Yes it was reasonably common though back then for stations to “round up” their frequency if it was .7 or more. Mix 92.7 on the Sunshine Coast launched initially as Mix 93.
Didn’t 2MMM used to ID as Rock 105 Triple M instead of 104.9?
It stems from when digital tuners weren’t that commonplace (ie. 70s and 80s).
My personal favourite for rounding of frequencies was Radio 56 4GY on 558AM
When Triple M began in Melbourne it was promoted as “Triple M FM 105” (at 105.1)
Radio/Stereo 10 is another memorable one.
Would Radio 97 be the only commercial station in the country still doing it on AM?
Going through that eight hours or so of 2GO from 28/6/1996, is it just me or was the station better back then than it is now? I mean, locally presented programming during drive and the evening (which sounded decent for 1996 standards) + local news from 3pm to 6pm!
Re, Graham Mack (7pm to midnight presenter heard towards the end of the aircheck): This may have already been mentioned but he’s posted some audio of his on-air work for 2GO to YouTube:
Also quite interesting to hear that Garry Youngberry presented snow reports for 2GO before going onto far bigger and better things! 
And the best jingled frequency ever was 1270 - even though it was only 1269.
As for rounding up or down - how about “There’s only one SM”
If it fits, wear it.
2ONE now The Edge also used to highlight the"point one" in it’s frequency of 96.1 and ID as ONE FM.
This is as far back as any of my air checks go with 2GO.
Only about 30 mins this one. 4 January 1990 12:14 ~ 12:49(33MB)
I’ll post some more in the future as I get them organised.
Eagle FM Goulburn and possibly 2GN if I can.
This was from the days when 2GO was broadcasting on 801AM, with its transmitter located at Chittaway Point, and was the only commercial radio station serving the Central Coast. This was about 8 months before Coast Rock FM came on the air.
Looking forward to those. 
Only station I am aware of doing it… Guess it makes it easy for the older audience as thats what it has always been called
Anyone in Sydney remember Radio 2? They broadcast on 1611am for about 3 or 4 years in the early 2000’s. Always played good music without a lot of ads. (Don’t think they attracted many advertisers) From memory you could only really hear it in the Western Suburbs and even then it was a bit hit and miss.
Yes. Towards the end, Radio 2 was expanded nationwide and also made available through Foxtel/Austar Digital. 1611AM reception was not that great IIRC but in the extremely unlikely chance that people have any, it’d be nice to hear some airchecks of Radio 2 (or any of the other interesting Sydney narrowcasters which used 1611AM after Radio 2) one day!
I’m sure someone else knows a bit more about the Radio 2 story but didn’t they go bust partly because they spent all this money on equipment, station jingles and announcers for a station relatively few people were hearing/could have access to?
Anyway…if the station was available on FM (in particular, did they compete for the 95.3 Sydney and 91.5 Melbourne licences which ultimately went to DMG Radio/Nova Entertainment?), I reckon they might still be on the air today in some form or another. Oh well…
While I don’t think the off-band AM to DAB approach should have been allowed - I do think that they are an example of what could have been if DAB were opened up to new entrants - not just incumbents.
Unfortunately with the existing operators as gatekeepers, there’s not been the strong desire of stations like Radio 2 pushing take up, and the only new entrants have been those far enough away from existing offerings to not be a threat - with Kinderling and EON Sports the only ‘new’ stations we’ve seen on digital.
On the other hand Virgin/Absolute Radio in the UK, primarily promoted their DAB service, but had the AM signal there as a backup for people who didn’t have DAB yet. I don’t know how well 1611AM would have done that - my car radio can tune that far, but I don’t know how many can.
That raises a question for me more generally - has there ever been an ‘official’ decision that created the lack of AM/FM licenses? What triggered actually getting that new wave of FM licenses in the early 2000s, that became Nova/97.3?
Not entirely sure, but this article may be of interest.
Melbourne will get a new FM station next year after DMG Radio, the owner of Nova 100, expanded its national network by buying the Melbourne licence for $52 million at auction yesterday.
At the auction, held by the Australian Broadcasting Authority at the Meridien at Rialto, only three parties bid. The owner of 2GB in Sydney, John Singleton, withdrew at $25 million. The third bidder was not identified.
Oops!
3XY went off the air 27 years ago today. Makes me feel very old that it was so long ago
The station’s last news bulletin went to air at 11.00am on 23 September 1991, with the station’s imminent demise leading the bulletin.
3XY’s last “live” shift ended at midday, followed by a 1-hour pre-recorded tribute hosted by Glenn A Baker and which ended with the last song, It’s A Long Way To The Top by ACDC. A song that dated back to 1976 when 3XY was #1.
YouTube: RIEGS-TV
XY later came back as 3EE on 693 then 1278, now barely surviving as Macquarie Sports Radio with ratings a fraction of what 3XY ever got in its last years on air.
Wow that was an interesting read!
Doing a bit more searching around I managed to find this from The Age in Late 2003 which suggests that Richard Branson had approached WorldAudio Limited (owners of Radio2) for a possible joint venture for new FM licences. The relationship between the two parties must’ve soured somewhere along the line, because by April 2004 (when DMG won the licence for 95.3FM Sydney) the joint venture was between Virgin and the Macquarie Radio Network. I presume that a Virgin/MRN partnership would not have been allowed from a regulatory point of view, particularly in Sydney with MRN owning both 2GB and 2CH at the time.
It seems that the relationship between Virgin & MRN might’ve also soured at some point because they lost out to DMG in the Sydney & Brisbane auctions and just before the 91.5FM Melbourne licence auction in August 2004, DMG were reportedly the hot favourites to win that one.
Completely agree with all your points. The biggest problem with DAB adoption in Australia has been the lack of new entrants. Radio 2 or someone like them would have pushed DAB rather than try to hide it like the incumbents did for years.
Stations like Virgin/Absolute Radio pioneered DAB in the UK and as you say used their AM frequencies increasingly as a ‘back up’. This continues to this day with the relaunch of Virgin radio almost exclusively on DAB.
In terms of Radio 2 yes the 1611 frequency and the low power were a big problem. In fact in some areas it was even higher than 1611 on the dial.
It was however a true national commercial station like they have in the UK, as opposed to the networks we are used to here, hence they were also able to be on Foxtel for example. I’m still quite dissapointed it failed.
The use of the station name ‘Mix101 HOFM’ didn’t start until 1992, when it first converted to FM in 1990 it was known as 101.7 HOFM Greatest Hits.
