Speaking of Sydney radio stations that existed back in the 1990s but not now, I wonder if any of Media Spy’s older members might know exactly how long the narrowcast stations “SYI-FM” 87.8 (Tourist Information Radio) and “The Edge AM” 1629 lasted for? There doesn’t seem to be much info about those two on the internet.
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I don’t recall SYI FM; I probably couldn’t receive it anyway down in the southern suburbs. Cronulla had a tourist information station on 87.6 MHz in the mid-90s which lasted for a few years iirc. The narrowcasting framework came in with the Broadcasting Services Act in 1992, but it was 1993 or 1994 before the first LPONs commenced broadcasting. It was 1994 when I first happened upon the Cronulla service, playing this fantastic 'Do The Right Thing’ jingle.
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.ACMA’s market specific obs are:
Latest population determination
The ACMA’s most recent determination of licence area populations of
commercial television and commercial radio broadcasting licences, under
section 30 of the Act, was signed on 11 April 2016. In making this
determination the ACMA had regard to the 2011 census conducted by the
Australian Statistician.
Key changes from the last determination are:
The population of the following licence area overlaps have exceeded the 30% threshold for the first time:
Burnie RA1 and Devonport RA1 commercial radio licence area. Deniliquin RA1 and Bendigo RA1 licence areas:Section 51 requires the two markets to be treated as one for the
purposes of control and directorship limitations in Part 5 of the BSA.
The population of the Northam RA1 licence area has exceed the
30,000 person threshold, which means the commercial radio licence in the
Northam RA1 is now no longer a small licence for the purpose of the
local content condition.
Note: provisions in section 52 (described above) means that existing
controllers and directors are not in breach of the two station to a
market rule because of the 30% threshold being exceeded in the
Burnie/Devonport overlap. While the Deniliquin/Bendigo overlap has
passed the 30% threshold, this does not give rise to any control issues.
The existing licensee of the Northam commercial radio broadcasting
service is not affected by no longer being classified as a ‘small’
licence area for the purpose of local content as it is covered by
grandfathering provision noted above.
So in a typical National party pandering, if your market grows or your licences are now in overlap, so long as the same directors remain, no worries, it’ll all be grandfathered to allow the status quo.
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I notice that ARN has introduced pre-roll adverts to their stations (not sure if all, but not just broadcast stations) on the Radioapp. Extremely annoying as it is the same one every time. Massive turn off for me as I find I don’t want to wait through the same message again prior to waiting for a station to start.
Also, about a month ago (?) Grant broadcasters like River and Zinc upgraded their streaming quality to something that can now be enjoyed rather than the low quality bottom of the well quality streams previously employed.
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I noticed that yesterday on my Sangean while station hopping, was really annoying.
Have heard the ad on Zinc for the last fortnight about the upgrade, according to my radio its 128kbps Mp3 format.
Hopefully that extends to all their stations in due course. Magic stations still stream in what I’m assuming is no greater than 80kbps MP3.
Some stations, particularly some of Grant’s smaller stations suffer a lot because their stream is sent out from the station on a pretty poor internet connection.
Also, not all stations streaming at the quality they say they are.
There are 2 steps in the streaming process:
- Station to streaming server (uplink) - similar to the concept of transmitting the signal to a transmission tower.
- Streaming server to end user (downlink) - similar to turning in on a radio.
The streaming server is centralized somewhere and will usually run the stream for all stations in the network. Some are privately run (usually the bigger networks) while others are commercial services (for example, Via Streaming is a popular choice).
These streaming servers will generally be configured to have one setting (or a couple of settings) for all stations they provide streaming for. 128kbps is probably the most common, but 192, 80, 64 and 32 are also common. SCA for example have 128kbps for use on Wifi/Wired networks and 32kbps for use on mobile networks.
The real quality issue is in the uplink from the station to the streaming server is where the main quality issue lies. Obviously there’s no problem with the bigger stations, but 128kbps upload in a small regional town on an ADSL connection that’s also used for other things is pushing it and will cause the stream to become unreliable. (Some uplinks will be variable, so can provide a higher bitrate, but then drop the bitrate when there’s congestion to ensure at least something gets out).
So imagine a station that has chosen to use a lower uplink bitrate to get that stability, say 32kbps. When you stream at 128kbps, you technically are getting 128kbps, but it’s just 128kbps worth of the low quality and artefacts that come from the low quality uplink. Basically the same as if an FM station decided to play a 32kbps MP3.
There can also be problems with how the raw audio is actually captured. Most of the bigger stations to uplink directly from their playout system - so the audio is the best possible quality. But, I have a feeling that some stations (maybe smaller, older stations with less audio outputs) are running their streams off air - which obviously can cause interferance issues at times.
I believe some of these issues are why the SCA streams came online slowly - they obviously wanted to make sure they were actually going to provide a good service. Grant’s on the other hand rolled out all their stream at once and very quickly, so obviously not everywhere had the ideal infrastructure in place.
I thought I’d map the distribution of the number of stations on each AM and FM frequency.
AM:
Is there a reason why 909 kHz isn’t allocated in Australia?
FM:
This chart has 200 kHz resolution, so the few stations ending in an even frequency is rounded up (e.g. 103.2 => 103.3).
Bonus – DTV frequencies:
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I think there’s some international agreement that 909 khz doesn’t get used… Though oddly Britain uses it.
And that similarly, 1584 is to be low powered.
It’s used in New Zealand too for the Radio NZ AM Network in Napier. 909 is also used by some super powerful stations(500kw) in China that can be heard here at night sometimes.
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At work this week we were going to listen to 101FM but could only get crappy reception so we’re stuck with 97.3 instead 
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I’m not sure why it’s used elsewhere, though it’s not as significant now, or really an issue with new (modern) radio receivers, & could be used here too?
The reason it’s not used, without being too technical is, it’s to do with the IF amplifier in a superheterodyne receiver.
Way back, it was decided by the Australian PMG, that our radio receivers would match what the USA was doing, & have the IF amplifier set at 455KHz, unfortunately this would cause a re-radiation signal (image) & a heterodyne “whistle” on the second harmonic frequency of the IF, which happened to be 910KHz.
Most modern radio receivers have other things in them to help stop the issue.
Also to make it easier for a receiver to be switched between 9KHz & 10Kz spacing, the norm IF is now 450KHz, which puts the second harmonic “image” on 900KHz, not 910KHz (909KHz).
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The AM and DTV freqs don’t enlarge at my end unfortunately. Working for you and others?
I thought they were earlier this week when they were first posted, but no, only the FM one expands now.
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I can now reveal that I’ve spent the past week in Victoria, with a short drive up the Newell to Dubbo and across to Coffs Harbour for the weekend. Rather than scatter my observations across a number of threads I thought I’d summarise them here.
Sun 15/10:
Visited Leigh VK2KRR at The Rock NSW. This guy is a hard-core 2m ham operator with several long distance tropo records to his name. He has recently been dabbling in FM DX and has stuck a vertical Matchmaster FM-8 on one of his lattice towers. Thanks to a fantastic takeoff to the west, troposcatter from 89.3 MHz Horsham and 95.7 MHz Nhill was heard despite the very flat conditions.
Mon 16/10:
Drove across to Bendigo VIC, a city which is spoilt for choice in community radio. Phoenix FM on 106.7 MHz is a typical rural style community station. KL FM on 96.5 MHz caters for the old-timers. Fresh FM on 101.5 MHz is the best listen, playing a wide variety of mostly classic hits from the 70s-90s, though it sounds very commercial. The Gold repeater on 98.3 MHz doesn’t get out that well. I visited Lake Eppalock, 20 km to the east, in the late afternoon; Melbourne DAB+ was received at stable levels on the Sangean DPR-34 (you had to find the right spot, though). Here 105.1 MHz and 106.7 MHz were a mix of the Bendigo city outlets and MMM/PBS.
Tues 17/10:
Went up to Bendigo’s One Tree Hill lookout where 97.9 MHz MMM Mildura was received very well (video to follow). I also caught 100.9 MHz NewsRadio Deniliquin with an error message; they had obviously lost the feed. I then headed south to Maldon where I happened upon Mount Tarrengower: a fantastic location for DXing. I was able to receive as far south as Mount Gambier from this lofty peak. I then hopped across to Mount Alexander, the major FM broadcast site for Central Victoria. My car radio handled the blowtorches in an exemplary manner: I was able to receive 89.3 MHz Horsham right next to the local 89.5 MHz! Smooth on 91.5 MHz was easily resolved next to 91.1/91.9 MHz.
Weds 18/10:
After driving to Yarra Glen the previous afternoon, the day was spent seeking refuge from the heat in the cool temperate rainforest of the Yarra Ranges. First was a nice drive to Mount Donna Buang (1250 m ASL) via the windy, unsealed Healesville approach. On the southern slopes of the mountain, I was able to receive 91.3 MHz Lileah TAS and 101.7 MHz Burnie TAS at fairly good levels despite the flat tropo conditions. There was nothing outstanding received from the peak, however, I noted a mystery station on 90.9 MHz relaying Question Time. This turned out to be SBS Morwell which was erroneously relaying ABC TV (promos heard): a new one for me! I then went down the hill to Warburton and the Upper Yarra Reservoir where a strong ABC tx was noted on 96.1 MHz. This is a new transmitter at Warburton which was granted in order to give the area better coverage in times of bushfire. I heard it mixing with ABCFM Shepparton around Romsey the previous afternoon but didn’t know what it was at the time.
Lake Mountain (1433 m ASL) was also visited but nothing outstanding was heard from here.
Fri 20/10:
After spending Thursday running errands around Melbourne, I set off up the Newell to Parkes NSW. Unfortunately the DX was completely flat after a SW change moved through the previous evening. I was amazed at the coverage of 95.3 MHz Shepparton, though, which almost made it to West Wyalong. West Wyalong’s TCBL, Gold 94.5, gets out well towards Parkes/Dubbo but the coverage isn’t great towards Ardlethan (I was still getting JJJ Shepparton about 40 km out of WW).
Sat 21/10:
Cut across from Parkes to Coffs Harbour via Dubbo, Coolah, Tamworth, and Armidale. Peak Hill 89.5 MHz is still on the air despite the website vanishing from the interwebs. Dubbo’s TCBL, DC 88.9 MHz, is on the air. The coverage is good towards Parkes but drops off pretty quickly heading towards Dunedoo. Three Rivers Radio at Coolah/Dunedoo, another station without a website, gets out very well on 95.3 MHz (the Dunedoo repeater on 96.1 MHz isn’t too shabby, either). There wasn’t any DX about other than at Dorrigo in the late afternoon where I had 4RIM Boonah in the clear on 100.1 MHz and presumed 4DDB Toowoomba with racing on 102.7 MHz. Warwick and Brisbane FM were well received as usual.
Sun 22/10:
Spent a leisurely day in Coffs Harbour. FM DX was flat due to an unseasonably cool southerly wind. MW DX was tried in the evening with 1570 kHz KUAU Hawaii thumping in from Woolgoolga headland; the best I’ve ever heard it. 1580 kHz was a mix of KBLA Santa Monica CA and suspected XERF Ciudad Acuña Mexico.
Mon 23/10:
Pack up day. Being a glutton for punishment I went home the long way, back through Armidale and down the New England Highway, to avoid the horrendous Sydney traffic in the evening. The only notable catch of the day was a pirate on 89.6 MHz, heard well from Griffiths Lookout at Dorrigo, airing talk programming which was not parallel with any other station. I suspect it was from the Nambucca Heads area, or from one of the enclosed valleys out from Bellingen and Thora.
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They used to be 89.5? What happened?
From Radioinfo back in September 2008:
The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has found that the licensee of Fresh 89.5 FM, Goldfields Community Radio Cooperative Limited, breached conditions of its licence by failing to continue to represent the Bendigo community and by not encouraging members of that community to participate in the operations of the service.