Radio History

Why is there a beeping every so often?

itā€™s a signal to denote to the caller that their call is being recorded/broadcast. I think it was a legal requirement imposed by the broadcasting authority.

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A few stations still do this

Which ones?

612 ABC Brisbane for one.

In call beep, not top of the hour pips?

Radio97 used to have it whenever Leon Delaney would fill in for Lawsy. Not sure if that still happens.

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I have a radio history question. A while back on a couple of Sunday Afternoons while ferrying around a couple of relatives Iā€™ve had 2NUR FM on my car radio. While they have on an edition of American Top 40 from the 70s.

They both made a comment saying they use to listen to it back in the day. Yet when Iā€™ve asked them both what radio station use to carryit in Newcastle neither of them could rememeber. So when Casey does the roll calls of stations around the world that took it, the cloest station to Newcastle Iā€™ve heard was 2GO Gosford

I used to listen to it too as a kid, Iā€™m almost certain it was on 2KO.

I was a 2KO locked on listener during the '70ā€™s, I moved to 2NX in '80-'81 when I was 9-10 yo.

2GO in the '70ā€™s barely got into Gosford, & it was mostly non receivable around most of Newcastle from the transmitter site at Ourimbah, partly because of the site location, output power & directional signal, but mostly the 2NX signal killed it into Newcastle.

It wasnā€™t until 2GO moved the transmitter site to Chittaway Bay & changed frequency to 801kHz that it boomed into Newcastle like another local station.

Bit of additional info about 2GO history. When the TX was at Ourimbah, in many parts of the Central Coast 2GO reception was bad because of strong Heterodyne noise.
Funnily enough moving the TX to Chittaway Bay, didnā€™t entirely fix the poor reception into Gosford. The off air signal couldnā€™t be received & monitored at the studios from Chittaway Bay, so they set up an off air monitor at the TX site & sent the audio back to the studios via a phone line so they knew if they were off air.

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Yes, you have to wonder why 2GO chose that Henry Parry Drive site location for a studio.

Itā€™s surrounded by hills and it would have be more expensive to set up links to/from the studio for various needs.

It doesnā€™t seem like a logical choice to me.

working in radio it seems to me that the powers that be have always chosen buildings that are the worst case for STLā€™s

Personally I think radio stations would be better in the suburbsā€¦ unless your a talk station that has politicians onair every 5 mins then the CBD is an obvious choice.

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Where was it at Ourimbah? Did know of it being on AM 1323 in that suburb.

Agree. Unless youā€™re (the old) Southern Cross Broadcasting of Tony Bellā€™s era that thought itā€™d be a great idea to sell off the 4BC studio and move to the boondocks of Cannon Hill.

John Howard as PM used to stay in the Marriott around the corner so that his breakfast interview on 4BC was in a convenient location after his morning walk.

My recollection is of it being on the eastern side of the Pacific Hwy (between Yates Rd and Dog Trap Gully).

On the Eastern side of the M1 Freeway (which wasnā€™t there at the time the TX was), if you come off the freeway at the Ourimbah exit, go left off the roundabout heading into Gosford, it was on the left behind the Big Flower nursery, about at the end of Bullock Rd, (I think). It might have been behind where the servo is Southern side of Burns Rd next to the Big Flower nursery (if you look on Google Maps).

Yes it was 1310, then 1323 from Ourimbah, then changed to 801 when they moved the TX to Chittaway Bay.

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2GO was on air about 20 years on the am band from 71 to 91, now its over 25 years on FM. That makes me feel old. :sunglasses:

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Same with 2WS, itā€™s now also been on FM longer than it was on AM.

Wonā€™t be too much longer and it will have been on Digital Radio for longer than it was on 1224 as well!

2UW spent 69 years on the am band, think i was in year 12 it went fm. So i think I will bit a very OLD grumpy old man when it passes the 69 year mark on FM.

According to this link, 2GO converted to FM on 15th February 1992.

As for other AM stations that have now been on air longer on the FM band than on their original band, 2OO
(2 Double 0) in Wollongong is another one, in which it launched on 1st January 1979 on 1575 kHz & converted to FM as i98 in June 1992, just 13.5 years later.

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Thanks bring back memories. I wonder if 99.1 and 88.3 for ws fm have been on air longer than 1224 am?

4GG would have to be in that club too?

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