It was due to the new FAP (Frequency Allotment Plans) that were rolled out across Aus which saw many stations have to change frequency.
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Nova 969 had bird noises too, and they got played right up to launch day.
I think it was used to throw off the competitors.
I am having to think hard here, the test transmission included bird noises, and the other two songs I remember, Daft Punkâ s One More time, and The Cures, In between Days.
Birds songs, a song that is heard on 2day fm, and another song that got played on Triple M / WS fm.
Keep the competition guessing until the eleventh hour.
Did Nova 106.9 do the bird songs or just the work experience DJ?
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By the time Nova106.9 launched there was no mystery as to what format they would take so the bird noises would have been a little redundant.
Werenât they temporarily broadcasting from a rent flat while the studios were being built?
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Yes, I remember Bevan/Bevo the work experience guy for Nova106.9. It was even on their website.
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I remember Nova went to air on âtestâ during Ekka Week 2004. They were testing (with Bevan the work experience guy and no ads!) for over 6 months before going live in April 2005.
To me that lead in was critical to their ratings success.
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Thatâs a long time to be testing.
Mike Hammond hosting kind of reminds me of the old FOXTEL HELP days.
It could have been made between 2000 - 2010.
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What is Foxtel Help?
The old channel 999?
Use to be a channel where they gave you instructions on how to operate your FOXTEL STB (Set Top Box).
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Vega in Sydney certainly used birdsong on launch day at least. How much they used it during the rest of the test transmission, 
.
I remember that channel.
Ironic in some ways as it wouldnât have been particularly useful to those who were already watching it.
TTFM with Andy Grace and Cory Layton was when the station was at its peak!
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I may have posted this before but I just heard it earlier, the sign-off from 4IP just over 31 years ago (29 December 1991)
YouTube: The Radio Vault
Seems to be a fairly inglorious sign-off to a once-great radio station, just the announcer sort of going âwell, thatâs it, see ya later, tune into 4TAB in the morningâ and then test tone. 3XY and I think even 2SM (before it became Light and Easy) did more significant send offs IIRC. Maybe they figured nobody was listening to 4IP by this stage?!
Interesting then, too, that they threw in ads for 4BC for listeners looking for a non-racing alternative. Same as what 4KQ did to 4BH before becoming SENQ?
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Nobody was listening to 4IP at that time,a sad ending for a once great radio station 
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4KQ did have the occasional ad for 4BH but their own messages (eg. in their last news bulletin) were also pushing them to ARNâs other station in 97.3.
Certainly what 2CHâs DAB+ stream (which by then was already SEN-run, unlike 4KQ) did with promoting 2UE, though.
Were 4BC contracted to run the racing coverage up to that point, though? (Iâm not saying you know, just pondering.) That might also be why 4TAB were promoting them; especially if the same ads were playing on 4BC itself during racing time, and the hint of a relaunch.
(edit: the first search result on Google pointed me to very early posts in this thread, circa 2016, which suggested that yes, 4BC did cover Saturday races at the very least. So perhaps whyâŚ)
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IIRC the video indicated that 4BC had been carrying the racing coverage but it was moving over to 4TAB upon launch.
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Ta, thatâd make sense then⌠agree with you though, surprisingly low-key. I guess it wasnât quite like, say, the 3XY situation where it was going off the air entirely (well, at least there was a gap in-between it and 3EE starting) where the federal government put together the final hour show, and presumably the TABQ had already owned it for the âcouple of monthsâ of that late-night announcer.
Although the argument that stewed in my head that 4IP was by then far detached from its Radio/Stereo 10 heyday doesnât sound right, as the same applied to 3XY as well at the time. 
i never understood why the Department of Communications or ABA or whoever it was, put together that last hour special for 3XY. I suppose the alternative was for them to just run a looped voice over announcement for the hour but I am just puzzled it went to the effort to make a show for that hour.
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