reception was very poor in Mt Vic. Brock used to cause quite severe splatter over the top of Move Fm in Blackheath and Mt Vic. The new array higher up the Wentworth Falls tower has fixed this.
Hawkesbury Heights / Mt Riverview is way to low and to far east to cover the Blue Mountains, it is great for covering Penrith / Richmond and further east.
Kurrajong Heights would be the next best site to cover the Blue Mountains, but you would need a tower of at least 150m in height and be pumping out 50kW ERP to the west.
Horsley Park you would need an antenna with very high front to back ratio, pumping out 150KW towards Katoomba and very little radiation towards Sydney in the east.
Wentworth falls is the best site to serve the Katoomba licence area. It’s just a pity MWR could not get better specs for their licences, something like 5KW to the West / 500W to the east.
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Advertisement in the SMH on Friday 11 July 1980. 2DayFM didn’t make it to air at 4:00pm. Instead after a delay, they started their test broadcast on Sunday evening, 13 July 1980.
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Wow, how 2day FM has changed. The music format description is similar to when MIX 106.5 launched except without the news being advertised as refreshing. I think in the 90s newsrooms on the FM band were not as important as compared to 14 years earlier. Mike Carlton who did breakfast use to get frustrated how brief the news was on MIX.
I do believe the fact they list out the artists they were repetitive. Mix 106.5 was also in general very repetitive. The exception back in early 80s 2day did play full albums and simulcast concerts on TV in FM stereo.
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With today’s SCA logo changes it made me wonder, how soon after Nova’s launch did they make a logo change?
They too have had their fair share of logo redesigns since their launch.
I’d say Triple M would be the longest lasting of the FM networks.
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January 2011 was the first relaunch - https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/nova-boy-gets-makeover-new-marketing-campaign
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