Apparently Hot made arrangements to sell 8DN… but the deal involved Hot giving the new owner a big loan to complete the sale and the regulatory authority at the time (It must have been the ABA or ABT) ruled Hot would still have had undue influence over 8DN and declined to approve the sale.
As I understand it all of this happened only a relatively short period of time before the law was changed to allow 2 licenses per market.
As for the Katherine translator, I’m guessing since it was already there on AM there was no real incentive to spend the money upgrading it to FM. AM transmitters may cost more to maintain but the cap ex to convert would have been significant; new transmitter, new tower, new links.
This John Farnham concert was simulcast on MMM 105. I assume it was recorded in Sydney on 7. Memories. Wonder when the last time triple m Sydney played a John Farnham song.
Triple M in Brisbane was 104?
Triple M did not exist in Melbourne, wikipedia says it was late Nov it became Triple M.
I think it was only last year that Triple M Sydney played “You’re The Voice”. It was part of a countdown of some sort. I think I posted about that at the time.
And I remember not long after that, 2DayFM (and presumably other Austereo stations) also simulcasted Crowded House’s “Farewell to the World” Concert that was held at the Sydney Opera House, which aired on Ten.
That sounds about right! I was still in single digits and obsessed by John Farnham so had the video and audio tape of both concerts until I moved house 8 years ago and they went in the bin. Should have bloody kept them!
My favourite memory of a presenter being drunk on-air is from way back in 1983, when Mike Carlton was drunk on his 2GB breakfast program. At least one advertiser phoned 2GB that day to pull their ads, but everyone quickly moved on!
Interesting to see the mess that Melbourne was in. I knew that PBS shifted from 107.7 to 106.7, but never knew of ABC FM being .2 out of place (now 105.9) - and what about 3MBS? (now 103.5)
and of course the EON > MMM move was only made possible by ABC vacating 105.5.
On the subject, am I correct in thinking DMG were originally awarded 91.5 for the licence that would end up becoming Nova (3MEL), but was changed to 100.3 to avoid interference from ABNT3 Launceston?
Just dug this up from the ABA’s May 2004 update (pg. 11) which appears to confirm this:
The ABA has removed a special condition that restricted the operation of three Melbourne FM radio services in the direction of Tasmania.
The three services are the commercial radio service due to be allocated later this year on 91.5 MHz and existing Melbourne community radio services 3TSC on 89.9 MHz and 3SYN on 90.7 MHz
The three services were restricted due to the operation of the ABC television service on VHF channel 3 from Mt Barrow, Tasmania. The restriction was imposed because of possible mutual interference between the three radio services (which are all within the frequency range covered by VHF channel 3) and the ABC service. However, as the ABC service ceased operation in November 2002, the restrictions to the three radio services in Melbourne are no longer required.
Would’ve been bloody annoying for SYN FM, which officially launched in January 2003, two months after ABNT3 moved off the channel
The old Dick Smith catalogues used to have radio and TV stations in its “data” section.
I just dug out the 1983 catalogue which is the earliest one I have. It has 8TOP in Darwin on 104.1. No idea what 8CAR was, maybe a proposed call-sign before the station began?
Not sure if 6ABC in Perth was on air in 1982. Initially I think ABC FM only opened in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in 1976 with other cities to come later. Perth had it by 1983 at least.
