yes, the Mt Cottrell transmitter site on 693kHz was established when 3EE began in July 1992. The current 3XY Radio Hellas transmitter site is right next door to Port Phillip Prison.
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Yes, AFAIK AWA bought the licence, and relaunched the station as 3EE âThe Breezeâ on 693. They had to build a whole new transmission site as moving to 693 required a complex directional antenna array and they couldnât just piggy back onto an existing site in Lower Plenty.
The area of land required was substantial, so it was built in the boonies among the rocks and scotch thistle of Melbourneâs outer west. The land would have been cheap back then. Iâm guessing it was also the right spot for pushing the best signal into Melbourne given the tight and complex radiation pattern required.
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Seems to have worked with 3AW taking over 693 and maintaining their lofty perch in the ratings
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Yeah good point, thinking about it itâs probably not the ideal TX location being on a rocky âmountainâ so far out of town. Lower Plenty along the river there is seemingly much more logical. But it clearly works I guess.
Thatâs right, demolished about 15 years ago, area has been subdivided but theyâre larger blocks and seems to be moving slowly. Thereâs a couple of video on YouTube of the demolitiin, this one from Demolition Dave:
Yes I think my confusion is that one is an array with two masts.
The current edition is online at Map of Melbourne, VIC 3004 - Census Demographics And Crime Rates - Melway, Sydway, Brisway, Ausway, Street Smart, itâs a real shame itâs not particularly user friendly and not promoted very much.
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Also at Melway Online which works much nicer. But not so useful for dating historical changes.
Yes, the BA site has two masts. I think the second functions as a backup rather than a directional array.
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Not sure about that. 3KND on 1503 is directional.
Yeah 1503 had to be directional to protect 2BS back in the day. Likewise 1116 must be as well to protect Brisbane.
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My mistake. The Stawell Rd site (3AK) has 2 masts in an array.
However my previous comment was about the BA/Bonds Rd site has two masts setup as main/standby.
And is apparently a much better setup than the mess in Stawell Road.
Hi Team,
Thinking back to the early 90s, before the days of cost-effective, reliable automation, a number of stations under the same ownership used to network with each other during late nights and weekends using live announcers.
One example which comes to mind is 2XL and 2GN, which networked late nights out of Cooma I believe. Others I remember include 2DU, 2MG and perhaps 2GZ.
Is anyone able to share examples of this âmini-networkingâ?
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When I was AM DXing in the early 1990s, 2WG and 2LF always had a shared night show. I think it mightâve been called Night Moves . It was a live show originating out of 2WG but the IDs said â2WG-2LFâ. Iâm guessing both stations had shared ownership? I donât know for sure, though. However, both stations had the same logo design at the time.
Also, in the late 1980s, 2NX and 2NM used to link up at night time. I wasnât able to receive 1341AM here in New Zealand, so hearing 2NX on 981AM was my only option. They never mentioned 2NM though. It was a straight feed of 2NX.
In the early 1990s, 1089 2GZ used to take a networked programme after hours called Australia Overnight . The funny thing was that 1089 3WM used to take the same programme, so reception here was a mix of both. That created a weird tunnel effect (maybe thereâs a technical term for that, but I donât know it), but obviously when the local IDs and commercials played, it was either one dominating the other or a mixture of both.
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In the early 90âs 2GO, 2KO and 2WS used to have a network over night program that came out of Lebons Lane.
Back when I worked for Kevin B we used to voice track nights on 2XL and then send the VT down the line to Goulburn to put into Sonfx. It made no sense to do it but it at least made nights sound live on the heritage stations. That was in the early 2000âs.
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On my new show on Braidwood FM I have decided to do a CD Hour Shrunk version, called the CD Half Hour where I play songs exclusively off CD⌠Inspired by this post.
What a great idea
In the late 90âs on some of the Dmg stations before StarFm hub integration, there was programming on weekends that just had the tag line âTodayâs Best Musicâ without mention of station ID. Caralis also has a similar set up with the heat
I recall 4HI Emerald and 4LG Longreach sharing nights in the 1980s⌠IDâd as â4HI and 4LGâ.
On 2NX Newcastle the callsign would change in the evenings to â2NXNMâ to include 2NM Muswellbrook. But the jingles were still the 2NX ones only. This arrangement ceased in 1989 when 2NX moved to âClassic Hitsâ a few months after NEW FM launched.
I think 4TO Townsville, 4MK Mackay and 4CA Cairns used to share nights back in 80s too? I vaguely recall a sweeper âAcross the north, 4TO, 4MK and 4CAââŚ
John Henry used to host a âNightbeatâ music program that some regional AM stations took. I donât know which station hosted it and exactly who took it.
The early 90s 2WS hosted program as mentioned by @clickso only ran from 12am.
In the mid 90s, âThe Big Rig Gigâ aired on a few of the new supplementary FMs, including Power FM Muswellbrook where I heard it. I believe it was hosted out of B104.9 Albury, I think FM93 Wagga Wagga was another station that took this program.
And also Phil Lentzâs âNightzoneâ that was hosted by SKY Radio (2UE) that aired on regional FMs such ROX FM Port Macquarie, Hot105.5 Coffs Harbour and FM104.7 Grafton.
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I donât recall that clunky callsign when I was listening. What a mouthful! But I certainly remember the jingles⌠"2-N-X Stereo thirteen fourrrrrrrty one!
Iâm sure that 2UW took this show. Maybe thatâs where it originated from?
Another mini-network I recall is 4AY-4GC. That was in the early 1980s, I think.
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2NXNM ran for most of the 80âs, canât remember when the overnights link started, couldâve even been back in the late 70âs.
2NXNM wasnât clunky at all, it rolled off the tongue very well.
Ahh those were the days, if only I could go back to then.
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There were NX-NM jingles at least for some of that period.
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According to his LinkedIn profile, yes Nightbeat with John Henry did come out of 2UW for ARNSAT.
Side note: He (John Henry) was solely the reason for me wanting to get into radio & pursuing that career. As a kid listening to him on 2KO in the late 70âs, he was my absolute favourite jock, & whilst I took a very keen interest in radio & âplaying music on my mums record playerâ from age around 4 (early 70âs), he pretty much locked in what I wanted to do, where I wanted to be, & what I would devote the rest of my life (up to currently) doing. Iât took me many years to actually break through & get into radio & even though I didnât make it any further than panel operator on air (NXFM), I moved into broadcast engineering & have made it to the top of my profession in Australia working with all the top Radio & TV stations & keeping them all on air across Sydney & Melbourne.
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