What about 4TO changing from AM to FM sometime in the 90s?Of course now they’re Triple M👎I’m in Townsville now ,going home tonight,that’s why I just thought of this
2 Likes
4TO in Townsville was a straight-forward AM to FM conversion, which occurred on 1st June 1998.
4 Likes
I couldn’t remember exactly when they converted to FM ,thanks👍September 1st ,about 6 years ago they became Triple M
I think 2AY was same. They got an FM licence but treated it as an FM conversion though they still had the AM licence 2AY they just “launched” 2AYFM. Then they reversed the “conversion” and put 2AY back on AM!
3 Likes
And I think AM was just known as AM1494 whilst the 2AY branding was used on FM… it was changed to B104.9 when the 2AY brand was moved back…
4CA Cairns and 4MK Mackay are two others whose brands got moved from AM to FM and back to AM again.
3 Likes
Similar also happened in Adelaide. 5AD bought 102.3FM and used it to “convert” 5AD to FM and launched a new station at the existing 1323 AM. They then changed the AM callsign to 5DN and relaunched a new 5DN talkback format. (it’s now Cruise 1323)
1 Like
4TO was an actual AM to FM conversion (ie. Not a new licence, and the old AM licence no longer exists)
3 Likes
Yes exactly
I think 4TO kept the AM simulcast going until 2015. Not sure why it lasted that long.
4 Likes
Possibly to provide coverage to those in the deep fringe? I think the Ayr relay on 92.3 was only turned on in the last few years as well. Bowen had theirs since at least early 00s, first on 106.3 and then 98.3. That was moved to allow for a new licence to be allocated in Townsville.
2 Likes
Yeah I remember picking up the old 774 in relatively recent times, well behind 3LO though.
In the tropics there’s also the need to have redundancies in case of a cyclone, though I reckon AM txs are more vulnerable than FM ones in that regard, due to flooding of the transmitter site. FM sites are much more vulnerable to bushfire, but major fires are fairly rare in northern QLD.
Bushfire is possibly why some of the ABC AMs are still on air in the southern states, such as 828 Gippsland, 1044 Muswellbrook and 756 Taree to name a few. Mount Tassie was wiped out by bushfire in 2009.
3 Likes
One problem that FMers can face is remote transmission sites being hard to access. Even if not damaged, in the case of a power outage it can sometime be hard to refuel the back up generators in a cyclone/bushfire situation.
Even on the Gold Coast, TV was off air last year because the Mt Tamborine transmission site wasn’t accessible to the fuel truck.
2 Likes
Yes, usually on mountaintops accessible only by 4WD in a lot of cases. Mount Wandera (Batemans Bay) is a good example, also wiped out by fire (in 2020). Landslips/tree falls cutting access roads are also an issue, as with Tamborine. The way the climate is heading on the east coast, that might be the major issue rather than bushfire.
2 Likes
Some more World Radio TV Handbook goodness. This time from the 1966 edition showing which radio stations were 24/7 at the time.
2GB Sydney
2XL Cooma
2UE Sydney
2KY Sydney
2UW Sydney
2HD Newcastle
2SM Sydney
2KO Newcastle
3UZ Melbourne
3DB Melbourne
3XY Melbourne
4KQ Brisbane
4BC Brisbane
5DN Adelaide
5KA Adelaide
5AD Adelaide
6IX Perth
6KY Perth
7EX Launceston
2XL being 24/7 didn’t last. It was back to 5am to midnight not long after.
5 Likes
Hi, I’m looking for an Australian history of radio based dating shows. Any city, any duration. I’ve managed to find Midnight Matchmakers on 2GB in the 80’s but are there any before? Also, if you were a host or involved at all, please share…
1 Like
I recall 3AW had similar to 2GB during the 80s. It was late on Saturday nights, from memory. Hosted by Helen(?) Jackson and later Yvonne Lawrence, though i may be corrected on those.
Not a ‘serious’ dating show but NEW FM Newcastle had ‘Desperate and Dateless’ on at nights in the early 1990s .. it wasn’t a full on dedicated show as such, but were recurring segments that were run from time to time each weeknight (similar to the ‘Top 8 at 8’ etc).
1 Like
I remember a dating show on 3KZ in the 80s hosted by Bruce McCartney and later Chris Heaney.
2 Likes
Oooh do you know who hosted?