If they’re going to do it they have to do the entire country, as moving one will create a problem in a neighbouring area which ripples out.
The trouble with FM is that it’s not the spectrums full, it’s been there was little planning initially & new stations were just slapped anywhere they could fit. I’m talking back at the start of FM, prior to the AM conversions & boom of new FM stations being granted.
Still working on the 2CCC move to Mt Elliott. Working with Telstra trying to get access on their tower is a nightmare, we’re also not allowed in their TX house with any 240/415VAC equipment, so we’ll have to build our own hut in the yard.
I’m currently flat out replacing the play-out system & beginning to replace the entire play-out music library with new & re-freshed playlists & update all music to WAV or FLAC format from mp3’s for audio quality.
New Zealand undertook a large re-stack of FM a few years ago, so it’s possible. Although they have a much smaller population, they have a lot more radio services per head.
Only three areas- South East Queensland, the NSW metropolitan coast, and Central Victoria -need some work, imo. A radical solution to spectrum scarcity in these areas would be to consolidate some of the small community stations in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, which would free up a few more frequencies for use. E.g. in Sydney:
88.9- Metro FM (2RSR/2RES) (Inner Metro)
89.7- Saint FM (2NBC/2SSR) (Southern Metro)
90.5- Heartland FM (2CCR/2RDJ/2RRR) (Central Metro)
99.3- Shore FM (2NSB/2HHH/2MWM) (Northern Metro)
100.1- Ghost FM (2GLF/2BCR/2MCR) (SW Metro)
100.9- Nepean FM (2SWR/2WOW/2VTR) (NW Metro)
These stations could run 1-2 kW each to cover their broad areas of Sydney.
EDIT: You’d also need to reallocate 99.5/101.1 at Wentworth Falls and possibly the Bathurst co-channels for this to work well. I’d get rid of the WS FM repeaters (88.3/99.1) entirely since WS is no longer a Western Sydney station.
EDIT2: Possible frequencies for other services:
88.5- Lake Mac FM
88.7- Move FM Katoomba (with sharp null to the east. Put Vintage FM on 87.6-88.0 where it’s supposed to be).
89.3- ABC NewsRadio Gosford
89.5- 2LT Katoomba (with sharp null to the east)
89.9- 2UUU Nowra
90.1- Coast FM Wyong
91.7- 2BLU FM Katoomba
95.1- Life FM Bathurst (can’t move down to 99.9 because of co-channel at Parkes)
99.1- B-Rock Bathurst
100.7- TAB Bathurst (move 2LF/t Cowra to 101.1).
I wasn’t suggesting an entire restack of Syd-New, just the problematic co-channels - most of which are operating at 2kw or less around here … which I think could be done without impacting on neighbouring markets much at all.
I’ll have a go at the transmitter locations (why not?)
88.9- Kings Cross (co-site with 100.5 2RPH).
89.7- Penshurst Water Tower (existing 2NBC site; you can see most of the Shire from there also).
90.5- Ermington/Carlingford (fairly high up and central to the new broadcast area).
99.3- Frenchs Forest/Belrose (ditto).
100.1- Mount Pritchard (existing 2GLF site, fairly central to the new broadcast area with a good view).
100.9- Horsley Park (existing SWR site; doesn’t get much better than this).
I agree re WS…, they should given a set of criteria about serving Western Sydney to be met… eg. Western Sydney local news items, community announcements and if they are not met, broadcasting from Western Sydney and not North Ryde (which I don’t think they would be prepared to do), they would be made to relinquish 88.3 and 99.1. Something similar should also be applied to 96.1 “Katoomba”.
However, I’m not convinced about the proposed amalgamations of community radio stations… this would go down about as well as the proposed council mergers with the public…
I think the co-channeling issues can be solved without the need to do this. The “Radiohead Restack Plan” (RRP) would see the following reallocations of frequencies (with the WS handback)
88.3 Lake Macquarie FM (now on 97.3)
88.9 2CHR Cessnock (96.5)
89.5 News Radio Gosford (98.1)
90.7 Today’s Country Gosford (94.1)
91.5 Radio Rhema Gosford (94.9)
99.1 2CCC Gosford (96.3)
I think they should RE-stack FM in problem areas around the big three eastern metro areas. South east Queensland in particular. What a mess. There’s no need for the spacing of the GC stations in line with Brisbane stations for a start. They need to look at the whole region including Sunshine Coast and Gympie/Cooloola but that’s as far as they need to go for Qld at least.
I don’t bring my good digital radio to work anymore,I’m worried something might happen to it ,it cost me about $240 .bought an old -fashioned 80s boom box at a garage sale for $5 ,it picks up River 94.9 really well ,has a proper aerial on it ,hope it doesn’t break off-that’s what happened to my old work radio
Because my workplace is located about 12 kms south-west of Brisbane CBD(Salisbury) as the crow flies it’s not that far from Ipswich where River 94.9 is located .If my work was north of Brisbane I wouldn’t be able to receive it on my radio at all
The advertising watchdog has ordered a racist radio ad – which features an Asian man calling a concreting company for assistance because “Mama has bog in driveway” – off the air.
The ad was found to have breached rules on the grounds of discrimination and racial vilification.
The ad for TP Concreting in Kingaroy, Queensland, features the man speaking with an Asian accent and calling himself ‘Ping Pong’, demanding the company fix his driveway right away and offering them sushi.
The ad ran on Kingaroy Hot FM in Queensland in November and the advertiser responded to the complaint denying it was racist and sexist.
I haven’t heard his particular ad but I’m surprised at this given some of the advertising I’ve heard on radio over the years.
One that comes to mind is for Jimboomba Hardware (?) that is part of a series featuring “Kiwi Kev” and has been running for several years now. In one advert we hear Kiwi Kev talking about his pet sheep Barbara getting mud all over the bedroom!
Google maps traffic layer has an error on it, orange zone of traffic southbound on the M3 Brisbane from Vulture St to Juliette St. It’s constantly there and the traffic camera proves it’s clear (ie. green).
Do you think the ATN traffic woman, a curiously named ‘Ellen Grove’ (also a suburb of Brisbane, surely a nom-de-plume?) constantly says traffic is a little heavy outbound. Well, it’s not and now we know what she and her colleagues rely on without any cross checking.
Ah thank you!!
You’ve solved a mystery to me in that EVERY time (day and night) I enter the Riverside Expressway (M3) southbound at North Quay my Ford Focus Sat Nav traffic voice comes on and says “Caution Traffic Disruption Ahead” even when there’s no traffic or incident. She’s usually very accurate!
Totally agree Brian. In Melbourne / Geelong there are supposedly no frequencies available for any new “high power” services. That’s absolutely absurd!
Between 93.1 and 100.3 there are a heap of low powered community stations that could easily be reallocated onto just a few channels. They’re only supposed to serve local areas, so bad luck if they lose their current wide area coverage. Judicious allocation would remove most overlaps.
And it’s also idiotic that the Geelong stations are not allocated between what could be Melbourne high powers on 400 kHz separation. The Geelong stations have very poor signals in Melbourne, despite being able to see the transmit antenna on the Bellarine Peninsula from most of bayside Melbourne. Its transmit pattern was deliberately made extra tight to have as little spillover into the Melbourne market as possible. Even though the Melbourne stations boom into Geelong. Always thought that was very unreasonable. So you could have 3BAY on 93.9, a Melbourne high power on 94.3, Geelong high power 94.7, Melbourne 95.1 etc.
The long talked about Geelong ABC Radio station would be the big one, and it might assist in removing a few questionable frequency double-ups (94.3 is the big one that comes to mind).
That area, while not quite as bad as the allocations in SEQ or the greater Sydney area, should definitely be considered if a ‘restack’ were ever to occur
You’re welcome, there was a similar error southbound near the Mandew St overpass before Logan Hyperdome. It lasted for many months before disappearing. I guess this will in time, if Google realise.
Yeah completely agree. Compared to North American or even NZ cities the major cities in Australia don’t have enough commercial FM stations, particularly Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. It’s absolutely absurd to only have 4 commercial FM stations in those cities. Compare them with the diverse formats you get in the US or even Auckland and it’s depressing. The regulator here just protects the incumbents rather than focusing on providing listeners real choice.