Though 2HHH is a much lower power service in a smaller area, so it might not have been the same issue… who knows..
It’s only a guess, but in Melbourne 100.3 would’ve been transmitted from the Ornata Rd site (TEN TV), whereas at the time I think Nine was still transmitting from their own Observatory Rd Site, so there’s some physical separation there & also the Melbourne FM’s are lower power than the Sydney ones.
In Sydney however, I’d say the complex technical reasons for not allocating 100.1 to the converting FM’s would be that both 100.1 & 101.7 would’ve been transmitted from the Willoughby (Nine TV) site, as the upgrade to the Artarmon FM antenna wouldn’t have been ready or possible to use, 2DAY & Triple M already had a backup site at Willoughby.
Having both 100.1 & 101.7 transmitting from Willoughby along with Nine TV could’ve caused severe harmonic issues with Nine being no physical difference in location, being high power, but there could’ve also been Intermodulation issues between the 2 or 4 FM’s co-located with Nine analogue TV. As it turned out Nine didn’t move their analogue TV transmissions to Artarmon full time until after the Artarmon TV antenna was replaced for DAB in about 2008/9, not long after all 4 FM’s had moved out of Willoughby.
Allocating 100.1 to 2HHH at Hornsby later, would’ve given plenty of physical separation, & also with being lower power was unlikely to cause any significant harmonic or intermodulation issues with Nine Analogue TV or anyone else.
I think I’ve said this before but this is the later history of the Sydney FM’s from my current manager who was working with ARN around the time of AM-FM conversion, then later at SCA.
The relocation from Willoughby was about July 2006 for SCA. ARN moved Mix around the same time as there were three stations in the old Willoughby hut which SCA were going to walk away from as they decided it wasn’t worth fixing. WSFM moved out of Miller street in about 2008 when their lease was up.
The full history went something like this:
- July 1993 WSFM receives FM licence and makes the decision to go early and installs a 20kW Harris PT-20 in the channel 9 TX hall and installs a 6 bay side mount on the Willoughby tower
- 2UW converts to FM but the planned antenna upgrade at Artarmon is not ready so they upgrade the side mount antenna at Willoughby which is half way up the tower to a wide band unit and start transmitting in April 1994 at 10kW using their standby TX which was a Harris HT-10 and a PT-5 as a back up
- The antenna at Artarmon which was a 4 sided 2-bay antenna being used for 2DAY and 2MMM is upgraded during 1994 and Mix finally moves to Artarmon around October 1994 and 2DAY & 2MMM also transmit from the new antenna.
- ARN purchases WESGO and WSFM, One FM and 2SM are now all owned by ARN and fall under the ARN management in about 1995 or 96
- ARN decide to relocate the WSFM transmitter to Artarmon after a raft of problems with the side mount antenna at Willoughby – it was later found that there was water in one of the old TV antenna feeders they used this happens in about 1999.
- Shortly afterwards both power dividers burn out at Artarmon and need to be replaced. All stations transmit from standby sites for about 3 months while this happens.
- 2001 the DTV antenna upgrade happens at the Artarmon site, the whole top section of the tower is removed which includes the top 4 bays of the 6 bay antenna. All stations transmit from their standby sites for <6 months.
- Nova launch in Sydney from Gore Hill after the antenna upgrade in late 2000 and get an immediate jump on the existing stations due to coverage.
- Austereo look at installing TXs at Gore Hill but too hard and expensive to do – contractual negotiations with TXA complicated.
- 2DAY, 2MMM & MIX finally move out of Willoughby in mid-2006 and are joined by WSFM at Gore Hill in 2008. Initially ARN just relocate the HT-10 and PT-10 and then upgrade to Nautel NV-15s in about 2015.
The Willoughby FM antennas were always a massive compromise performance wise. The WS FM one was higher up and on the NW leg so worked a bit better but the MIX/2DAY/2MMM one was half way up on the SW leg. Coverage behind the antenna was always bad as the Willoughby tower was made up from a lot of small steel members and the signal doesn’t pass very well through the structure resulting in multipath.
Both antennas were optimised for forward gain using a 1 wavelength element spacing; this results in about 0.5dB of extra gain but with a downside of a massive lobe on the 88 degree axis, which was so bad that the company car we had at ARN, a Ford EF wagon, the smart lock would not work when parked in Richmond Ave.
The best thing for those antennas was the scrap metal. Both were removed in 2015 and cut up for scrap.
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Great reply as always! Thanks
I remember this making a big difference with reception towards Newcastle.
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Could the technical reason be that radios tuned to 2GLF on 89.3 would produce an intermediate frequency signal 10.7 MHz higher at 100.0, thus interfering with nearby radios tuned to 100.1?
In and around Melbourne, 3RPP moved from 94.3 to 98.7 in 1988. I rang them up to ask them about it (as a curious listener) and they said that it was because EON-FM was moving to 105.1. Either they told me, or I worked out, that it was to prevent interference issues between radios tuned to 94.3 and 105.1.
Does anyone recall seeing a previous ACMA broadcaster list (in a similar format to the one below) but also included the date the licence was first issued/first started?
https://www.acma.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-11/Broadcasters%20by%20Region%20and%20State.PDF
I’m trying to find it in my archives, but can’t.. but I’m sure there was one?
There was one like that but I think it was only commercial stations but not sure.
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I would love to have seen Stereo 10 in Brisbane convert to FM as FM-100. Although I think the frequencies they were considering for the 3rd Brisbane FM licence were 96.5, 97.3, 98.1, 98.9 and 99.7. I wonder if Stereo 10 had gotten the conversion whether they could have requested 100.5, or would there have been technical reasons against that in Brisbane too? I guess at a stretch they could have gone with 99.7 and still ID’d as FM-100
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Surely they could have run an auction for the third Brisbane commercial conversion by now.
I know the incumbents would kick up a stink. But it should be allowed to happen, a mere 35 years after it was supposed to.
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Yes, but they’ve since issued 2x new FM licences for Brisbane. Although I think a city the size of Brisbane should have a 5th FM station. The population is approaching 3 million. A conversion auction would be interesting, and I actually think they would attract some decent bids. They should also allow River 94.9 to bid. They just need to find an available frequency. I’m still convinced this could be done with a bit of shuffling around of community stations both in Brisbane and the Gold Coast/Sunshine Coast.
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I think that ship has sailed and sunk. You had 4BC and 4KQ left to convert, now both have formats better suited to AM, DAB and sreeaming.
4BH is still there. Also if 4BC converted my money would be on them not retaining a talk format, they would likely convert and sell to Nova or ARN to launch a music format. 4BC and 6PR are barely viable as talk stations.
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True. But they’ve done that in other cities where they had 2 conversions.
Adelaide and Perth only had 1 new commercial FM licence issued in the early 2000s, when Brisbane had new 2 new ones, which helped redress that.
And Brisbane still has 4 commercial AM stations vs 2 each in ADL/PER.
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Forgot about them. But my point still stands.
From the ‘Newcastle Herald’ Monday 30 July 1990.
Triple J launched in Newcastle at 1pm on Sun 29th.
I also recall reading/hearing at the time that Triple J would have a local 3 hour program one night a week (not mentioned in this article)… I don’t think that lasted for very long at all. It’s a shame that Triple J doesn’t have a bit more localism, even if just a bit of news or other info or even a eg ‘Newcastle’s 102.1 Triple J’ ID sometimes.
Maynard F Sharp also has a bit of a history with Newcastle radio, hosting breakfast on NEW FM a few years later.
One final thing, the way the article reads, it appears Newcastle got Triple J before Canberra, Adelaide and Hobart, but I thought the only large market that got Triple J after Newcastle was Brisbane (prior to the much more widespread 1995 regional rollout).
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According to the ABC annual report for 1989-90 and the Department of Transport & Communications annual report 1990-91, the launch dates for JJJ’s expansion into other capital cities + Newcastle were as follows:
Melbourne - 22 October 1989
Perth - 29 October 1989
Adelaide - 25 February 1990
Darwin - 30 March 1990
Hobart - 27 May 1990
Newcastle - 29 July 1990
Canberra - 19 August 1990
Brisbane - 30 November 1990
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Great find! Thank you
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An auspicious date. That was my 4th birthday and what did I get as my present? My first ever radio, a Sanyo boombox!
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A bit more than just that, Maynard F Crabbes (alternate name), was born & grew up in Newcastle & I believe first got into radio hosting a show on 2NUR FM at the start of the 80’s, things in Radio/TV just got bigger for him from there.
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