They don’t call it ‘Mediaspy’s favourite radio station’ for nothing!
6 Likes
Saw this on a Translink bus in Surfers Paradise today. Good to see Breeze actively promoting the station in the area!
6 Likes
I have just arrived back in Sydney from the Gold Coast and did have a listen to Rebel fm. Rock is not my choice of music, but Rebel certainly does Rock better than Triple M. From a dxing point Rebel is received well across the Gold Coast on the car radio with the no loss of stereo separation. Rebel and breeze did struggle on my portable radio at my location Miami Beach. The best I could get was a weak mono signal, I was still able to get a full RDS decode on Rebel 994.
Listening to Rebel and Breeze 99% of their advertising was for the Gold Coast with Gold Coast traffic and weather. They are certainly targeting fortuitous listeners on the Gold Coast over the sporadic listener and businesses around Tambourine Mountain.
30W towards the Gold Coast from Mt Tamborine covers the Gold Coast much better than 2LT / Move fm covers the Western Suburbs of Sydney from Wentworth Falls.
The Gold Coast certainly has much better radio variety than Sydney with Rebel / Breeze, the Gold Coast stations, Brisbane fm and Radio Metro.
9 Likes
Yes I think Gold Coast is one of the best radio locations in Australia.
Although I’d say the suburbs between Gold Coast and Brisbane would take the cake, with great reception of both Brisbane and Gold Coast FM, excellent reception of Breeze, Rebel and also River 94.9 and potentially DAB from both Brisbane and the GC if you’re in certain suburbs.
But anywhere that gets Breeze and Rebel are blessed.
9 Likes
Ore even further north into Brisbane and you can get the Sunny Coast as well 
6 Likes
Yes I did have a listen to Gold Coast DAB+ on my recent trip.
RE The Gold Coast fm stations, they drop off pretty quickly as you head north, particularly Radio Metro. Also you loose reception of Hot Tomato before Sea fm / Triple M which are on the smaller tower and less restricted towards Brisbane 1KW V 250W.
Rebel and Breeze Tamborine travel north better than the Gold Coast fm’s.
Radio Metro which is 100W towards Brisbane was starting to drop off around Coomera, and by Pimpama it was very weak to non existent.
I did manage to pick it up weakly near the lookout at Mt Coot-tha shielded from 105.7 ABC Southern Darling Downs.
River 94.9 came in quite well into the Gold Coast. and the Sunshine Coast fm’s into the Brisbane CBD, particularly South Bank.
I think you need to be no further north thsn Helensvale to take advantage of FM and DAB+ from both Brisbane and the Gold Coast, you would know it better being a local.
6 Likes
Agree, northern half of the Gold Coast is the “sweet spot” (the "Gold"ilocks zone 
) From Surfers to Coomera.
4 Likes
Yes Helensvale to Coomera would be the sweet spot I’d say. But at least you can get Rebel and Breeze right into Brisbane on their Beaudesert frequencies 90.5 and 92.1. River 94.9 booms into Logan City like a local station too. The Sunshine Coast stations get into Brisbane a lot better than the GC ones, as you say.
2 Likes
I’d agree with you to the extent that the Gold Coast is the best regional radio market in the country, however Sydney has much better choice of commercial and community stations, as well as overlapping commercial FMs from Katoomba, Campbelltown, Wollongong, Bowral and the Central Coast.
Sydney doesn’t have Rebel and Breeze but it does have pretty much everything else, including Smooth, WSFM, KIIS, Nova, Triple M, 2Day, 2UE and the extensions like Smooth Vintage, Smooth Relax, WSFM 80s, MMM Classic Rock, 80s, 90s, 2000s, as well as the BOG station FUN which plays 60s, 70s and 80s.
3 Likes
I’ll throw in another location: North Stradbroke Island. Most stations from the SEQ metro areas would be received very well out there, plus the DX opportunities would be excellent on both AM and FM.
Have any of you Banana Benders taken a trip out there?
3 Likes
Yes, I camped on the northern shore out there a few years back - the section between Amity and Point Lookout has camping just behind the dunes which is quite pleasant despite the limited facilities. Only problem was we were there in the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie, so atmospheric conditions weren’t ripe for the picking.
3 Likes
3 posts were merged into an existing topic: AM and FM DX
Breeze and Rebel off air for Beaudesert this morning along with TAB.
3 Likes
Back on air just before midday. TAB still off air
Probably a good thing. 
The Breeze sounding as disjointed as ever this morning. It’s almost like it’s being programmed by some committee of community volunteers who all have high-pitched Aussie twang voices and drive Home Ice cream vans on weekends.
Highway to the Danger Zone straight into Forever in Blue Jeans? That’s like flying at mach 2 then suddenly being throttled around the neck with an arrester hook.
And then suddenly, out of nowhere comes Sabrina Carpenter. But that ended abruptly because the NDIS work experience guy has just burst into the studio and changed the format with Joe Cocker’s A little help from my friends.
A lot of hard work goes in to programming great radio. But none of that seems to be evident on the Breeze. Occasionally they might fluke it for some listeners by playing an obscure blast from the past that gives them a ‘wow’ factor, but any little tin-pot community station can do that.
2 Likes
I don’t think there’s much too wrong with that.
If I were a radio music director, I personally wouldn’t put Dangerzone next to Forever In Blue Jeans, but back in the days of mp3 players and the like, I’d have songs from different genres across many decades and had no problem listening to AC/DC followed by something from Cilla Black then a song from 2Pac.
Honestly, I doubt the average listener would care.
WSFM last year would play something soft like The Beatles “Let It Be”, then follow it up with The Bodyrockers “I LIke The Way You Move” - it didn’t seem to do them any harm. They got to No.1.
I might have to listen more to The Breeze.
If it’s that triggering, I suppose there’s the option of not listening to it.
1 Like
Interestingly, yesterday when Gold 101.7 played Let it be, it certainly was couched between two (arguably) quite upbeat songs. Blondie’s Call Me and Paul Kelly’s To her door.
Speaking of upbeat, Breeze played ‘Girls Girls Girls’ TOH, at eleven this morning. A #47 in the UK, #22 in Aotearoa, but #7 in little old Australia. Talk about eclectic, two songs later came Tay Tay ‘I can do it with a broken heart’ from last year.
You certainly have some strong opinions about this, and I do get why.
I love the Breeze (and Rebel) for their eclecticism. I get the wow tracks in amongst an otherwise reasonably polished commercial radio product. Give me that any day over the same 100 songs being played over and over on Hot Tomato. But I get that hearing the odd track more commonly found in op shop vinyl collections in amongst your commute might not be for everyone.
And I know for a fact if I lived in a smaller market, I’d far rather have interesting stations like Rebel/Breeze serving me than having to deal with the deathly boring SCA duopoly or the drawl of 2SM Supernetwork talk.
7 Likes
reminds me of most country AM radio stations in the 1980s, playing something like Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” next to some dreary early 1960s MOR ballad.
1 Like