I believe it went to air on Thursday as that was the first anyone had managed to pick it up. Unlucky indeed @dxnerd
The PooperNetwork are advertising for broadcast technician roles- anyone interested? I heard this on New 104.7 Grafton today. Speaking of said station, their local music mix was pretty good; I heard The Badloves- “Lost” and Icehouse- “Electric Blue” in quick succession today, along with some other less obvious songs like “Who’s Gonna Save Us” by The Living End.
I heard that ad on the same station while in the licence area back in March! Are they having trouble filling those vacancies?
New 104.7?
Is that how it’s branded now?
When I was up that way last month, it still seemed to be “FM1047” (ie. no point in the frequency).
The station has been branded on-air as “New 104.7” since Late 2015, if I’m not mistaken.
1 Like
Yet they have the same logo they’ve had for 20 years with no mention of ‘new’ anywhere
2 Likes
4WK FM 95.5 Toowoomba translator
No surprise for me, the coverage is better than the co-located FM 100.7.
How many of Bill’s translators have you heard miraculously covering a larger than expected area?
I’ve tested reception on two car radios, one cheap, one expensive at a distance of 105 - 110km, bearing of 90 - 100º. There’s terrain more than twice as high as my elevation (50m) about 1km to west in the path but still no problem.
Reception is perfect both outside, mobile and deep in a garage built into the earth with house RFI above and two garage door mechanisms (spurious emitters).
Either Bill is over or SCA’s main focus is to the west for FM 100.7 and they’re not pushing close to spec looking east.
ACMA have mandated AM 1359 to close 28 days after test broadcast of FM 95.5 ends and normal transmission begins. Standard.
It begs the question, ACMA have given 4WK an effective FM conversion to the largest population centre in the licence area. Sea FM Ltd or RG Capital (I can’t remember what the name was at the time) bought FM 100.7 at auction in 1999 for $800 000. Bill has received three out of the four FM sites for free.
Since the horse has bolted now, it would make sense for Bill and Rick (Lenarcic, SCA) to patch up their differences and apply for the same specs for 4AK and 4GR. Surely?
It will make not a jot of difference to the market share as the programming will remain the same, Bill’s tried many a time to reboot 4AK but nothing comes of it.
4 Likes
How long have they been running a Top 40/Hot AC format for? Odd to be on the AM band
1 Like
Since Bill rolled out the FM network format to stations, from the original Lismore hub and then from Sydney/Newcastle.
There have been attempts at a local format during the day and a full, off-network attempt at some stage. Yelland might have been up there as GM or something, I remember some relatively short lived, their logo was a poor imitation of the Today network blue cyclone. They never had a computer for years that would allow local automation, so it was quite an advancement (for them).
It was a female friendly, soft-AC format, I guess similar to Smooth minus the sophistication.
In Bill’s time, since the mid/late 90’s, 4AK has usually had two announcers, resulting in 8 hours of local radio. In recent years, declining performance has seen that reduced to only four hours for the breakfast shift.
Again, the network schedule does not suit Toowoomba/Downs/Granite Belt, drive show programs 5 - 6pm and 6 - 7pm, most will have driven their short commute after 4pm or 5pm. Yes, most employers begin early and shut early in that part of the world.
Local news bulletins
One compliment I can easily pay is a comparison of local news bulletins.
SCA’s has long been produced from the Gold Coast. This continues with that younger, male newsreader based in Broadbeach with the overseas accent.
4WK/AK’s sounded a lot more comprehensive. Sounded like a local 4WK voice. They’re probably all rip/read stories from other local media, however theirs is in more detail.
I would be running the 4AK format on the 95.5 FM band and 4WK Talkback format on 1242 AM. Can they do this?
2 Likes
Surely the smart thing to do now would be to move 4WK to the 4AK frequency and launch a new “FM” station on the new FM frequency.
2 Likes
I thought the same.
It would require swapping freqs for all services a la 3EE/AW.
However, see my comment about the horse bolting and that all commercial AM licencees should apply for a Toowoomba FM translator with same specs.
After all, where do you think Paul Amos’ team call the majority of the audience for their phone poll surveys? The largest town in a licence area of course.
2 Likes
4WK had the advantage of already having a Toowoomba translator on AM since the city of Toowoomba (allegedly) has poor reception from Warwick/Allora.
4AK and 4GR don’t have those same issues - 4AK’s main transmitter in Oakey is much closer to Toowoomba, and 4GR’s transmitter is on the outskirts on Toowoomba.
Yes that’s true. But it still seems very unfair to 4GR and even 4AK. Toowoomba is not only the largest population centre in the broadcast area but also the largest inland city in Australia after Canberra.
If only Bill knew what to do with this advantage i.e. launch an adult music format on FM to compete with Hit (albeit a lot would already be tuned to River 94.9 from Ipswich). I just can’t see any long term viability for AM stations in a market like this. Similar to 4CA, 4MK, 4RO/4CC. They’re all doomed unless they get some sort of FM conversion.
2 Likes
For Toowoomba, the ideal solution would be convert all the AM stations to FM - but there’s a lack of frequencies available in that area so not sure how possible it would be.
As for all the other AM stations, that’s the same case for every AM station in the country - although they do have the advantage of better reception into remote areas and fortuitous reception into neighbouring areas.
Yeah that’s true enough for all AM stations but I think it’s a bit worse in places like Cairns, Mackay and now Toowoomba where you’ve effectively got AM stations up against three commercial FM’s. I’d say they’re the only three regional markets with that situation. There’s Newcastle of course but it’s a lot bigger.
2 Likes
What are the 3 FM stations in Toowoomba? Are you counting River?
Yep I’m counting River for Toowoomba.
Based on the last ratings for Toowoomba it’s clear a big chunk of the audience is on River. It’s effectively a local station based on the proportion of Toowoomba ads. The reception of 94.9 is as good as Hit 100.7
1 Like
I know Prime Radio back in the day when 4CC was Zinc tried to get a FM conversion for that station, there was frequency space but got knocked back. I could not never understand the ACMA.
2 Likes
The 4WK translator and the main 4RGD (hit100.7) transmitter are on completely different sites, the WK antenna is a single bay at 30 meters and the hit antenna is a 4 bay array with back screens st 45 m this would explain why 95.5 gets into brisbane a little better.
2 Likes