What time of day?
In central suburbs of Brisbane, 972 suffers from a terrible harmonic or similar problem that even the best of AM recievers cannot resolve due to the brute force of local Brisbane stations that add up to the freq of AM 972. Shall try next time over North Lakes way, I usually try to avoid there, traffic is often poor and suburbia there is of a just add water variety of fast food franchises and the like.
AM 963 does not suffer from this as it is not a multiple/exact addition.
Try driving around on the Gold Coast or receiving AM 972 at the northern end of their licence area (Broadbeach/Surfers boundary close to revolving restaurant hotel, Crowne Plaza near Monaco St/Florida Gardens tram stop), it’s less than ideal. FM 104.1 from Elanora covers this area with a good signal for in vehicle/mobile reception, however cheap radios can be swamped by Tamborine signals if LoS is strong westwards.
What FM 104.1 also assists with is reducing selectivity on cheaper radios to receiving 4MMM.