Yes but Wandera doesn’t cover Braidwood well. Not sure which ABC is supposed to cover Braidwood. ABC Canberra’s signal is OK in the car, but they don’t really cover any news from the region. ABC South East does feature news from Braidwood occasionally (I think).
The void left by the ABC is part of the reason why Braidwood FM’s fire coverage was applauded.
So is 103.5 FM not very good in Braidwood? According Radio Guide Australia App its the main station there, which may of not helped during the bush fires as it was off air.
How does 90.3 FM get into town from Goulburn?
Blast from the past! I did not listen to the morning crew back in the day. I am trying to remember who I did listen, parents had Alan Jones on. Bass and Pilko finished in 1991, I think 2uw had Larry Emdur with someone else. George Moore was on 2uw then but I think had the morning slot. Might of tune into Coast Rock FM but can’t remember who was on for breakfast then. It was before i98 FM was on air.
Poor old 2sm it did really did struggle back then. I am not sure if it was a country music station then, around that survey time. 2CH / 2WS were solid!
It wasn’t this exact model of radio but this was my go to radio back in the day. It also had a telescopic aerial so it looked awesome 
The ABCs from Mount Wandera struggle a bit; I was listening to PM on 105.1 Radio National yesterday around there and it wasn’t really enjoyable. The mountains west of Mount Wandera are higher than it which tends to block the signal somewhat.
I will check 90.3 today but it’s likely even worse than 103.5. 90.3 is only supposed to cover Goulburn city.
John Bell co-presented the 2UW Breakfast Show from September 1992 until at least the end of 1993.
During the first few months of 1994 leading up to the FM conversion, it seems that Larry Emdur presented 2UW breakfast solo although he may have moved on just before the switch (likely to focus on his commitments to Nine/The Price Is Right) because the final few pre-FM conversion program listings for 2UW in the SMH Guide have John Bell presenting the breakfast slot solo.
And of course, when 2UW relaunched as Mix 106.5 so too did the breakfast show with Mike Carlton doing that timeslot in 1994/95.
Yes, you’re right. George Moore did present weekday mornings on 2UW during that era and kept his timeslot for the conversion to Mix 106.5-FM.
I learn something everyday.
When the first commercial FM licences were granted in the late 70s, it was to lead to the start of commercial FM broadcasting in 1980. Two licences were granted for Sydney and Melbourne and one each for Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
What I only learnt this morning was that these licences were given away for free. The later AM to FM conversions in the 1990s and new commercial licences in the early 2000s were auctioned and raised hundreds of millions for the Commonwealth.
So these original FM licences - that were to become rivers of gold - were given to individuals (or groups of individuals) for nothing.
I am sure everything was “above board” but the possibility of corruption would have also existed.
Wow. Imagine gaining a licence to broadcast in FM stereo in Sydney in 1980 for free. I understand that most cars still only had AM radios and that it took a person with vision to see the future profitability of FM broadcasting. But a radio frequency for $0. Bargain of the century.
Yes, in those days the licences were allocated after a ‘beauty show’. Multiple applicants all had to submit to a public hearing detailing their plans for the station.
It was only in the 80s that the government realised they could monetise the procedure and hand over a licence to the highest bidder.
Was DAB+ “free” for incumbents? Internet radio is also “free”? ie You don’t need to pay the government for a broadcast licence for online broadcasting. YouTube is also “free” a good example in the TV world. How times have changed! Maybe for the better? Depends who you are I guess.
Maybe back then they felt FM was only a niche, never would overtake AM radio. How wrong they were. Just like the cricket clubs in the US back in the early 1900s, didn’t think baseball would catch on.
Apparently so.
it was for television, they all got digital spectrum for nothing but with the knowledge that the analogue frequencies would all be handed back. I don’t believe that’s the case with radio, though.
Yes indeed.
I recall reading that the people who started 4MMM/FM104 in Brisbane were told by many they could never make a profit with the FM licence (even though it was free) but went ahead and launched anyway. How things changed. By the mid-80s I also read that a 30 second advertisement on FM104 was the most expensive commercial slot in Australian radio (when they were rating in the 30%+ range).
Wish H/LPONs would be allocated by that kind of process still - it makes no sense that ‘narrowcasting’ licenses are highest bidder, and leads to Racing and Country music operated by commercial radio stations taking up all the slots.
As I understand, part of the beauty show also included commitments to local communities along with issuing shares to local investors in the licenceholder. This was to ensure new entrants increased both diversity of ownership and the community benefited. In the 80s we had the new “market forces” regime of biggest cheque book wins new licences, two stations per market and removal of ownership limits to the number of stations. I am not sure that the market forces outcome of networking, reduced media diversity and big dollars to the Government is necessarily superior to the beauty show approach from an overall or society viewpoint. There are pros and cons of both and from my perspective, I think the pendulum has swung too far.
Community licences are still awarded by ‘beauty contest’; sometimes the pageant can be drawn out like with Hawkesbury FM. The downside of this approach is that selection criteria cannot be exhaustive, and there may be more than one applicant that satisfies the chosen criteria. To whom then is the licence awarded? There was a good comment by David Flint in the report for the Sydney allocations in ~2003 to this end.
From TRV, an aircheck of 93.9 Bay FM Geelong from September 1991.
What was the jist of his comment?
I remember the beauty parade was very large in Melbourne for the 89.9, 90.7, 94.9 and 1503 frequencies - IIRC the parade was held in the Melbourne Town Hall over multiple days. Whilst Hitz was the strongest of the youth stations, it had a very strong vested interest of commercial stations against it - at least that was how it appearred to me. Wheras Light FM seemed to come from nowhere and get a licence.
aka big rich religious mob with plenty of money to throw at politicians…ahem I mean “party donations”
Yes- I don’t doubt there is some commercial influence even in community radio allocations. That said, Wild FM was essentially denied a licence for being a commercial operation (selling CDs etc).
David Flint lamented that although one or both of the LGBT aspirants were ‘deserving’ and met the criteria, there were only three licences to award. Admittedly there may have been some bias on his part, since he is a part of the LGBT community.
Not sure if the full report is available to read online somewhere. I’m sure @TV-Expert will give it a crack.
The original owners of 2DayFM were Village Roadshow (which owned 30% of the licence) as well as three wealthy individuals - John Laws, Mike Willesee and Graham Kennedy - who owned the other 70%.
Rod Muir (former 2SM programmer in the 70s) was the sole owner of the 2MMM licence.
I would love to know how much it cost them to put together their applications for the free licences. No matter what it did cost, it was a bargain.
In 1987 2DayFM was sold to the Lamb family (former owners of 2UE). I wish I could find out how much they paid for something that was free only seven years earlier.
The Lamb family’s Broadcast Investments purchased 2DayFM for around $70 million from Mike Willesee’s Trans Media group after having sold 2UE to Kerry Packer the previous year for $20 million. Although the sale set a record for the highest amount paid for a station, it was considered to be a fair price considering 2DayFM was Australia’s most profitable radio station at the time.
Rod Muir had sold 2MMM and EON-FM the previous year for $90 million