I THINK 4TO STILL has it’s 774 AM transmitter operating along with 102.3 FM (happy to be corrected)…
Not sure HOW they got to keep it - whether it’s because of the likelihood of emergency warnings / updates needing to be broadcast to listeners who can’t get the FM signal.
I too thought they still had 774 broadcasting in Townsville but then saw this
It would appear they turned it off (and subsequently destroyed the transmitting masts) last year. I wonder why a) they kept the AM for so long and b) they finally turned it off?
Yes, that IS odd that they kept it on air so long…
Perhaps the ACMA told them that it had to be switched off?
The only repeater they’ve had all this time is still the one at Bowen (98.3), so coverage couldn’t have been the issue.
Looking back at ACMA Broadcast lists that I have saved, 4TO disappeared off the list of AM stations in the second half of 2011.
mcpaton mentioned on the old board the reason they kept the AM for so long and why they handed it back. Basically towers and transmitter needed work and the coat outweighed the benefit.
Just happened to realise that ABC FM celebrated its 40th birthday on 24 January. ABC FM initially broadcast in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra, from studios in Adelaide. Up until ABC FM’s debut the only FM stations in Australia were classical music community radio stations like 2MBS and 3MBS.
This article comes from The Age TV-Radio Guide (the predecessor to what is now the Green Guide)
It is interesting to note that ABC FM initially wasn’t just devoted to classical music. It also had programs of jazz and rock music as well. In those days 2JJ was only in Sydney and only on the AM band, so the ABC had no other FM outlet and obviously had to cater for a wider range of music on ABC FM.
ABC has also put a timeline on the Classic FM homepage commemorating various milestones in the network’s development: http://www.abc.net.au/classic/events/cfm40/timeline.htm
Don’t forget 4ZZ in Brisbane.
AM Stereo was officially launched in Australia yesterday, February 1st, back in 1985.
2CA Canberra are still in AM Stereo & they are very proud of it, 4BC’s AM Stereo is a waste.
It’s a shame it never took off, I still believe today that AM Stereo when done correctly (as per 2CA), still stacks up well against FM & DAB+, in a good signal area.
Unfortunately over the past 30 years, electrical interference to AM radio has increased, & now the higher noise floor is quickly rendering AM radio useless around city areas.
The modern, poor quality AM receivers don’t help either, when in reality, AM radio still works as it was designed to, & still serves it’s purpose well, as it has done for the last 100 years or so.
AM Stereo launched with such promise. This was going to be the great equalizer between AM and FM. Why didn’t it take off as hoped? The stations certainly promoted it more than enough.
Wasn’t it because there were very few AM Stereo receivers and/or they were ridiculously expensive or something like that?
they probably were expensive… as with any new consumer technology. And I seem to recall car radios with AM Stereo were very few and far between. But we’ve seen the same with digital radio now and that seems to be doing OK.
I think it was mainly lack of receivers. The reason for that seemed to be not enough of a market. The US couldn’t decide on one standard so radios there had to decode multiple types of signal and consumers didn’t buy in. There was also no European market.
To think, AM Stereo being a success could have saved the old guard of popular stations like 2SM, 3XY and 4IP/Radio 10, but it never eventuated.
I think (digital radio aside) we the listener are poorer for it, as we’re stuck with AM being the band of talk stations and oldies music, and mostly reliant on stations with FM licences to keep it interesting. Imagine how much more vibrant a radio market like Brisbane could be if 4KQ, 4BH and 4IP were all around and playing music in competing quality to the FM stations. It really would have been great for the listener.
Well, we have recovered that to some extent re AM vs FM via Digital Radio, which has levelled the playing field for sound quality (though still inferior to FM in most cases).
Whilst there weren’t as many AM stereo receivers as there could have been (the majority of them in 1985 were still AM mono/FM Stereo, but misleadingly labelled as “AM/FM Stereo”), I think the main reason was that consumers weren’t convinced of the need to upgrade their car/home hifi systems JUST to get AM stereo.
There also wasn’t the level of sustained promotion that there could have been - it was promoted for a few weeks either side of the Feb 1, 1985 launch, but by say April, that promotion had subsided.
That AM reception has deteriorated over the years with more impulse/electrical noise than there was 30 years hasn’t helped, and with more high rise development etc. Even where I am, local AM radio is difficult to get cleanly inside my (concrete) apartment building, let alone anything distant, so I listen pretty much exclusively to FM and DAB+.
Nowadays a number of portable radios don’t even have AM at all.
The best quality AM stereo I heard form from a after market Eurovox car radio that I installed. I had narrow, medium and high bandwidth settings for AM and FM with the high BW setting on AM delivering a pretty close approximation to FM.
Eurovox AM stereo radios were fitted to the JE series Camira SL/E and VL/VN Calais models from 1987 to 1990. They were good models.
I think Ford had an AWA AM stereo radio in the KE series Laser Ghias, and EA/EB Fairmont Ghia and Fairlane/LTD from 1987 to 1990.
Can’t remember which manufacturers’ radio that Mitsubishi used, but the TN series Magna had AM stereo in both the SE and Elite models from 1987 to around 1990.
Unfortunately, AM stereo disappeared from cars pretty quickly after that.
Found this image of the unit I had (though this one is branded Marantz). The head unit also controlled a CD stacker that was mounted in the boot and had a matrix display.
As far as AM Stereo went it was excellent. The Medium Band Width setting was good at night when chatter from adjacent frequencies could spoil even local strong stations.
As well as AM Stereo it had Dolby B, C and dbx, Metal tape capacity, 7 channel equaliser front and rear. 12 FM and 6 AM pre-sets plus a separate memory that scanned and stored the strongest stations (good for trips).
I still have it and can get it running with a 12 volt amp.
Seems they were also used in Porche
Wasn’t it a Phillips in the Magna?
A lot of manufacturers moved to Philips in the early 90s, particularly in the base model, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Ford, Holden all used THIS model…
It wasn’t very well regarded… Sound quality and reception were very average and there was NO backlighting for the buttons at night either.
Thats the one! You’re right about reception, FM in particular!
