And South East Queensland!
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Realistically it won’t happen but along with South East Queensland (as @Brianc68 pointed out), I personally think the entire Newcastle/Central Coast/Sydney/Wollongong & surrounds region could do with a restack. Especially if the proposal for ABC Local Radio on FM in metro markets goes ahead, because I can see a point in the future where commercial AM stations in metro markets will express a desire to be on the FM band (despite their presence on DAB+, not everyone can get those stations in their cars…at least at the moment anyway) due to deteriorating AM reception and also because there’s generally less new receivers on the market that can pick up AM radio these days.
In this part of the world, suburban community stations are scattered all over the place from 88.1 to 100.9 while there’s also been problems trying to find a decent spot for temporary broadcasts on FM (107.9 really shouldn’t be regularly used in Sydney with the presence of Move FM Lithgow) even though IMO, they probably should only be on DAB+ in this day and age but that’s another story.
Even allocation of the major stations are all over the place - you’d think it’d be more logical to try and split the FM band for major markets in blocks…perhaps something like narrowcasts (87.6-88.0), suburban community, metro-wide community, national/public broadcasters, commercial stations in that order.
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Same in Melbourne. It also needs a restack badly.
They could easily find some more high powered station frequencies if they did.
Seems to work just fine in other parts of the world!
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Completely agree. Look how many FMs they fit in other congested areas like Southern California for example.
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Would this mean community radio stations like north side radio/ SWR would no longer get the coverage like today? (Assuming the restack happened).
The NSW ISP Grand final between the Jets and Bulldogs is getting wide coverage this arvo being independently called on the following stations/organisations;
2GB (and 2ST/2LT)
SWR (FM and SWR Sport 1)
Alive905
Triple H Hornsby
Hawkesbury Radio Sport (online only)
Steelesports (online only)
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The latest Sydney Music Radio Crossovers report has been released: https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/nova-and-kiis-share-more-one-third-their-music-aircheck-report
The report reveals that:
- 2Day & WS share 11.5% of its playlist, with the former playing more unique tracks than the latter (58% vs 30.5%).
- Nova & 2Day share 23.7% of its playlist, with the latter playing far more unique tracks than the former (11.2% vs 65.1%).
- KIIS & Nova share 33.4% of its playlist, with the former playing more unique tracks than the latter (48.4% vs 18.2%).
- Smooth & WS share 19.8% of its playlist, with the former playing more unique tracks than the latter (42.9% vs 37.3%).
The above findings prove that a lot of Nova’s music playlist is derived from 2Day & KIIS, in which they play far fewer unique tracks than the other two Hot AC stations.
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Random…
Football coverage on commercial FM Radio.
I recall in the early 90s, NEW FM Newcastle claimed that it was the first commercial FM radio station to call football, when Leigh Maughan commentated on the Newcastle Knights rugby league matches.
QFM Ipswich also claimed something similar, but I THINK that theirs was a relay of the 2UE coverage?
Which also made me wonder as to when Triple M Melbourne started calling AFL games… Does anyone know when they started doing that?
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Triple M started broadcasting football in 1997.
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As I recall, K-Rock when the converted to FM in 1991 were the first AFL FM broadcaster and promoted themselves as FM “Football Magic” with the late great Teddy Whitten. Must admit I’m still on 774/3LO…although at the time I did listen a bit to 3XY’s football calls with Eddie McGuire…
3MMM only came on to the scene circa 1997 courtesy of Lee Simon - per the font of all knowledge Wikipedia!
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didn’t K-Rock have a low power transmitter at the MCG? I have vague memories of picking it up at cats games
i98FM Wollongong used to cover the Illawarra Steelers (and later St George Illawarra Dragons) matches until the 2001 season, using their own call team. This dated back to when the Steelers first entered the NSWRL competition in 1982, in which 2 Double 0 covered the matches.
According to this piece of audio, One FM 96.1 covered the Penrith Panthers matches during the 1993 season. Again, this dated back to when its AM predecessor, 2KA, used to cover the matches.
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I think they used to rebroadcast the K-Rock signal on FM88 at the "G. Not sure if they still do.
Whether you follow AFL or NRL, enjoy your Grand Final this weekend! Go Weagles (I don’t believe I’m writing this, but some options are just too hard to accept)
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I can’t tell you of they still do - I haven’t been to the G in about 13 years (thats the one thing i hate about living in brisbane) and the only time i’ve been able to get to friday night footy in melbourne it was at etihad.
and yes, as a carlton supporter i say go the weagles.
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Up the pies!!!
Yes, 1993 was the last year that 2KA/One FM covered Panthers matches.
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I could NEVER imagine them doing that now as The Edge.
when 3KZ converted from AM to FM in 1990 to become KZ-FM they continued the football broadcasts until the end of the 1991 season when they exited calling the football, changed its name to the current Gold 104 and focused on all oldies music. “KZ-FM IS Football” doesn’t have the same ring as the former “3KZ IS Football”
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Thaanks
I thought 3KZ was doing the radio coverage when I was young. I know 3GL changed to K-Rock but I think Ted Whitten left by then.
Speaking about Rugby League, I notice Macquarie Sports Radio is broadcasting the Storm into Melbourne which is fantastic but I loved 3AK coverage of around 1999-2000 with Arthur Higgins being just bias as Gus Gould and Ray Hadley and loving the Talkback caller after the game and the Sydneysiders and Queenslanders ringing up to complain about the bias coverage.
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