Personally I don’t think either WIN or Grant Broadcasters are likely to sell off their Wollongong radio stations anytime soon, for obvious reasons.
I could see something happening as part of a deal for WIN buying NRN from SCA.
Well they dodged a bullet there:
Outsiders expect other operators such as Bill Carilis, Sea FM, Rural Press or even the expansive Wesgo could be interested in the wavy station.
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If the Wollongong and Nowra licence areas where ever to be merged Grant would then be forced to sell off one of their stations, (wave, Power or 2ST) to comply with the two station limit in each market.
Would i98 be able to purchase a second station considering it is owned by Win Tv?
Or would a new player then have to come in?
Just imagine how good the combined Wollongong / Nowra market would be, it would probably look like this with the following high powered commercials from Knights Hill at 150KW
91.7 2ST - Classic Hits or Smooth format owned by Grant
94.9 Power fm CHR maybe Hit 95 if owned by SCA
96.5- Wave Fm - Hot adult contemporary - Grant
I98- Win mix match to compete with wave and Power / Hit 95 or go Rock format or Nova copy.
This would be much better then the present situation.
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Unlikely given that they areas have such a small overlap area (only 7.25 of the Wollongong Licence area).[quote=“Ant5476, post:23, topic:106”]
Would i98 be able to purchase a second station considering it is owned by Win Tv?
[/quote]Yes. A TV and 2 Radio licences is allowable.[quote=“Ant5476, post:23, topic:106”]
94.9 Power fm CHR maybe Hit 95 if owned by SCA
96.5- Wave Fm - Hot adult contemporary - Grant
[/quote]In this hypothetical, it would be more likely that Grant Broadcasters would sell Wave. As it is already a stand alone station it would be more appealing to potential buyers. Splitting Power and 2ST would require essentially a double up of resources in Nowra which wouldn’t be appealing to Grants or a potential buyer.
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94.9 Power FM posted a tweet just a few minutes ago, mentioning that the two “Young Australians of the Year” winners, Lucas and Nic, visited Wollongong with their mobile laundry van. Now, I understand that Wollongong is only an hour away from Nowra/Bomaderry, but realistically, why should Power FM be reporting on local news stories which are not even apart of their licence area? This is something I would expect to hear from Wave FM and i98fm, the two commercial FM stations in the Wollongong/Illawarra licence area, not from Power FM.
For whatever reason, 94.9 Power FM seems to be under the impression that reports from Wollongong/Illawarra are relevant to their own licence area. It is not uncommon for the station to provide weather forecasts for Wollongong, Shellharbour & Kiama, despite the fact that none of the three cities/towns even fall under the Nowra licence area.
Actually, the Nowra licence area does cover Kiama, according to this map: http://www.acma.gov.au/licplan/defmaps/documents/maps/la_536.pdf
However, 2ST does not get into the Kiama area very well, which is a bit unfortunate. 
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Interesting. To be honest, I always thought that Kiama was apart of the Wollongong/Illawarra licence area.
Just in regards to 2ST, which area (in the Illawarra) do you believe can receive 2ST the strongest? I have been able to receive the station in reasonably good reception in Wollongong before, however that was on the 91.7 MHz frequency and not the 102.9 MHz frequency.
It is. Kiama is in both the Wollongong & Nowra licence areas.
The coastline between Otford & Thirroul (between Sydney & Wollongong for those unfamiliar with the region) would be a very good area within the Illawarra to pick up 2ST quite well on 91.7 MHz from Jervis Bay, due to its good LOS (Line of Sight) towards the south. Further down the coast, the area around between Hill 60 & Port Kembla Beach in Port Kembla would also be a good spot to pick up 2ST, especially in parts where you have good LOS in a southerly direction.
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While Power are doing news stories for Wollongong, Nova 96.9 is giving temperature readings for the Central Coast in their news updates which is outside of their licence area.
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Given that Power FM and 2ST can be received beyond Wollongong well into Sydney, I would assume there’d be a fair number of listeners in the Illawarra and they’re capitalising on that signal overspill like The Edge (licensed to Katoomba) does with Sydney. I remember hearing ads for businesses in Chatswood on a station supposedly licensed for Katoomba.
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94.9 Power FM has a bit of an odd playlist at times. This afternoon, at around 2:30pm, the station played “Self-Esteem” by The Offspring (which personally I really enjoyed). However, immediately after the song finished, the station then played “Be The One” by Dua Lipa (which is a current Top-40 hit) and then about half and hour later, it played “Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence! Considering the fact that 94.9 Power FM is a “contemporary hit radio” station, it does play a considerable amount of rock music on it. I also heard “Better” by Screaming Jets and an INXS song on the station this afternoon as well. Just my two cents worth.
Radio Today reports that WIN News’ sport presenter, Amy Duggan, will join i98’s on-air line up for its new Sunday morning easy listening program, Chilled Sundays, to be aired at 6-10am Sundays. This is apparently an extension of its weeknight Chilled program, which airs from 10pm weeknights (no mention of this on their website, but I’ve heard it being promoted on-air).
It’s strange that i98 is now the station to be having an easy listening program, which in an ideal world, would be better suited for Wave FM. But then again, with Wave now being more or less a Top 40 station, which its programming includes The A-List with Kyle & Jackie O on Friday & Sunday evenings, both i98 & Wave’s identities are not as clear as they used to be. That being said, i98 used to have Love Songs on weeknights back in the mid 90s to early 00s, as well as the Retro Radio Show on Sunday nights, which focused on 70s & 80s music.
On the subject of Wave, I’ve noticed on their website that Clarky, who has been with the station for over 20 years, is no longer part of their on-air line-up. Instead, he’s now doing drive on Power FM down in the Far South Coast (Batemans Bay to Eden).
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I know I have mentioned numerous times before how unique and odd 94.9 Power FM’s playlist can be at times, however I can’t say that I have heard the playlist sound so contrasting before! Within the space of 27 minutes, 94.9 Power FM played a Taylor Swift song, a Queen song, a Nirvana song, a Charlie Pluth song (a current Top-40 artist) and a No Doubt song. Fortunately, I was recording the station at the time, so I managed to record the songs from the retrospective artists (I managed to record “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift, however I had to remove it from the upload due to copyright).
Wave FM is doing the $60,000 Cash Call, in which a listener have to answer with “I’ve Made the Switch to 96.5 Wave FM” to win $1000.
More info, including a link to a TV ad for the comp (most likely airing on Prime7 & Nine): http://www.radiotoday.com.au/news/whats-new/9410-60k-on-the-line.html
Meanwhile, i98 is doing Secret Stars, where 4 celebrities say the words ‘i98 Secret Stars’, where listeners have to guess who they are in the correct order & if they’re correct, they could share in $30,000.
With both Wave & i98 doing big money competitions, I wonder if that means Wollongong is currently undertaking a radio ratings survey during this time? It would be interesting to see how both stations perform compare to last year’s survey. 
I’d say there’s a good chance a survey is coming up in that case, since the Central Coast stations 2GO and Star were both advertising competitions with cash prizes on NBN Central Coast last night as it is a known fact that a survey is about to be conducted there shortly too.
Local Olympic Gold Medal winner, Emma McKeon, will host her 1 hour special show at 5pm this Sunday (3rd September) on i98. According to the comment made on the article link below, she, along with fellow local Olympian & brother, David McKeon, were on Wave FM for an hour on Tuesday morning.
Source: Radio Today
On a sidenote, according to their ‘Now Playing’ feature on the following station’s website, Wave FM has been playing a few more rock tracks of late, perhaps in reaction to i98’s move to a more female-skewed & slightly older-skewed sound under their “Feel Good Music Variety” positioner.
Tony M (full name Tony Momcilovic) is leaving i98FM after 12 years with the station, where he has been Station Producer/Announcer, to pursue new career goals. During his time with the station, he was presenting music feature programs such as Nothin’ but 90s, HitStory, & Flashback, all of which were also heard on sister station C91.3 in Campbelltown.
His last day with the station will be next Friday (9th September).
Source: Radioinfo
I was down in Wollongong today & saw this advertisement for Wave FM on the back of a bus:
This is probably the first time in a very long time that I’ve seen any prominent outdoor advertising for the station in the region.
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Have you been to Shellharbour Square lately? There has been a huge, obnoxious billboard above the travelators near the food court with similar advertising (same photograph) for a while.
No, I haven’t been to Shellharbour Square (Stockland Shellharbour) lately to answer your question.
With TV ads for i98 shown on WIN less likely to get much exposure (ie. in terms of number of viewers) now that they’re a Ten affiliate, I think Wave FM might be gaining a bit of momentum through external advertising, such as outdoor advertising on buses etc, as well as any TV ads for the station shown on Prime7 & (SC) Nine.