Regional Radio Ratings

Nah thats not right… they moved from Ipswich to Brisbane in 1969 to the Cnr of Queen and Eagle Streets

Source: http://radio4ip.com.au/early.html

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he things you said about the flooding were all correct but it wasn’t the reason for the move. My point was that 4IP would not have been allowed to move their transmitter permanently to Brisbane with a 2kw power limit, at least not to St Helena Island. The ABA required a certain signal field strength level (that I can’t recall) in the city of licence. The move to Moreton Bay only came because the ABA allowed 5kw directional power so then 4IP was able to demonstrate that it could provide that field strength. The directional pattern that produced that signal level in Ipswich also included strong lobes to the north and south along the coast plus quite deep nulls to the SW and NW (hence the Beaudesert relay).

The same thing happened with 2MW - it had to demonstrate it could provide the required signal level in its city of licence as did 4NA - with both stations actually preferring to move closer to their respective coasts (according to media reports at the time) but not able to due to the signal level restriction.

Please don’t hold me to exact details as it was a long time ago :slight_smile:

Edit:

Found a previous post from @4TAB-1008kHz

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This is fascinating. Any idea where exactly? What years was BK at FG?

Sorry… My Mistake… it was fig tree pocket not ferny grove!

Got my F’s mixed around!

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A great little doco produced by the inimitable Michael Moffett, Graham Snow and Kelvin Siggs and voiced by the golden tonsils of Bob Peter when I was PD at River (I think i wrote this one)… we did lots of these docos back then. Ipswich radio has a checkered history. Its great to see the old girl performing so well in the recent survey.

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River does a terrific job of being a good, local station in amongst strong competition from the big boys from Brisbane. Its coverage advantage really only applies to the north and west of its area, Ipswich proper gets the full whack of the Brisbane stations. It’s a credit to those at the station that it performs so well

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What are the actual specs of the River from the Knoby? I cannot find any LAPS with this information.

Would this help?: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2005B00768

Thanks, River Fm has a very complicated radiation pattern. It’s transmitter site is not very high at only 360m, with 2KW towards Brisbane and with the D’agular Ranges higher and blocking line of site. I can see why it is quite hard to receive in Brisbane. Just imagine if they got to use Mt Nebo as their transmission site. They would have very good coverage across Brisbane.

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In southern Brisbane their coverage is actually quite good, it’s only towards the city in Brisbane it drops off. But anywhere from Mt Gravatt south right down to the northern Gold Coast it actually comes in quite well

It seems their traffic reports even acknowledge this, with traffic conditions on the Ipswich Motorway (obviously) but also the M1 through Logan being regularly referenced, as well as western/southern Brisbane and of course their Ipswich service area

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I wonder if they’re actually using the full power in all directions. I would be easier to engineer to bring some of the powers down to reduce the number of differences, and knowing the effort/skills/budget available to some regionals, along with the fact that lots of stations don’t output their full power, I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually use a simpler radiation pattern.

Precisely the reason they weren’t allowed to.

Yeah River is pretty well received in the car across most of Brisbane, but really good in the southern and western suburbs of course. A question - do you recall the original frequency of QFM on 106.9 before they went to 94.9 and increased power. I remember it well, and I’m actually going out on a limb and have always reckoned that I could receive 106.9 as well, if not better, than the new more powerful 94.9. I’ve lived in the inner south eastern suburbs and listened to QFM from the day they launched. I remember expecting reception to improve when they moved to 94.9 but was surprised that I found the in-car and particularly home reception not quite as good… Just me?

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At only 500 watts ERP towards Brisbane and therefore, by location, of the Gold Coast. As per the discussion paper of the time. Another Mt Tamborine situation where the TX site is actually over the boundary ‘fence’ of the licence area.

It was a ridiculous choice of site because there’s no useful population of the licence area between the site and the desired overspill. Knobby at least provides due east line of Ipswich then Brisbane.

Only 20kW towards Toowoomba, interesting. You can drive Ruthven St in the T’ba CBD and find dead spots for 94.9. New LED traffic lights also don’t help. Signal is fine for most driving but would be some workplaces with insufficient reception.

106.9 was good reception where you could get it. It could change from block to block within Brisbane when mobile as to whether the station was receivable or suffering from Classic FM and JJJ.

It could be neighbourhood factors reducing your home reception?

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Yes, the interference from Classic and JJJ within the Ipswich LAP was the reason for the change from 106.9 to 94.9.

Nova doesn’t appear to suffer from any such issues since its also transmitted from Mt Coot-tha.

I wss living on the Gold Coast back in the Star 106.9 days, and reception there wasn’t very good, even in the car.
It was okay in southern Brisbane.
In my limited experience, River seems to have better reception, particularly on the Gold Coast.

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River can heard well into NSW particularly down in the highway just north of Ballina. On a good day, it gets into Coffs Harbour on the headlands.

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When flying from Brisbane to Sydney, River Fm is the last of the Queensland fm stations to drop out in NSW. When River fades out it was replaced by Power Fm. My last flight from BNE to SYD was a couple of years ago before Power Fm installed their new antenna at Knights Hill. I am not sure if River would go further south now when received in a plane with a weaker Power Fm to the north, or suffer more cochannel interference from Rhema Central Coast over the mid north Coast.

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It won’t as it is on the same hill. It’s why you can co-site or close to it and not have problems of differing ERP or pattern.

You’re right, River’s coverage towards the Gold Coast is adequate, much better than its predecessor. QFM was a good format for the time considering what B105/MMM were doing and the lack of FM commercial in Toowoomba.

On the Grafton bridge and South Grafton high spots, it’s quite consistent. Same for stretches of the Summerland Way north to Casino and on to the Qld border. The north and south peaks of the radiation pattern result in quite distant reception.

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Classic ABC on 107.3 would have been a problem as well to the west for QFM on 106.9. I found that on some radios mixing of 106.1 and 107.7 could interfere with 106.9. 94.9 provided a noticeable improvement in signal for me.

The latest Wollongong ratings are out: http://www.radioalive.com.au/RA/media/General/Images/WOLLONGONG-XTRA-INSIGHTS-PUBLIC-SURVEY-RESULT.PDF?ext=.pdf

i98 still maintains its #1 position with a 27.4% share, which is down 1.7% from last year. Wave FM fell quite hard, down 2.9% to 15.6%, placing themselves only 1% ahead of ABC Illawarra, who scored a 14.6% share. Of the Sydney FM stations, Smooth is #1 with a 2.8% share, followed by WS, KIIS & Triple M.

In the demographics, i98 is #1 in the under-55s, Wave is #1 in the 55-64s & ABC Illawarra dominates in the 65+. Smooth outrates i98 in the 65+.

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