Sea FM/Mix FM have also moved up the road to 55 Plaza Pde. Today I believe was the first day.
2 Likes
Cut over at 3pm 30/4/18.
So Todd and Sami would’ve been the first on air from the new facility.
Local journo, Nicola Ryan will now thankfully have a little more room in the newsbooth.
4 studios, 2 production studios and a newsbooth.
Nice to see what can be created when you don’t have the restriction of a listed company as was the case for the original move from Currie St Nambour to Maroochydore in the Sea FM Ltd/RG Capital days.
Enjoy the videos posted publicly on Tim Aquilina’s page:
https://www.facebook.com/TimTorque
5 Likes
Quite an amusing jingle sung on 4KZ:
'From cyclones to sunshine, a part of the north since ‘67, this is the NQ network’.
1 Like
You’re welcome @NRN11, if you have a FB account, why not ask Tim for what you want to see more of. He’s a genuine man through and through.
I have been listening to 7XS on and off during my travels around the NW coast, mainly because of the novelty of its (de facto) solus operator status. The music mix is quite good; it’s pretty much a clone of 2EC (Bega) with a broad AC format. I expected it would mix in some current chart hits given it’s the only commercial station on the Wet Coast, but this doesn’t seem to be the case.
Its 107.1 tx on wet and windy Mount Read gets out well. If it wasn’t for JJJ Ballarat, it would probably be a regular visitor to southern Victoria (indeed, it has been heard by some). 92.1 Queenstown (the fake 7AUS) was weakly audible from the Cradle Mountain parking lot and at Waratah. No sign of 105.1 Strahan at any point, but this one is fairly low powered.
1 Like
So they’re left with JJJ? That’s the case in Gympie too
1 Like
Though Gympie would get some SEA FM reception from Maryborough or Sunshine Coast.
Queenstown wouldn’t be able to get anything else… ?
1 Like
They would also have to JJJ from somewhere else (Wide Bay) as well as there is no JJJ transmitter dedicated for that area.
2 Likes
No, the overlap is not strong in that area.
Nambour RA 1 commercial site is east of Gympie and towards the south of the licence area at Bald Knob east of Maleny. Signal unstable west of Black Mtn on the M1.
Maryborough RA1 commercial site is at Scrub Hill, the low ridge you drive over heading into Hervey Bay. Signal is limited to the south. Insufficient to reach the southern boundaries of the licence area.
Maryborough as with Bundaberg should be at the main TV site, Mt Goonaneman in a similar setup to Moree and Gunnedah FM services at Mt Dowe. Unfortunately, the licence owners when licence boundaries were defined were not future thinking in ensuring a wide area was drawn. That legacy sees quite a lot of the surrounding area deprived of a local commercial station.
4 Likes
Yes, its pretty sad for choice in Gympie. Have the Cameron’s ever thought about putting a repeater in for Hot91 in Gympie or is Hot91 out of the license area for Gympie?
Hot 91’s licence area (Nambour RA1) doesn’t cover Gympie.
2 Likes
Even though the licence area is named Gympie, the biggest population base would be in Noosa and Coolum - that gives it a 57% overlap with the Nambour RA1.
3 Likes
Gympie is one of many licence areas where the name does not match the modern population growth.
Yes, Gympie is where the commercial station originated from and is still based, but population has grown elsewhere as @TV.Cynic rightly said. The coastal portion has far surpassed Gympie.
To the north, Maryborough RA1 is much the same, population there is actually in decline whilst the coastal city of Hervey Bay booms.
Nambour RA1 also a historical description for the Sunshine Coast. Nambour was the commercial centre of the Sunshine Coast with a sugar mill, council chambers and until this time last year, the main hospital. 4NA was situated in Currie Street before the move to Maroochydore.
Murwillumbah RA1 again was the base for 2MW, since moved to Tweed Heads which is at the centre of growth on the Tweed coast and the licence area which extends to the southern boundary of Surfers.
Gosford RA1, those local to Wyong may suggest more growth has taken place there. Central Coast would be a more suitable descriptor.
Warragul RA1, is that the most useful name for the area? Likely not.
Murray Bridge RA1, whilst still the radio station’s base, more growth in the Adelaide Hills and south coast.
4 Likes
Yes I wonder if ACMA actually reviews LAPs when population “shifts” in these regions? I believe it was once proposed to amalgamate Wide Bay (i.e. Maryborough, Bundaberg, Hervey Bay) similar to Rockhampton/Gladstone. It makes sense as the ABC service is consolidated on Mt Goonanamen.
Although what I think would make more sense now is to merge Maryborough and Gympie. The Gympie licence area is quite disadvantaged given the demographic movement towards Noosa and Sunshine Coast. In the “old days” 4GY was a quasi Maryborough alternative station. And I remember when 96.1 first went to air before Sea FM Maryborough launched, 96.1 was on in a lot of shops around Maryborough. I seem to recall they even did some promotion and letter drops in Maryborough.
I also think ACMA need to review the number of FM licences allocated to Brisbane and Perth given their population growth, but it’ll never happen. They seem to avoid their responsibility.
2 Likes
Nambour and Gympie ABC services are also odd. Nambour has no Radio National while Gympie has no JJJ but does have two version of Local radio - Coast FM on 95.3 as well as 4GM on 1566 that I read here was the Wide Bay signal. Add to that PNN is broadcast in both areas on the same frequency of 94.5 - why that takes priority to more popular services JJJ and/or RN is beyond me. Perhaps they should have single frequencies for those two as well presumably on 89.5 for JJJ and 96.9 for RN.
5 Likes
I think they beed to replan and restack the Sunshine Coast frequencies. Perhaps find a different site with greater height so they only need one set of ABC services that cover Gympie and the Sunshine Coast properly.
And yes 1566 is ABC Wide Bay
2 Likes
I don’t think that would be possible? …
Black Mountain is the only one that could also cover Gympie and it’s a fair way from Caloundra…
Yeah agree they need to replan Sunshine Coast, it’s a mess. Even worse than Gold Coast/Northern NSW.
It’s not where the FM commercial is. On Mt Wolvi.