Just imagine it now with Hit on 105.5 , 105.1 and 102.3! But then it’s all the same outside of mornings and ads, and the music is crap too. Triple M isn’t much better really.
It’s over to community radio, 2HC/Cruze when it’s local or streaming.
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@hatdj (or anyone) do you know what this ‘Mara Mara FM’ referred in this Tamworth ‘Northern Daily Leader’ ad from December 1991 was.. sounds like an Indigenous station of some sort, but I’ve never heard of it?
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YouTube: Joe Smith
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It was a short-lived Indigenous Community station on 96.3 FM and as far as I know it never got passed doing a couple of test transmissions using borrowed gear from the CBAA
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Thanks! I recall Rhema using 96.3 initially too, before it got moved to 89.7, around the same time 2YOU moved from 95.5 to 88.9 in the early 00s, along with an increase from 32 watts to 1,000 watts.
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Good find! It’s a bit surprising that it took Coffs Harbour that long to get its own commercial radio station.
2MC has always had a good signal up that way so was kind of a defacto quasi local station until then.
I’ve got some more 2CS stuff that I’ll post tomorrow too.
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2CS converted to FM and changed its official callsign to 2CFS (on-air it was called 2CS-FM).
You’ll now find it branded as Triple M Coffs Coast 106.3.
It wasn’t on AM for very long. Shortest AM to FM conversion? Amazed they never went on FM in the first place.
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FM was still in its infancy back then.
Community radio 2CHY FM also only started in Coffs in 1985 I think? There was nothing on FM in the area before then, no ABC FM even.
I remember seeing a documentary or news story on the ABC in the early 80’s that CHY (which later became 2CHY) was distributed via cable. This was before they got their FM licence.
Only it wasn’t actually an AM to FM conversion.
The original 2CS licence is still on AM with a changed callsign to 2HC.
The 2CSF licence was a NEW licence and 2CS did a pretend conversion to 2CS-FM before selling the original AM licence after changing the callsign. Think it was sold to the Easy network at first.
I feel like I’m repeating myself but these aren’t AM to FM “conversions” in the same way that 2WS converted to FM as 2UUS. They are new licences. Just like 4MK, 4CA, etc. etc. didn’t “convert” to FM.
AM stations that actually converted to FM licences are the likes of 2WS, 4GG, 4SS, 4BK, to name just a few. In these cases the actual AM licence BECAME an FM licence, and the original AM licence disappeared.
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It wasn’t an FM conversion. 2CFS was a NEW licence. They just called it 2CS-FM and then sold the original AM licence which remained.
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According to ACMA, 2CHY gained its full-time FM licence on 1st January 1983.
The honor of having the shortest AM to FM conversion goes to 2OO in Wollongong. It launched on 1st January 1979, and converted to FM as i98FM on 25th June 1992, a length of 13 years, 5 months & 25 days.
2WS in Sydney was the 2nd shortest, launched on 23rd November 1978, and converted to FM on 1st June 1993 (14 years, 6 months, 10 days).
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Does 2JJ to 2JJJ count or is this only for commercial stations 
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I was referring only to the commercial stations. 
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2GO Gosford probably has the record for the shortest amount of time on an AM frequency being on 801 for 5 years, 4 months and 27 days (switched from 1323 on 19/9/1986 and moved to FM on 15/2/1992).
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2JJ would have beaten that, going from 1539 in November 1978 (from 1540) to FM in mid 1980.
3EA in Melbourne was on 1116 from November 1978 (from 1120) and moved to 1224 in around early to mid 1980. 2EA in Sydney was on 801 from November 1978 (from 800) and moved to 1386 in around July 1980.
The reason for both 2EA & 3EA on changing their respective frequencies was for a boost in power, going from 500 watts to 5kW.
In January 1995, SBS Radio in Sydney (2EA) moved from 1386 to 1107, 2UW’s former AM frequency.
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