5MG’s transmitter is right in the middle of suburbia in Mt Gambier. Pics attached. Source: Google Street View
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Possibly, but I’ve never seen it listed as being at/for Penola, only ever listed as Naracoorte. That should really have a callsign more like 5SE, maybe 5SS since it’s for the wider South East.
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Or 5MW, for medium wave and mild weather.
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That’s one way to promote your station.
3WV 594 (Horsham) is received quite well in Bendigo still, and was the primary ABC station before 1992. 3LO 774 slightly less so, but listenable.
To this day, 3AR 621 from Melbourne is still our main ABC Radio National station.
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It’s a bit of an anomaly isn’t it - Ballarat and Gippsland don’t have local RN relays either.
they probably don’t need it. 621 has a very wide coverage.
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621 comes in quite strong tbh in Bendigo. Listenership is pretty low - more people probably stream it than listen on AM.
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We’ve discussed this before. I still find it a bit odd (even given the coverage of 3RN) that there’s no FM relay until you get to Horsham (low powered). There’s nothing even at Swan Hill; reception there these days would be mighty scratchy in town. Mind you, both 3RN and 3LO are clear even at Hay in the middle of the day on a car radio.
There’s also the FM relay planned for Mount Tassie on 95.9 but never activated.
Contrast the Victorian approach with that in NSW. In the late 00s, the ABC tried to put NewsRadio on 1431 in Wollongong as a temporary measure, whilst 90.9 remained unavailable due to WIN3. They ran a loop for about a week advising listeners to tune to either 576 (Sydney) or 603 (Nowra). They must have got some backlash as RN was back on 1431 very quickly.
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They did, hence the reversal as you said.
Sunshine Coast also doesn’t have RN. Expected to receive Gympie or Bald Hills. Yet they get the twinned 94.5 transmissions for News. Why not for RN as well?
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I suspect it might have something to do with the 1946 Federal Law requiring broadcast of Parliament proceedings, which at the current time is broadcast on News Radio, not RN. Hence more incentive to have a News Radio and not RN translator.
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Not sure because Darling Downs and Southern Downs have both had high power RN stations from the start of ABC FM transmissions but only recently seen a couple of lower power News outlets added.
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Yes, some of the regional RNs have been on FM for a long time; 104.3 Orange comes to mind. The expansion of NewsRadio only occurred latterly in the mid to late 2000s (Mt Ulandra, one of the first in the expansion, tested in early 2006).
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3GI in Gippsland, VIC on 828 AM was switched over to Radio National not long after the new FM outlet for local radio, 3GLR on 100.7 went to air.
But it didn’t last. 3GI returned to local radio, apparently after complaints about the FM station’s poor coverage in the mountains to the east. So there’s now a simulcast of local radio on AM and FM in Gippsland. And still no RN.
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I think around 1990 is when they started rolling them out?
neither does Shepparton (they can also receive RN on 756 from Wangaratta), Swan Hill, Colac or West Gippsland. In the Goulburn Valley growing up I could receive both RN on 621 and 3LO on 774 like local stations, as well as 3WV and the local 2CO. And at night 2NC from Newcastle relaying JJJ (then a Sydney-only station) overnight.
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I have Orange as March 1992. Taree, Kempsey, Bega, Mt Dowe and Coffs were also 92. Lismore 1991. Batemans BAy was 89.
A large number of low power RNs came on line in 1987 then more in 88 and 89. Queensland got some high powers in 1990.
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2UH signed on in the Upper Hunter in 1964, but didn’t get specific local programs until 1990.
Can’t remember when the FM frequencies were started, but they’re not really needed as 1044 covers pretty much everywhere except Merriwa.
Funnily enough, the ABC does suggest 2CR Cumnock on 576AM - I’ve never received it in Scone.
We still don’t have RN in the main parts of the Upper Hunter, only Merriwa and Murrurundi does because council paid for it. Otherwise you’re directed to either Tamworth on 93.9 or Sydney 576. Likewise for Classic FM, Tamworth 103.1 FM , for JJJ, Tamworth on 94.7 FM - and that’s if you put Scone into the search bar.
If you live in Muswellbrook, you’re directed to RN Newcastle on 1512 AM. Classic FM Newcastle on 106.1 FM, and JJJ Newcastle on 102.1 FM. Singleton you’re better off tuning to Newcastle.
You’d think we’d be deserving of a low power RN at least. The ABC map shows it not even reaching Muswellbrook or Scone. You could get it in a car, but who wants to be driving just for one show on those stations?
Incidentally, reading through the old Control Board reports, they eventually conceded that Cessnock was not a good place to put a radio station in, given they could get the Newcastle stations and 2HR Singleton/Lochinvar/Maitland, and that Muswellbrook and the Upper Hunter were being deprived of adequate radio coverage, both national and commercial.
Thus was 2CK Cessnock’s license was moved to Muswellbrook and 2HR was moved to Bolwarra, serving Newcastle when it was supposed to be a Bolwarra/Maitland station.
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