how is it that a town like Tamworth still only has one commercial FM?
1 Like
Was there interest in establshing a second FM station in the market? Like, ever?
1 Like
i would have thought the market would have been large enough to at least invite interest in another player?
1 Like
Itās not unusual for the area - Armidale, Inverell, Moree, Warwick, Toowoomba - all with one commercial FM. (I think off the top of my head).
2 Likes
Did the ABA ever invite an interested party to start a independent FM station? Or did Carillion and/or BOG put enough pressure on the ABA not to invite new applicants?
I think thatās why 92.9 briefly rebranded to OneFM. It was around the time when SCA regionally was at its strongest and they probably thought Tamworth would get a Hit station there - so OneFM (as in, "there is only ONE) was their way of blocking anyone else coming to town.
I think there might be a bit of an overlap regardless in Tamworth from sister stations NowFM and Triple G, all of which fortunately have differing daytime playlists (92.9 & NowFM run their own local workday logs, whilst Triple G takes the NewFM network log). So BOG pretty much runs that town between 92.9/2TM/Triple G/2MO/NowFM/2VMā¦ and who knows if 2AD Armidale might even be picked up at night time in the regionā¦?
Plus Tamworth also has its community radio station which from what I can see looks to be running quite a commercial strategy/schedule.
But still - more competition would only be a good thing if ACMA ever allowed it in Tamworth.
I recall when the Tamworth LAP was revised in early 2000s a 2nd commercial FM licence was proposed (on 92.1 - this was before ABC got 91.7 for News, and it was proposed 2ARM Armidale move to 94.3).
Iām guessing it never proceeded because Tamworth wasnāt found to be suitable to support 3 commercial radio stations.
Yes I think Tamworth is probably a bit borderline in size to support 3 commercial stations. Markets like Bundaberg and Maryborough in Qld that were allocated a 3rd licence are slightly larger and faster growing.
1 Like
As I said earlier, Gunnedah is only 75km away and the overlap into Tamworth is quite significant. Many would probably think they were owned by different companies.
I have a Northern Daily Leader Article from around 98 / 99 of a proposal by the ABA (Australian Broadcast Authority) of them looking into the possibility of giving Tamworth and other similar sized markets an extra xommercial license.
I dont have any further imfomation except it didnt, obviously, proceed any further except submissions.
This was around the time Dubbo, did, get an extra FM licence say maybe that played into their argument?
I can say that new licences had nothing to do with the name change to ONEFM.
Cheers,
2 Likes
Thanks for the clarification!
I recall Gunnedah (95.9) and Armidale (104.3) were also considered for a 3rd commercial licence. I donāt think Moree or Inverell were though. Both Gunnedah and Armidale got a high power narrowcasting licence instead on those frequencies, both racing services.
Iām currently on the Gold Coast and on Radio 97 via 104.1 FM Currumbin, the network 2SM program is in proper stereo - music and sweepers! First time Iāve heard it like that outside of 2SM DAB+.
Is this something that has been implemented recently in light of FM conversions for 2RE and 2GF (with more to come)?
4 Likes
Yes a few upgrades down south in light of the Satellite Upgrade and IP Back up roll out
Sounding quite nice, was enjoying it this morning listening to the music Laws was playing on 4WK 963 and good old AM Stereo 
6 Likes
Thatās great! I would love to see 2HD upgrade to full stereo for local and networked content on 90.5 Lake Macquarie (since its 5km from home!) and 97.5 Port Stephens.
Must be relatively recent? Iām sure 104.1 never did much in stereo outside of the local breakfast show.
Good if it is, and a reason to try and get the old JX220A going with a proper antenna and trying for 963 here again.
1 Like
Would be nice if SRN replaced their heavy talkback schedule with music now their stations are going to FM. There is a massive gap of adult/classic hits music across the north of NSW!
9 Likes
Although music is almost always cheaper to run than talk programming, this may not be the case for the canned 2SM stuff. I wouldnāt hold my breath (unless Bill draws his last one).
2 Likes
I believe its simply because Bill doesnāt want to pay the 4% (?) music royalties feeā¦ the talk based shifts that play 3-4 songs per hour attract a lower royalty fee.
3 Likes
Yes thatās it- someone posted about that quite some time ago. @Radiohead does a @TV-Expert !
I donāt think anyone here REALLY knows for sure whyā¦ itās just the usual MS speculation most of us do
1 Like