There also used to be (not sure if it’s still there) a 3TR FM sign on the highway near Providence Ponds between Stratford and Bairnsdale (it was at the Billabong roadhouse to be exact), showing the 99.5 frequency (Latrobe Valley - Mt Tassie) on the western side and the 99.9 frequency (Bairnsdale - Mt Taylor) frequency on the east. Again I think it was installed at the time of the FM conversion of 3TR to advise drivers when to change station
EDIT: Here is the old sign I was thinking of - looks like it’s been replaced since
I think it could have worked so long as you kept 684 (Kempsey), 756 (Taree), and 1233 (Newcastle) on air. There is unnecessary duplication between 95.5 and 756 imo.
As for the separate ABCRR service areas, you could have had ABC Upper Hunter (west beam) and ABC Mid North Coast (east beam) similar to Mt Dowe. For ABCFM, JJJ, PNN, and RN, a single tx would do, and would give the Upper Hunter full coverage across all networks which they don’t have presently.
Mount Moombil is perfectly adequate to Port Macquarie anyhow.
Something I liked seeing a few weeks back was a van with a vega 953 logo sticker on it - so not just the relatively obscure vega, but a Sydney station sticker down on a Victorian plated car.
I meant on different frequencies- sorry if that wasn’t clear. By invoking Mount Dowe I was referring to the co-siting of services in general, rather than specific services. I know that there is only one ABCRR tx on Dowe (and Knights Hill). So co-siting two ABC services would be unique.
Brown Mountain would be the closest example of an ABC service covering two distinct licence areas. Though here it’s only ABCRN, PNN, ABCFM, and JJJ. I reckon they should put ABC South East on 89.7 MHz, with NewsRadio moving to 810 (Bega) and 1602 (Cooma). Outlying communities in the Monaro essentially don’t have a local ABCRR outlet and this is an issue when bushfires and other emergencies strike.
Using Brown Mountain for a ABC Local service makes sense. I tend to think that tower is under utilised. I don’t think there is any TV off that tower anymore.
Yes, I agree and agree with @dxnerd that swapping Local and News makes sense. 89.7 would probably cover the whole South East better than what 810 and 1602 does.
Brown Mountain only ever had ABSN8 for TV on it. WIN6 Bega and CTC10 Cooma had their own sites closer to home, meaning post aggregation viewers needed THREE antennas to get all 5 channels, which is silly.
To me there’s not as when driving on the Pacific Highway (the North Coast’s busiest road), the FM coverage is wider. It’s also easier to hear at 110km/h on the concrete surface than AM.
Middle Brother and Mt Nardi have a better audio presentation for speech than Mount Moombil which for years has sounded softer and little muffled.
I agree. It is a great location and an excellent idea for coverage.
WIN6 Bega was for the South Coast. CTC10 for the southern end of the Canberra market. Upon aggregation, there were translators for the South Coast and Canberra in the Cooma area.
Prior to aggregation, depending on location, you may have had an antenna towards each site.
Speaking of station stickers - can you still go into a radio station’s office and pick up a sticker? Or do they only give them away at events and what have you?
I think for the most part you can still pick them up at: community, commercial & regional ABC stations.
Plenty of stations don’t print them & some only print them or have them available for special events.
I think I grabbed the Vega FM stickers from a petrol service station at the time.
Radio station stickers used to be a popular sight on vehicles in the 70’s & 80’s - much rarer to see these days.
I wonder if any radio station stickers are being given away at the Sydney show in show bags or at other major metro annual show days etc?
I did lots of that back in the day. Easier when a lot of stations in Melbourne were in the CBD. Nowadays I don’t think there’s any apart from 3AW on Spencer Street?
In the olden days (80s) there was 3LO/3AR, 3DB/TT, 3KZ, 3AW, 3XY, Triple M. I think 3UZ was a little further out at Carlton.
I couldn’t say if either station (especially Max FM since their logo/slight name change towards the end of last year) is still producing/sending out stickers now, but I got these in 2015 & 2016 respectively:
Personally I’d love to get some stickers (and/or any other free logo-splashed merch if that’s available) from Sydney radio stations at some point but I’m not really sure which stations are still doing them and if so, where’s the best place to get them. Could one simply ask the question to station’s social media accounts? Or do you have to attend some of these station-sponsored events to get this stuff?
Brown Mountain was originally going to have a commercial service it back in the 1960’s. According to the 1964-65 ABCB annual report, Channel 11 was to be allocated for a commercial service from there. Whether if it was to be a standalone service or a relay of CTC or WIN is unknown as it was never commissioned.
I think what they could have done is have transmitters for both CTC and WIN at Brown Mountain transmitting to their respective areas using very highly directional antennas. WIN could have been on Ch6 and CTC on Ch11 (Ch10 could not have been used due to TV oscillator interference from Ch6). 100kw in the main direction and 1kw in the other direction.
in Shepparton before SBS came on the local Mt Major transmitter in 2001 you needed three antennas to get all 5 channels: SBS UHF-29 from Mt Alexander, WIN VHF-6 vertical and the others on UHF from Mt Major. At my parent’s place they had such a setup. You still see these setups on most houses there today.
Listening to the beatles shows on RRR fm current broadcasting on the Ryde local station. The online stream sounds ok but the fm sound is so much better, same earphones etc. Using my sangean digital radio. The mobile is the htc u11 with a DAC dongle. Even there is background static, (My reception is not great) the sound quality is so much better.
