I believe it may have been MAC FM on 99.7. Before that they were the original occupant of 105.3 MHz.
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and I think there was only Rete Italia after that before KIX Country appeared on it?
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I canât recall Rete being on 105.3 in Wollongong, only 1575 AM. From memory it was MAC FM- then a period of nothing- before Hot/KIX Country took over.
Rete Italia briefly returned on 89.3 a year or two ago but even that is off air now. There was also a Greek station on 93.3 for several years in the early 2000s; this got out fairly well and was receivable in Oatley.
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Something Iâve always pondered and might have even posed the question on here before. We all know the story of how 4BH won the bid for FM conversion but then didnât convert. Then it was offered to 4KQ as second bidder and they chose not to take it up. This effectively meant Brisbane was âshortâ an FM station through the 90s and only had 2 officially (although QFM/Star filled the gap somewhat). Then in the early 2000s Brisbane got 2 new FM licences like Sydney and Melbourne, while Adelaide and Perth only got 1. This evened things up so Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide now have 4 each, although Brisbane has 8 commercial licences while Perth and Adelaide 6.
What Iâve always wondered is, if 4BH (or 4KQ) had converted, would Brisbane have received 2 new FM licences in the 2000s or only 1 like Perth and Adelaide?
Does anyone have any thoughts? I donât know why but itâs always bugged me.
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The only thought I really have is a hypothetical of, what wouldâve happened if 4IP didnât get sold off and survived as music, and whether that was part of ending up âone shortâ because it was an Ipswich licence? Although you did get that back eventually through QFM/Star/River (as 4TAB never converted either obviously), I imagine FM was never going to boom in across the whole of Brisbane (let alone areas further east like Redlands and the Redcliffe peninsula) from an Ipswich-focused transmitter like 4IP was allowed to back in the day, so it ended up more like â4 and a halfâ if that.
Yet, I canât help but wonder if that was blocking the possibility of a potential 5th âproperâ Brisbane licence more than, say, a Sunny Coast or Gold Coast frequency would.
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I suspect Brisbane would have only received 1 new FM licence in the early 00s had 4KQ/4BH converted in the early 90s.
I think the ACMA would have wanted to ensure some sort of equity across the smaller metro markets. It would also have seemed a bit odd if Brisbane had 5 commercial FMs when ADL/PER only had 4 whilst SYD/MEL had 6⌠it would have been neither here nor there.
While originally licenced to Ipswich, 4IP (4IO) became a Brisbane licenced station on equal footing with the others. So it would have been entitled to convert to a Brisbane FM station.
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I suspect youâre probably right. Although I feel Brisbane is now exactly that - somewhere between Sydney/Melbourne and Perth/Adelaide in size and also influence. A lot of media and government stats are now grouping Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane together rather than Perth/Adelaide/Brisbane. One of the reasons being that although Brisbane isnât technically that much bigger than Perth, when you look at the population within 100km of the Brisbane GPO it is a LOT bigger, pushing 3.5 million.
Anyway I digress, I think the other factor is that Brisbane already had 1 more station overall than Perth or Adelaide, and now theyâve got 2 more (4 FM/4 AM) following the extra 2 licences added in the early 2000âs.
If they had added only 1 then it would be the only major metro with an odd number of stations with 7. Even with 7, I think they would have still needed the 2x DAB multiplexes, although Iâm not sure on that.
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Not entirely sure - a DAB multiplex being split into 9ths, and 2 of those slots having been reserved for community, they mightâve been able to give them 7 commercial slots on there but no more.
It might have given them good reason for a second commercial multiplex regardless so they could get money out of an auction, but it may not have been required.
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Thatâd explain why they were able to place the transmitter where they did during the Radio 10 days (and of course for 4TAB now) - ta, appreciate the correction 
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Well, actually, at the time they moved to St Helena Island they were still licenced to Ipswich. But, at the time they were able to say that they would still be able to provide a strong signal to the city of Ipswich from the new transmitter location. There werenât any licence area plans back then. It was only later that they became a Brisbane station. Similar thing happened around the country with the new 5kw directional power being available to more stations. 4IP went from 2kw omni to 5kw d. Same, for example, when 2MW that moved closer to the Gold Coast when it went to 5kw but was able to still give an adequate signal to their licence city.
There was a critical signal level that they had to demonstarte. Canât remember what it was (or even the units). Perhaps 35 mV/m?? Sorry if that is tottaly wrong.
There wasnât much of an issue at the time with 4IP moving. However there were rumblings that Labor-owned 4KQ had such a good transmitter site and would be heard much further afield.
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KZ FM commercial from 1991
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Is it me or does Liz look kinda like Jane Kennedy?
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thatâs not âPete and Lizâ in the commercial. Theyâre actors. I think the female may be Alix Longman.
Alix Longman is it? My mistake.
According to IMDB, Alixâs last credit was 2004âs Mothers and Daughters.
Why wouldnât you use them in the commercials?
No idea. Pete and Liz usually appeared in their ads but maybe for this competition the station just changed it up a bit. Different faces maybe to get viewersâ attention?
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Speaking of Pete & Liz, just stumbled across this recording from August 1984.
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who was the 2? Iâm guessing one would have been nova, but who was the other?
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Nova106.9 and 97.3FM.
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