Not a conflict of interest because they’re two separate markets. Then again, SCA might be angling to make a move on the station 
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Well, SCA did try to buy i98 from WIN two years ago as part of an asset swap that eventually saw WIN buy NRN from SCA, but pulled out.
At the moment, i98 is being represented by SCA for sales purposes.
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Wonder if they’d make a second go of it.
C91.3 would be off the cards because of overspill, right? If WIN wanted out of radio it’d fit well into the Grants portfolio
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Correct. SCA wouldn’t be allowed to purchase C91.3 due to its licence area having an 86% overlap with Sydney RA1 licence area, which would effectively breach the 2-station rule.
And yes, I agree with you on which if WIN were to sell off C91.3, they would be bought by Grant. I would imagine that if that were to happen, I wouldn’t be surprised if Wave FM were to provide the music log for C91.3, much like what Grant does with most of their other stations in regards to centralising music logs.
Or sell C91.3 to EON.
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Or Capital Radio, perhaps? With the impending conversion of 2GN and 2XL, they could achieve FM coverage for most of the way between Sydney and the Snowies. But this is wishful thinking, I know.
I suppose “Forever Classic C 91.3” would sound a little awkward. “Campelltown’s Forever Classic 91.3” would have to do.
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Forever Classic M91.3 (M for Macarthur) would sound good, but SCA would probably have something to say about that.
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Lachlan “Lachy” Kitchen is leaving i98 after 15 years with the station, where he has been doing mornings.
Source: https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/lachlan-kitchen-leaves-i98fm
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Is there a reason why the Wollongong radio market has only two commercial radio stations whilst some much smaller markets have three? Is it because of the overspill from Sydney and Nowra? Have there ever been discussions for a third commercial station for Wollongong?
Comparison:
- Wollongong (294,000) - 2
- Albury (149,000) - 3
- Kempsey (130,000) - 3
- Coffs Harbour (85,635) - 3
- Orange (80,500) - 3
- Dubbo (73,400) - 3
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There was discussion of a 3rd (as well as a distinct possibility of a 4th) commercial station when the Wollongong LAP was consulted back in 1998.
Here’s the Discussion Paper below:
Wollongong_DraftLAP DSC_Oct1998.pdf (486.6 KB)
With the AM-FM conversions in solus markets happening, it means that Wollongong would have the same number of commercial FM stations as in smaller markets like Bega, Cooma, Goulburn, Bathurst, Launceston, Burnie & Devonport, among a few more others to come in the future.
Unlike those other aforementioned markets, as it’s been well documented, both Wollongong commercial FM stations compete with one another, hence why when you’re listening to or looking at the playlists for i98 & Wave FM, either on their websites or through Lava, they look very similar to one another. However, prior to about a decade or so ago, both stations were sounding a bit more different from one another.
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Thanks for that. Interesting that the draft recommendations were for a 3rd or 4th commercial station licence to be granted, but never ultimately occurred.
On another note, why is Kix Country on 105.3 seemingly much weaker than Vox on 106.9 coming into Sydney? Looking at the LAP, they’re both 2 kW towards Sydney from Brokers Nose.
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Which WaveFM Workday announcer is leaving? There is an ad on Jocks Journal.
Not sure, but considering that Lachy has left i98, therefore opening a vacancy for a morning slot, perhaps one of Wave FM’s workday announcers have jumped ship to a higher-rating rival.
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Not directly relevant for this thread, but former i98 presenter, Lachlan Kitchen, has joined Dubai 92 to present breakfast with George Ryland.
Source: https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/lachlan-kitchen-joins-dubai-92
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I think it’s this one.
July Update.
According to the following station’s website, former C91.3 breakfast presenter, Lyndal Rogers, is now doing mornings on i98.
18th August.
This year’s ACRA nominees on among the Wollongong stations:
Best News Presenter (Provincial)
Renee Criddle - i98FM
Travis Winks - Wave FM
Best Direct Salesperson (Provincial)
Termira Speers - i98FM
Best Station Produced Commercial - Single (Provincial)
Good Luck Doesn’t Just Happen; Rob Sharples - i98FM
Best Sales Promotion (Non-Metro)
Wave FM’s McWedding - Wave FM
Best Multimedia Execution - Sales (Non Metro)
Wave FM’s McWedding - Wave FM
Best Community Service Project (Provincial)
i98FM Illawarra Convoy - i98FM
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Down in Sydney for a couple of nights, and saw an ad this afternoon on Nine Wollongong for WAVE FM for their breakfast show.
It started with a somewhat corny text message convo about the female host losing her car keys and then a radio display scanning down from 98.1 to 96.5. No prizes for who they’re targeting there
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Is it just me or are TV ads for radio stations getting worse? I seem to remember much better ones years ago.
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It’s too bad that AirCheck (who does the music crossover reports) doesn’t cover the Wollongong stations in its music monitoring.
The closest would be Lava, which you can compare a complete day’s playlist of both stations, side by side. On a side note, 94.9 Power FM’s playlist can now be seen on Lava as of this week.
I tend to agree on this. Wave FM is slightly more ‘adult-friendly’ than i98FM.
They certainly would. Given that it doesn’t transmit into Sydney very well anymore, listening to Power FM whilst in the Illawarra would now be considered a breath of fresh air, as it’s a station that you wouldn’t usually get at home very well.
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Next time I go the Gong, I want to test Power FM out.
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We previously mentioned in this forum that Wave and Power fm playlist were overlapping at times, particularly Sunday afternoons.
They are now overlapping on weeknights too with both stations taking the random 30. Wave is slightly ahead of Power fm in tonight’s countdown.
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