Discission of
and 
Archived thread Rebel FM and Breeze FM
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David Bowie tribute special on The Breeze this morning.
Not sure how long this has being going on for, but it seems Rebel FM has added four shows to its lineup, according to the stationâs website.
Weâve lost Breeze and Rebel in Brisbane for at least 40 minutes so far - just a tone one each.
With friends like Commercial Radio who needs enemies. Flow and Rebel Media get both barrels from cra. Thought they had joined cra. maybe not.
Rebel FM 106.7 Childers proposals in a nutshell
Current situation:
- Broadcasting from âQld Comms Site, Mt Goonaneman, Woowoongaâ
- ERP: 1 kW omnidirectional pattern
- Maximum antenna height: 20 metres
Proposal:
- Change to a new greenfield site âRebel Media Site, Mt Goonaneman, Woowoongaâ
- ERP: 700 watt omnidirectional pattern -> reduction
- Maximum antenna height: 40 metres -> improvement
ACMA says this may cause slight unavoidable overspill to the east, presumably that means the Hervey Bay region?
Last time I had a vacation at Hervey Bay, REBEL were not broadcasting. Slightly south at Rainbow Beach, the 106.7 REBEL signal is receivable on portable radios. Rainbow Beach & Tin Can Bay receive favourable strong coverage from Hervey Bay commercial stations MIX 103.5 (4MB AM conversion) & SEA 101.9 FM. Because of the water path, in Rainbow Beach & Tin Can Bay the Hervey Bay FMs are considerably stronger than the other commercial, ZINC 96.1. Mountainous terrain blocks the highly directional ZINC signal.
Currently fortuitous coverage seems to be very restricted (poor on the coast, best on the inland mountains) despite the omni-directional pattern.
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Interesting. Iâm hoping this means theyâll finally start up Breeze FM in Wide Bay. Itâs a station the region desperately needs. MIX 103.5 is a shambles of talkback and music which just sounds wrong on an FM station. 4BU in Bundaberg is the same and has a woeful coverage, itâs basically un-receivable in Childers. I remember way, way back when the first regional FM stations were licenced there was a proposal to amalgamate the Maryborough and Bundaberg licence areas (similar to Rockhampton/Gladstone) and use Mt Goonaneman to broadcast commercial FM across the whole Wide Bay - like the TV stations and ABC radio does.
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Itâs interesting the other commercial operators and CRA oppose the other sites mentioned in Central West NSW but are silent on the overspill from Mt Goonaneman.
Yes, but the problem is the overspill in Bundaberg. Very clear there.
When licence area boundaries were formalised in the late 80âs, directors of 4BU were asleep at the wheel to have their licence area better defined. Changes to frequency or band or directional pattern could have been made.
Yes, Bill Caralis bought 103.5 for $700 000 at auction and tried to revive this idea but it was rejected so he on sold it to RG Capital (4MB converted, now SCA)
Thanks for the link!
I always find the Draft Remote Eastern LAPs an intriguing read.
As a Novocastrian, the Kendall one (near Port Macquarie) intrigues me as:
(1) They propose the use of the 20kw Newcastle commercial radio frequencies of 105.3 and 106.9 for Rebel/Breeze when Kendall is only about 220 km from Newcastle and not all that far from Kempsey which uses 105.1 and 106.7 for its 10kw commercials.
(2) Itâs only a few km off the Pacific Highway from Kew, whereby I have noted in the past that 2MC FM and Star FM Port Macquarie reception seems to be quite good.
The reuse of Newcastle freqs should not be allowed by ACMA. Usually ACMA would not approve this.
Kendall is just out of the licence area:
http://www.acma.gov.au/licplan/defmaps/documents/maps/la_374.pdf
This is a legacy of the poorly drawn licence area boundaries in the late 80âs when licences such as this outsider did not exist.
If you can receive a signal of a commercial station using a car radio and it is stable, then this remote area licence should not be awarded spectrum in that area. They are meant for areas with no commercial radio not for fortuitous elbowing into adjacent commercial markets.
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Well that may be technically true but I for one am glad to receive Rebel and Breeze wherever possible - because they are simply better stations. Why deprive the poor listener of decent stations when theyâre stuck with SCA or Caralis crap.
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I donât think the commercials have too much to worry about, regarding interference. Itâll be more the commercials interfering with Rebel & Breeze in the fortuitous areas theyâre hoping for.
Rebel & Breeze have great programming, but itâs really a budget broadcaster, & a wonder theyâre on air at all, with what theyâve got, let alone adding more places.
I saw some recent photoâs of one of the Rebel/Breeze Queensland TX sites the other week, (unfortunately I canât remember where it was, & canât find the photos again), & all the audio lines at the TX site are cabled in cheap consumer grade RCA cables, (like anyone would buy from Kmart), then they had RCA to XLR adaptors on the ends, to connect to the professional equipment.
I think their studio at the Gold Coast are pretty high class, so it surprises me the TX sites would be so low grade.
Commercial grade studios & narrowcast/community (at best) grade TX sites.
If I find the photoâs & the site agin, Iâll post them here later.
Not Kmart class cables, although I see why it might look that way. Yes, some of the smaller low power Rebel Media FM sites with low RF density do have domestic audio decoders with unbalanced outputs L/R RCA feeding the transmitters. Operating without issue and within the challenging constraints of delivering radio to small regional towns. I wouldnât assume it reflects on the site build quality and verified performance.
A number of sites are ACMA licenced to the broadcaster but installed and maintained by councils or mining companies.
At larger competitive Rebel sites owned and operated directly by the broadcaster, audio feed to the transmitters is commonly MPX Analog ,balanced L/R AES or balanced MPX AES.
In practice it has already happened on the SCA broadcasts on 93.1/101.9 FM. As per Rockhampton & Gladstone (HOT CQ) it seems local ads are the only differentiation, perhaps some peak hour morning weather?
To be fair, even REBEL 106.7 Childers in recent years broadcast the Biloela programming. The content was the same as 88.9 FM. As a niche operator, Iâm sure REBEL specialize in music rather than have the resources to provide local content. There is nothing like REBEL in that market. If it ever makes it to air, BREEZE 102.5 of course has similar music programming to MIX 103.5 FM.
When Bundaberg (regularly) floods, Grantâs 4BU & HITZ amalgamate & provide the leading commercial coverage for the region.
Probably a good move because existing (and profitable) Caralis station HEAT 96.1 at Wolvi (now Grantâs ZINC with a different height, ERP & radiation pattern IIRC) provided excellent coverage into Hervey Bay. Launching a new Caralis station âjust up the roadâ may have cannibalized the 96.1 audience. Al Doblo et. al. were based at the Noosa Junction studios back then.
If theyâre proposing transmitters for an area like Bocoble with a population of around 440, Iâm surprised theyâre not proposing something for the area just north of Wisemans Ferry, which directly abuts the Sydney licence area. With Lower Macdonald and St Albans, the population is already over 500. They would have a significant amount of overspill into the Sydney and Central Coast markets if they were to set up there.
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@Cigarettes-n-alcohol
Some interesting points there and quite true about the Sea FM stations in Bundaberg and Maryborough being one and the sane. I disagree though about Breeze being like Mix 103.5. The music is very different, and Mix has so much talking and NRL.
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Thereâs changes at The Rock Station, Radioinfo reports. Rebel FM drive and The Breeze morning announcer Jake Chapman is departing the group, and will be replaced by Dave Holleran from Rebelâs Ash & Dave breakfast show.
Rebel Media is currently advertising for the breakfast slot, as well as for two all-rounders.
On Monday 13th June, Rebel will be playing â24 Hours of High Voltage Rock N Rollâ to celebrate their first inaugural âAC/DC Dayâ, playing nothing but AC/DC on that day.
Source: Radioinfo
I have some good news, Rebel FM The Rock Station is back online streaming, but this is a test stream. It will be available via their website and on the Tune In app sometime in July. But in the meantime, click on this link (itâs a long link address!) and youâll hear Rebelâs rock!
http://s9.viastreaming.net/flashplayer/popup.php?data=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