Regional Radio (non-SCA)

Just a thought, but perhaps Grant is looking to buy Star 104.5 in Gosford? Their new Star stations in Queensland would have a fairly similar format? If they rebrand Wave, Hot 91, Hitz FM and even perhaps River 949 they’d have a pretty big east coast network. If River did go with the Star brand it would probably work as it was known as Star 106.9 in the late 90s and early 2000s.

I’ve managed to take a photo of the aforementioned billboard this morning:

Along with the electronic billboard on the southbound direction of Hume Motorway towards Campbelltown, it’s the only outdoor advertising I’ve seen of the station within its licence area, as the rest of the radio-related advertising on local bus stops are of the Sydney stations’ breakfast teams, such as Kyle & Jackie O on KIIS, and Jonesy & Amanda on WS.

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Thanks for the photo TV-Expert. :slight_smile: I saw that billboard when I traveled to Liverpool about a week ago, but I wasn’t able to take a photo at the time.

It’s interesting to hear that there is not a lot of outdoor advertising in the licence area. What makes it even more surprising is how much of a stark contrast it is to i98fm, which as you know, is also owned by the WIN Corporation. If anything, I would expect there to be the same amount (or even a bit more, to be honest) of outdoor advertising as there is for i98fm, especially considering the strategic location of the C91.3 licence area and the potential it has to make an impact on the Sydney FM market.

[quote=“SouthCoastTV, post:23, topic:91”]
Thanks for the photo TV-Expert. :slight_smile: I saw that billboard when I traveled to Liverpool about a week ago, but I wasn’t able to take a photo at the time.[/quote]

You’re welcome. :smile: I tried to take a photo of it with my iPhone when I first saw it 2 weeks ago, but it didn’t click. :frowning: FYI, I took it with my camera.

Back in the 90s, there used to be a billboard for i98FM (as well as for Wave FM) at Engadine in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, advising travellers to tune to the station as they make their journey south.

As for the general advertising of i98FM in the Illawarra, WIN, at least under the present Nine affiliation (until June 30), airs TV ads for the station, which given the current status as the #1 or #2 TV station in the region (since Prime7 beat them for the first time last year). However, once WIN switches to the Ten affiliation from July 1, there’ll be less people exposed to TV ads for i98FM, in which those who currently watch WIN will be watching Nine via SCA. AFAIK, Wave FM doesn’t get advertised much through other forms of media.

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It looks like Star 106.3 Townsville will be launching on Monday.
The 106.3 Townsville Facebook page is saying a change is coming at 9am on Monday, complete with the same branding we’ve seen on the Zinc Cairns and Mackay pages pre-launch over the past couple of weeks.
That will make it 3 launches in 3 weeks for Grants.

I’ve search for domain names for their frequencies in other markets, and can’t find a star domain name for any other markets, so it looks like this might be it for Star launches at this stage.

Got a reply to an email I sent off to 2LT / Move Fm in January 2016 Re the sound quality issues affecting their services from Wentworth Falls.

I found out that both services (2LT & Move fm) are fed to the Wentworth Falls transmitter by landline from Lithgow. After the services went live they experienced a fault on the landline link which reduced the quality of both services. This fault has been resolved which has resulted in the improvement. I advised them that 107.9 sounds louder and has more base then 99.5 which still sounds quite tinny in comparison.

Can a landline link to a transmitter be equal to microwave or off air?
Or this is best it will get?

It depends what sort of landline link they have, but even an old ISDN link can give as good as a microwave link.

Many radio stations (both AM & FM) are running landline STL’s now, & more & more are starting to get them. Microwave link channel bandwidths are becoming very narrow & restrictive, especially as most of the 900MHz band STL’s will be switched off & spectrum re-farmed over the net 18-24 months.

Landline STL’s these days are all digital, & generally use some kind of DSL connection using an IP CODEC.
They could be over copper cable or fibre optic cable though, depending on how much data you want to push through to the TX site & how much you want to spend.

Increasingly as the NBN rolls out, landline STL’s will become more common & cheaper to use, with plenty of bandwidth to play with. The audio & associated transmitted data will be sent as IP data via the internet from anywhere in the world, to anywhere in the world. The same as what most studio to studio network links are now.

Luke Bradnam, the one-half of Hot Tomato’s Mal & Luke Show, will be leaving the station for a as yet unnamed Brisbane station for the new year.

More: http://www.radiotoday.com.au/news/whats-new/9150-luke-bradman-to-exit-hot-tomato.html

MMM breakfast

Good, get rid of Marto

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Brad McNally has resigned from his role as Content Director of Hot Tomato on the Gold Coast. His last day will be tomorrow.

Source: Radio Today

I just noticed whilst passing through on the FM band that C91.3 in Campbelltown now uses “Real Music Variety” as their new on-air positioner. The music format is pretty much the same as it was before.

It’s official, Hot Tomato’s consultant, former Nova PD Dan Bradley will move to the Gold Coast in 2017 to be their program director.

2016 PD, Brad McNally resigned and moved back to Perth due to recovery from a brain tumour.

I’ve noticed this afternoon that 2LT in Lithgow is now relaying Chris Smith from 2GB at 12-3pm weekdays. That means 2LT now carries 6 hours of networked talkback during the weekday, as well as during evenings from 6pm, leaving breakfast & drive as the only local programs on the station during weekdays. You could also say that both 2LT & 2BS carry the same networked programming from 9am to 3pm on weekdays.

It’s little wonder that regional commercial radio stations in general is getting more boring, at least when it comes to stations aiming at the older demographics.

2LT must’ve had a carrot dangled in front of them.

C91.3’s Sunday night presenter, Captain Pat, is leaving the station after 11 years, heading overseas to pursue other opportunities.

More: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/macarthur/farewell-captain-pat-community-says-goodbye-to-respected-radio-presenter-emcee-and-humanitarian/news-story/2a49bb7b68c32593378832ee2e313a5b

Kylie in the Morning finished up this morning on 102.5 The Edge. Now they are looking for a new Breakfast Personality to start with them ASAP. More info on the Radioinfo job site.

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Wander what they would say if I reapply for that job. Haha

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So you left on good terms mate :laughing:

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cough…cough…

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