i completely forgot about 97.3 (presumably cos i’m not a middle aged women in there target market)
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Also considering it was daggy when it launched & daggy even today.
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It was such a disappointment when it launched, and continues to be.
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Always thought the name was part of the reason … 97.3FM does not exactly attract listeners… I know they couldn’t use MIX (as other ARN stations were known at the time) as I think RG Capital had trademarked that name in QLD.
4MIX is still River 949’s official call sign.
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No I don’t think the name was the problem. Brisbane is a market where stations have long been known by just the frequency. FM104, B105, 96.5, even Radio 10.
It was just such a boring, safe playlist right from day 1. I remember thinking at the time I wished Star 106.9 had won the licence instead as they were so much better. Of course when they didn’t they flipped formats to adult CHR. If Star had won I think they would have stuck with AC/classic hits on 97.3, and done it so much better. I also think if Star had won they might have tried to use 106.9 intead of 97.3. Effectively just ‘shifting’ Star 106.9 to Brisbane and launching a ‘new’ station on 94.9 (which they did anyway). Nova would then have been Nova 97.3 when they won the next auction. I reckon ACMA would have allowed it, similar to how they let Nova in Melbourne take 100.3 over 91.5
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It’s not so much ACMA ‘let’ Nova go to 100.3 but it was sort of forced on them because 91.5 in Melbourne was impacted by ABC TV still being on Channel 3 in northern Tasmania.
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The move to 94.9 was because 106.9 suffered from being sandwiched between the 2 high power ABC stations off Mt Coot-tha.
And @TelevisionAU correct re Melbourne, I wonder how the ratings would have been impacted if Nova was down the bottom end of the dial as Nova91.5 with a Smooth100.3 further up.
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absolutely nothing to do with RGC… it was the chief engineer at the time when it was owned half by unitel corp and rural press who comes up with the idea to checkmate ARN
how did Nova overcome that?
That was a different situation. QFM was an Ipswich station so if was difficult being between 2 stations located in Brisbane.
Nova on 106.9 was from Mt Coot-tha so has no problem .
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Yes that is correct, if stations are co-located the difference in power isn’t an issue.
Even only a few kilometres can pose an issue, I recall 88.7 NOW FM & 89.5 2VM sought a power increase at Goondiwindi from 600 to 2,000 watts. Because their TX was at Boggabilla in NSW, the ACMA advised that only 88.7 could go to 2kw because 89.5 at 2kw would interfere with 90.3 4TAB which is situated NE of Goondiwindi.
Is that right @hatdj and did anything progress from that? I suspect not as the coverage seemed similar out of Boggabilla when I passed through in August.
I always thought 2VM/Now at Goondiwindi was from a tower between the 2 cities? How long has it been at Boggabilla?
They are still 600watts each as far as I know
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I should mention that over the last year or so I’ve been uploading old 80 episodes of Coodabeen Champions from 3RRR, and Radio Footy Broadcasts from the early 80s, on my podcast/soundcloud.
It may interest some of you.
Just search for ROAR PODCAST in your podcast machine.
or Soundcloud is https://on.soundcloud.com/XP9B8
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It was 40 years ago this week when Random Breath Testing came into NSW, and I can remember those first promotional ads, “how will you go when you sit for the test”.
I’ve been scraping the internet all over the place for these original 1982 radio spots, would anybody have a copy of them to share, they’d be fun to listen to, I’d only just finished primary school at the time when they came out, and remembered wondering what the hell they were on about, as any 13 yo would. 
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TV spots as well?
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One of my earliest appearances on radio
From 1993
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Can’t remember whether there was or wasn’t, just remember hearing them played a lot on the radio for about two or three months.
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fantastic!! 
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