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Radio broadcast stations of Australia - historical summary
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This list focuses on the Sealed Set, Class A, Class B, National, Commercial, Community, Narrowcasting and Narrowband radio broadcast services of Australia and seeks to be as complete and as accurate in that field as is possible for the breadth of coverage. While there were more than 300 licensed amateur broadcasters (at least as many as all the other categories combined), only a small handful of the most prominent amateur broadcasters have been able to be included here. Introduction Indexing *Broadcast stations in this list and its various sub-lists are indexed using a combination of callsign (primary) and area served (secondary). In the case of HPONs (which are not allocated BSA92 callsigns), the notional callsign "HPON" has been used. In some few instances there has been duplication of a particular callsign / area served combination. In those instances a tertiary index parameter has been introduced (generally the operating frequency). The selection of callsign as the primary index sits well with the historical slant of this material, but is less helpful in the recent context where many stations use mostly or solely an on-air identifier for station identification purposes. *Of course callsign and area served may change over time (either callsign or area served or both), particularly noting that the time span addressed in the contents of this list is now approaching 100 years and station markets have altered dramatically. *A station may change its callsign (upon the approval of the regulator) to better reflect the nature of its licensed communities or simply for marketing reasons. *In earlier years, several stations were permitted to significantly alter their area served where increased power / lower frequency / changed transmitter sites enabled coverage of neighbouring areas. Such changes have largely ceased with the introduction the licensing constraints of first "service area" (mid 1980s) then "licence area" (BSA92). *Every known use of a callsign & area served combination has been recorded in this list, but where such usage has been superseded, only a brief comment and link to the most recent entity is provided. This ensures that all information relevant to a particular station is grouped together to better display the changes which have occurred over the years (eg 2HR Lochinvar and 2NX Bolwarra are both detailed within the entry for 2NX Newcastle). Item type This list is intended to provide a chronological summary of the technical characteristics of every Australian radio broadcast transmission. The characteristics listed include: *Status *Licensing including **Licence type **Licensee **Registered office *Ownership *Network affiliation *Licence area or defined coverage area *Station identification including **Callsign **On-air identifier **Slogan *Area served *Studios *Frequency *Transmitter power *Antenna *Transmission site *Associated facility *Miscellaneous Item format The format for each list item is: *Time period of currency of the characteristic *Title of the relevant characteristic *Relevant characteristic *Brief explanatory comment *Data provenance Note that comments will not convey any detail of the story and background, as this would not comply with the list guidelines. Item type descriptions Licence type *There have been several different types of licence during Australia's century of broadcasting: **1922 1942: Amateur broadcasters - The first licensed broadcasters who were hobbyist experimenters with a desire to broadcast **1923 1924: Sealed Set broadcasters - The second licensed broadcasters intended to be received by the public using sets with tuning fixed to one station and sealed to eliminate the possibility of tampering **1924 1932: "A" Class broadcasters - The third licensed broadcasters who were partially funded by a percentage of listener licence fees **1924 1942: "B" Class broadcasters - The third licensed broadcasters who were solely funded by their own advertising revenues **1932 Present: National broadcasters (initially just the ABC, and since the 1980s also the SBS) **1942 Present: Commercial broadcasters **c.1975 1992: Public broadcasters (renamed community broadcasters in 1992 with the commencement of the BSA92) **1992 Present: Community broadcasters **1996 Present: High Power Open Narrowcasters The major part played in early Australian broadcasting by amateurs and experimenters who were also licensed to broadcast has largely faded from our collective memories. Only a handful of the 300+ amateur broadcasting stations who pioneered broadcasting in Australia are listed here. Amateur broadcasters operated initially in the metropolitan areas, then in the regional areas and until the beginning of World War II when all amateur transmissions were required by the regulator of the day to cease operations for security reasons. The most comprehensive treatment to date of Australian amateur broadcasters is included in "Australian Radio History", 4th edition, 2013 by Bruce Carty, Ph.D to which the interested reader is referred. Licensee The licensee is the holder of the licence issued by the regulator of the day. This will usually be a corporate entity but may be a single individual. It should be borne in mind that the name of the licensee may not always convey significant information about the ownership and control of a station. The licensee company may itself be owned by other corporate entities or the operation of the station may be leased to another corporate entity. At this stage however this list does not look behind the licensee. Licence area or defined coverage area For more than half a century, the area that a station was licensed to serve was characterised simply in terms of the name of the largest town or city which was covered "location of station". This presented no particular difficulty for the national broadcasting stations which were inherently non-competitive. But for commercial and community stations (and later narrowcasting stations) it became clear than a greater degree of identification of the area for programme delivery was appropriate. It was advantageous to identify the communities of interest for the station and principal areas for marketing of the programming. Commencing in the early 1980s, the regulator of the day negotiated a "service area" for each existing commercial and community (then public) station. From the commencement of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and the Radiocommunications Act 1992, all commercial and community stations had a "licence area" associated with their Broadcasting Service licence (BSL under BSA92). That licence area was named based on the area served for the main station licensed together with a suffix RAx, being RA1 for the first station licensed in the area, then RA2 for a different licence area based on the same area served, etc. When narrowcasting was formalised within BSA92 in the mid 1990s, a complication arose in as much as narrowcasters had no BSL with which a licence area could be associated. This was addressed by attaching a special conditions to the RA92 licence which defined its coverage area. This "defined coverage area" shares many of its characteristics with the "licence area". Callsign *Historically, callsigns allocated to broadcasting services in Australia have never accorded with international requirements. Most Australian callsigns follow the template of one numeral followed by two letters. *The numeral of the callsign indicates the state or territory of the station location as follows: **1 - Australian Capital Territory **2 - New South Wales ( and occasionally the Australian Capital Territory; includes Lord Howe Island) **3 - Victoria **4 - Queensland **5 - South Australia (and the Northern Territory in earlier years) **6 - Western Australia **7 - Tasmania **8 - Northern Territory **9 - External Territories (Norfolk Island, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Australian Antarctic Territory, former Territory of Papua, former Territory of New Guinea) *In recent years (and likely for many years before that), the following two letters are selected by the regulator of the day from a list of 3 potential callsigns submitted by the licensee On-air identifier Area served Studios *The studios of a station is the location where the programmes to be transmitted are produced. *In the early years of radio, the studios were mostly co-located with the transmitter itself. There were several reasons for this: (1) transmitter powers were often low and did not interfere with the programme production equipment; (2) the capital and ongoing costs of a programme line between studios and transmitter were eliminated; (3) antennas were often mounted on the rooftops of high buildings in the mistaken belief that this provided a transmission advantage; (4) the low power transmitter in the heart of a town or city would not blanket reception of other stations in the immediate area. *In later years these same factors pushed the transmitter to the periphery of the urbanised areas: (1) transmitter powers were progressively increased to overcome local manmade noise and night-time interference levels. The higher powers had great potential to overload programme making equipment if the studios and transmitters were co-located; (2) radio had become more profitable and the costs associated with programme lines and links was more than offset by the operational efficiencies and marketing advantages of locating the studios in the heart of the urban centre; (3) understanding of radio transmission technologies had increased and it became clear that maximum AM radio coverage was not achieved by locating the antenna on the top of a high building but rather in flat marshy land with good ground conductivity; and (4) higher powers now in use would create significant blanketing problems for reception of other stations within several hundred metres of the transmission antenna. *It can be quite difficult to correctly identify the actual studio location in use. The registered office of the licensee company included in many early lists of stations may not be the same as the location of the studios. Again a licensee may have administrative offices as one location, but locate it studios at another location. Secondary studios were also quite common for many years as the regulator encourage these for greater immunity to periods off-air at times of emergency. Commencement date Many persons interested in the history of Australian radio broadcasting place much importance on "commencement date" for a service, however there is potential for considerable confusion in definition and identification of the date. Candidates include: *(1) date of incorporation of licence applicant company; *(2) date of application for the licence; *(3) date of approval of the application; *(4) date of issue of the licence; *(5) date of commencement of on-air test transmissions; *(6) date of commencement of on-air regular programming; and *(7) date of official opening ceremony. In this list will attempt to identify the date of commencement of on-air regular programming as the commencement date, but the reader should refer to more detailed publications for clarification. "The first twelve months of radio broadcasting in Australia, 1923-1924", 2013, Ron Langhans is particularly detailed and authoritative. That author is presently preparing a companion publication addressing the first ten years. Frequency *This list primarily characterises frequency of operation in kilohertz as preferred by the regulator. This unit of measure was standardised by XXX in 19XX and replaced the earlier unit of kilocycles per second. Prior to the 1927 ITU Washington conference, the wavelength was the preferred unit. For broadcast planning purposes the term frequency was always preferred as it better reflected the electrical distance between stations and the ability of receivers to select between adjacent stations. Even before the 1927 conference, the vast majority of allocated wavelengths are very close to multiples of 5 kHz and it seems likely that planning was being undertaken to frequencies and then converted to wavelengths for licence issue. Nevertheless, to ensure no loss of historical accuracy, licensed wavelengths have been converted to frequencies to an accuracy of one decimal place (and the actual wavelength quoted also). Note that the Industry more generally and the listening public at large retained a fondness for many years post 1927 and the term does not fade entirely from view until the 1940s. *There have been several major reallocation events since the inception of broadcating in Australia. Such reallocation events were often colloquially termed frequency reshuffles and would be characterised today by the regulator as a "restack". The significant bulk frequency related events identified to date are as follows: **1924??: AM radio broadcast frequencies confined to a small number of sub-bands **1927??: Extension of AM radio broadcast band to the frequency range 550 kHz to 1500 kHz (previously a number of smaller subbands within this range) **1928??: Cessation of last longwave broadcast service in Australia **31 Aug 1935 Sep 1935: More than 50% of Australia's radio stations were required to change frequency **1938: Cairo conference which extended the AM radio broadcast band to the frequency range 540 kHz to 1600 kHz (previously 550 kHz to 1500 kHz) **31 Aug 1948 1 Sep 1948: Some 24 Australian and New Zealand radio stations were required to change frequency to minimise interference and to provide for further new stations **23 November 1978: Implementation of the ITU 1975 Geneva Plan which required stations in Australia to move from a 10 kHz raster to a new 9 kHz raster Transmitter power This list uses the common practice of characterising the strength of the station in terms of "transmitter power" of the station. But throughout most of the history of AM radio broadcasting in Australia, the parameter regulated was the power into the base of the antenna. Losses between transmitter and antenna base were typically about 10% and thus a "5 kW transmitter" station will typically be running its transmitter at 5.5 kW. In Australia, since the commencement of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, the regulator of the day has characterised maximum radiated power in terms of maximum cymomotive force (cmf). The cmf is measured in Volts and is the unattenuated field stregth in mV/m at a distance of 1 km. The measure is comparable to that used for FM radio: effective radiated power. Antenna Transmission site Status Associated facility *Many individual stations have technical relationships with other stations. Many of those relationships are identified in this list, as follows **Parent station: A station which provides the entirety or majority of the programme content for another station **Translator: The licensee of a parent station may be granted a licence for a (generally lower powered) further station to provide coverage of an area within the parent station's licence area which is otherwise not covered by the parent station. Translators may originate their own programming. **Retransmission: A third party to the parent station may be granted a licence for a (generally lower powered) further station to provide coverage of an area within the parent station's licence area which is otherwise not covered by the parent station. The third party must obtain permission from the parent station to retransmit its programmes. Such retransmissions are typically licensed to local councils and mining companies desiring coverage of their specific areas of interest. Retransmissions must retransmit the parent's programmes in its entirety and without alteration. Retransmissions may not originate local programming. **S212 retransmission: Closely similar to retransmissions but cover an area outside the licence area of the parent station. Consultation processes must be followed **BSA92 s39 FM service: **BA42 Supplementary FM service: Key dates *1905: Commencement of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1905 *1918: First radio broadcast in Australia by amateur broadcaster 6AG Walter E. (Wally) Coxon *1920: Department of the Navy returns control of the radiofrequency spectrum to the Postmaster General's Department *1 Aug 1923: Commencement of Regulations to Wireless Telegraphy Act 1905 which enabled the Sealed Set scheme *17 July 1924: Commencement of Regulations to Wireless Telegraphy Act 1905 which created the two tier "A" and "B" class licensing system *1927: ITU Washington conference adopts frequency designations in lieu of wavelengths (leads to 5 kHz AM radio channel raster) *1928: Establishment of Australian Broadcasting Company *1932: Establishment of Australian Broadcasting Commission *1 Sep 1935: Implementation of the Australian 10 kHz AM radio channel raster (replacing 5 kHz raster) *1938: Implementation of the ITU Cairo Plan 1938 *1942: Commencement of the Broadcasting Act 1942 *1948: Establishment of Australian Broadcasting Control Board *1 Sep 1948: Major restack of Australian and New Zealand AM frequencies to enable additional future services *25 Mar 1952: Announcement of major ABC expansion programme (17 new stations + 27 power increases) *1965: Circular Letter B105 of Australian Broadcasting Control Board *1975: Abolition of the Australian Broadcasting Control Board and creation of the Postal and Telecommunications Department *1975: Australia signs ITU-R Geneva Plan 1975 *1 Jan 1977: Australian Broadcasting Tribunal established *23 Nov 1978: Implementation of the ITU Geneva Plan 1975 (9 kHz AM radio channel raster) *c.Nov 1980: Department of Communications created by renaming Postal and Telecommunications Department *1 Jul 1983: Australian Broadcasting Corporation replaces Australian Broadcasting Commission *c.1985: Commencement of supplementary licence provisions in Broadcasting Act 1942. *23 Jul 1987: Department of Transport and Communications formed from merger of Postal and Telecommunications Department, Department of Transport and Department of Aviation *1988: Commencement of National Metropolitan Radio Plan 1988 *1992: Commencement of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 *1992: Commencement of the Radiocommuncations Act 1992 *3 Oct 1992: Australian Broadcasting Authority replaces Australian Broadcasting Tribunal *c.1995: Commencement of s39 licence provisions in Broadcasting Services Act 1992 *c.1998: Commencement of price based allocation process for high powered open narrowcasting under Broadcasting Services Act 1992 *c.2000: Australian Broadcasting Authority adopts a policy for AM-FM conversion for community radio stations *c.2003: Australian Broadcasting Authority reintroduces a policy establishing a framework for AM day/night transmitter power switching *1 Jul 2005: Establishment of Australian Communications and Media Authority by merger of Australian Communications Authority and Australian Broadcasting Authority *2013: Department of Communications becomes new name of Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Abbreviations *ABA: Australian Broadcasting Authority *ABC(1): Australian Broadcasting Company *ABC(2): Australian Broadcasting Commission *ABC(3): Australian Broadcasting Corporation *ABCB: Australian Broadcasting Control Board *ACA: Australian Communications Authority *ACMA: Australian Communications and Media Authority *ABT: Australian Broadcasting Tribunal *AWA: Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Pty Ltd *BA: Broadcast Australia *CBAA: Community Broadcasting Association of Australia *CRA: Commercial Radio Australia *DoN: Department of the Navy *DoC(1): Department of Communications *DoC(2): Department of Communications *DoCA: Department of Communications and the Arts *DBCDE: Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy *FACB: Federation of Australian Commercial Broadcasters *FARB: Federation of Australian Radio Broadcasters *ITU: International Telecommunications Union *ITU-R: International Telecommunications Union, Radiocommunications Bureau *NTA(1): National Transmission Agency *NTA(2): National Transmission Authority *NTN: National Transmission Network *P&T: Postal and Telecommunications Department *PMG: Postmaster General's Department *SBS: Special Broadcasting Service Corporation *WIA: Wireless Institute of Australia Australian Capital Territory AM Radio Separate Australian Capital Territory AM radio list MF-NAS Services Coming real soon now! Shortwave Radio Coming real soon now! LPON Services Coming real soon now! FM Radio Coming real soon now! VHF-NAS Services Coming real soon now! Digital Radio Coming real soon now! New South Wales AM Radio Separate New South Wales AM radio list FM radio Coming real soon now! Shortwave Radio Coming real soon now! Digital Radio Coming real soon now! Victoria AM Radio Separate Victoria AM radio list FM radio Shortwave Radio Digital Radio Queensland AM Radio Separate Queensland AM radio list FM radio Shortwave Radio Digital Radio 4BC 4BH 4BK 4IP 4KQ 4QG 4QR South Australia AM Radio Separate South Australia AM radio list FM radio Shortwave Radio Digital Radio Western Australia AM Radio Separate Western Australia AM radio list FM radio Shortwave Radio Digital Radio Tasmania AM Radio Separate Tasmania AM radio list FM radio Shortwave Radio Digital Radio Northern Territory AM Radio Separate Northern Territory AM radio list FM radio Shortwave Radio Digital Radio Australian External Territories AM Radio Separate Australian External Territories AM radio list FM radio Shortwave Radio Digital Radio 
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