Very interesting- thanks for that. It seems like the currently vacant frequencies around 102-103 MHz are intended to be used by national and/or Maori/iwi broadcasters?
As you say though, this bandplan isn’t followed to the letter; I know Oamaru and Queenstown have commercial broadcasters on 104.0.
I also recall LPFMs using 88.4 and 88.5, but perhaps these are no longer on air and the frequencies have been surrendered to commercial broadcasting.
I wasn’t at work yesterday and someone had changed the station on my radio back to Triple M. I didn’t mind ,was starting to get sick of 97.3 anyway
The commercial radio rights (for the Tokyo Olympics) are also available but, as of Tuesday, they had yet to be finalised, so there was still the possibility that Australians may yet have no radio coverage of an Olympic Games in their own time zone.
Have no idea where to put this but Saudi Arabia Radio on Shortwave is using the old ten news theme for their news lol I’ll upload a video when I can (bad internet atm)
Yes- from Orbost to Mallacoota your options are extremely limited. I reckon Flow FM should put in a medium powered transmitter at Cann River; I don’t think the town and surrounds are in any other commercial radio licence area. Orbost too, but that might be just in 3TR/3GV territory. As mentioned before, Mallacoota is in the 2EC/Power FM (Bega) licence area and would thus qualify for translators.
That’s correct.
Over the past week I have driven up and down the Queensland Coast ( Bruce Highway).
One thing that I noticed was the poor reception and interference on the local AM stations in Rockhampton, Mackay and Cairns. When I was driving through Rockhampton the interference was there all the time on 990 4RO and 1584 4CC. As soon as you got 15 KMs out of Town in Rocky, Mackay and Cairns the AM stations were unlistenable. The ACMA really needs to address this. All the FMers in these City’s had awesome reception. I can see why the FMers rate a lot higher in these areas.
I did not notice this problem with AM radio stations inland.
Does anyone on here know what causes this?
I agree with your observations regarding AM. People often say AM is more suited to regional areas than FM but my observation is that AM is hopeless when you’re more than 30km from town - and sometimes less. FM coverage far exceeds the AM coverage in all of the major centres up the Queensland coast. I’m not sure what the problem is, perhaps they’ve lowered the power (I know 4GY has), but stations like 4RO used to have a wide reach back in the 80s. You could pick it up in the daytime in Bundaberg - a bit scratchy but it was receivable.
The situation is much worse at night too. AM signals are a mess at night even 20km from the source.
I agree mate, I find at night everywhere AM is unlistenable.
I’d agree with that for reasonably densely populated regional areas (e.g. most of the ‘Boomerang Coast’*** from Adelaide to Rockhampton, and SW WA). Electrical interference/ignition noise is the main limiting factor. However, for covering large sparsely populated licence areas (Renmark, Broken Hill, Bourke, Mount Isa, Pilbara etc.), MW is king. 2WEB on 585 covers a huge portion of inland NSW in the daytime, as does 2CR Orange, and 3WV does the same for inland VIC. You can’t do that on FM.
You do need to have a good transmission site and/or a low frequency to get the most out of daytime MW, though. Daytime coverage is much better at the lower frequencies.
***Term used in Bill Bryson, ‘Down Under’. I think it’s a good descriptor, considering the shape of the coastline.
I’d extend that boomerang to Cairns.
Yes and no. I think 4QN Townsville would have a fair few listeners in Charters Towers and points further west; its groundwave coverage would be pretty extensive. It’s a case of a transmitter in a relatively densely populated area covering both city/coast and the adjacent inland, which is fairly remote in parts.
The area between Rocky and Mackay isn’t that densely populated either.
True, but I can’t understand why AM reception has become poor in these areas, populated or not. While the FM Stations boom up and down the coast. I remember as a kid back in the 80’s picking up 4AK during the day in Rocky.
I think these Grant AM stations should have a opportunity to convert to FM. These stations have a huge disadvantage at the moment.
I agree. I don’t understand it either. Yes they need to look into letting 4CA, 4MK, 4RO/4CC and 4BU all convert. I believe ACMA are considering letting regional AM stations convert to FM even in competitive markets. It’s an option on the table anyway in some of their recent discussion papers. It needs to happen in markets where there’s an AM up against 2 or 3 FMs. Especially when reception is so poor.
They could always go the 2HD route and apply for translators where they aren’t really needed…same with 2GF and its ‘Maclean’ translator.
Get creative- 4MK could apply for a translator to cover the Pioneer Valley; just stick the tx on the range and voila.
Maybe it’s just a Queensland thing, as I know when I do the drive Brisbane-Melbourne stations like 2RG and 2WG (Triple M and Triple M now) get out really well and cover a good portion of the landscape.
Mind you, 2GZ FM (now also Triple M) does a pretty good job covering a good chunk of inland NSW from the top of Canobolas as well
Have to agree, that area is crying out for some commercial radio despite its relatively small population. Not to mention 1242/99.9 barely make it into Orbost from my memory at least. The remote licence covering a good portion of the highway through there might do well
Yes I have noticed that. I can pick 2GZ FM from Dubbo down to Parkes. SUN FM (Hit) Shepparton and 2WEB Bourke have good coverage as well.
Don’t forget the mighty 2NOW 98.3 From Mt Dowe if your talking about coverage 