They have used two frequencies at Ramadan for a number of years (iirc). At least it’s not DX season.
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Of the alternative music stations in Melbourne, PBS FM is my favourite. “The home of little heard music” pretty much sums them up well. Probably reflecting the musical characteristics and biases of our two major cities, there is more “intelligent” rock music and soul/jazz played down here; fBi mostly plays whiny indie rock and electronic music which I don’t enjoy much. 2SER is better- Sideways Through Sound is a standout- but as you say they air a lot of spoken word programming.
SYN and fBi may both have “youth” orientated licences but their sound is quite different. fBi has a broader “youth, arts, music and culture” ambit; SYN seems to function mostly as a training ground for budding announcers whilst covering youth issues. The closest equivalent in NSW would actually be TUNE! FM at the University of New England, Armidale.
As for 3CR and its anarchic/far left content, let’s just say it would never fly in Sydney, much like Alan Jones and other far-right cronies have never worked in the cultural capital. I did see a 3CR sticker on a hippie van in Coogee, though 
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I think this is one of the reasons why music radio in Melbourne is better than in Sydney, despite the fact that they now lack an easy listening AM station since the demise of 3MP & Magic. Another reason is the presence of Classic Rock Radio, Aussie & KOOOL, the last two of which is only available on DAB+ & doesn’t even stream online.
And yes, I did listen to a bit of the above stations when I was in Melbourne back in March whilst passing through on the way to/from Tassie. 
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The One Love Manchester concert is set to be simulcast on BBC World Service tonight. Not sure if there will be alternative programming going out to the Oceania region, but if not then it will be interesting that stations that use it as an overnight service such as the print-handicapped stations will be getting to broadcast the concert. ABC NewsRadio would be included in that if they switch back from their News24 simulcast.
Would assume not - I’m led to believe that it’s a BBC Studios-directed event
Sydney can receive at least 3 stations that would fit your criteria for a “real music variety” type station that covers the 80s, 90s to now. Those stations include Star 104.5 (Gosford), C91.3 (Campbelltown) & 96.5 Wave FM (Wollongong). In Melbourne, the closest station with that type of format would be Bay 93.9 from Geelong.
I agree. It’s one of the reasons why we don’t have a real ‘classic hits’ station like 4KQ, nor a real AC station that also plays some current hits like 97.3FM or Hot Tomato in Australia’s two largest cities.
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Sydney has choice. Melbourne used to have K-rock in Geelong but now they are pretty much all hits now. Only other regional stations we can pick up are SCA regionals
That is true. Brisbane is also extremely lucky with ‘overspill’ stations River 94.9, Breeze FM and Rebel FM.
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Never-mind - it appears the World Service broadcast mentioned is actually only for Shortwave relays across some countries, not the satellite service relays.
I’d agree that there’s nothing much separating Melbourne and Sydney on the commercial side (they’re both equally bad). However, Melbourne’s major community radio stations- 3PBS and 3RRR- are streets ahead of 2SER and fBi in Sydney in terms of musical diversity. I could listen to 3PBS most of the time whilst driving around; I can’t do the same with 2SER (too heavy on the talk), and fBi is too youth/dance orientated for this old fogey.
An example: 3PBS played a long-winded (10 minute!) jam from the pioneering afro-funkster Fela Kuti last Wednesday at breakfast time, something that would never happen on Sydney radio. 3RRR also had the guts to play obscure 80s tunes on one drive shift. Both 3RRR and 3PBS are true “freeform” stations where the DJ has total autonomy; I think the same is true of 4ZZZ Brisbane, but not fBi.
A final note- Aussie and Koooool Digital are spectacular DAB+ only stations, besting the Sydney only Caralis offerings (without annoying dropouts, too).
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Aside from the obvious local content differences, Sydney’s “Easy Classics” 2CH 1170, and Melbourne’s Classic Rock (I think that’s the name of the station?) on 1377 are basically the only commercial music radio stations that separate the two cities these days.
The ACMA have finally updated the Licensed Broadcasting Transmitter Listings, this is the first update in over a year…
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I notice 94.1 on the Gold Coast still doesn’t appear in this list - is it still a TCBL?
There’s always been a few oddities with these listings.
2BH Broken Hill has disappeared from it also and it’s still on air.
And some of the ERPs are a bit odd.
A lot of ABC FM broadcasts that were listed at 80,000 watts are now 81,000 watts.
I don’t get that!
There are other odd variations in it like that which don’t make sense either.
Is there an SEN equivalent in Sydney?
Likewise, is there a 2SM equivalent in Melbourne?
No, there isn’t a Sydney equivalent of SEN or a Melbourne equivalent of 2SM equivalent although I was talking in the context of music stations there.
The PDF’s are still Jan 2016 though 
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I agree with the above. Up until a few years ago, a number of SCA’s (formerly Macquarie Regional Radioworks) regional stations have their own local music logs, which makes it interesting for those travelling around. Nowadays, most of their regional stations have the same logs everywhere, whether it be the Triple M or the Hit stations. At least there are some Triple M regional stations that take the Classic Hits log (eg. Mid North Coast of NSW) instead of the Greatest Hits log.
At least there are still some regional commercial stations, particularly those owned by Grant Broadcasters & the independents, that maintains its own local log.
new fm newcastle used to play 9 hrs comercial free they called it the rock factory
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Some air checks from FM104 in 1983… Makes me a bit sad as there’ll never be another station like this again :(.
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