3MP - lonely end of the dial

[Paul Melville Austin]

Poor old 3MP - not only are their ratings dropping through the floor but
1377 is now a very lonely part of the commercial radio dial with the
departure of 3XY and 3AK for 693 and 1116 - are there any available
frequencies in the lower part of the dial for them to move to - or could the
licence be converted to FM?

[Walking Wounded]

Post by Paul Melville Austin
Poor old 3MP - not only are their ratings dropping through the floor but
1377 is now a very lonely part of the commercial radio dial with the
departure of 3XY and 3AK for 693 and 1116 - are there any available
frequencies in the lower part of the dial for them to move to - or could the
licence be converted to FM?

Push Memory Buttons on your car radio to receive other stations. The
actual spot on the dial is meaningless - just so long as it is ON the
dial or in receivable range on a radio receiver is good enough.

There are some things near 3MP -

1278 - 3AW - TALK
1341 - 3CW - Chinese Language Radio
1377 - 3MP - Easy Music
1422 - 3XY - Greek Language radio
1503 - 3KD - Kool N Deadly (Indig. Radio)
1593 - 3?? - Italian Language Radio
1611 - ??? -

3MP are flanked by Non English radio stations, but with presets, it
matters not.

With AM radio - you almost need to identify the English Language
stations, there's a large variety of stuff on the AM dial - I was
quite suprised ! (being a usual FM listener)

Post by Paul Melville Austin

NC <<

[Mike Pfeiffer]

Post by Walking Wounded

Post by Paul Melville Austin
Poor old 3MP - not only are their ratings dropping through the floor but
1377 is now a very lonely part of the commercial radio dial with the
departure of 3XY and 3AK for 693 and 1116 - are there any available
frequencies in the lower part of the dial for them to move to - or could the
licence be converted to FM?

Push Memory Buttons on your car radio to receive other stations. The
actual spot on the dial is meaningless - just so long as it is ON the
dial or in receivable range on a radio receiver is good enough.
There are some things near 3MP -
1278 - 3AW - TALK
1341 - 3CW - Chinese Language Radio
1377 - 3MP - Easy Music
1422 - 3XY - Greek Language radio
1503 - 3KD - Kool N Deadly (Indig. Radio)
1593 - 3?? - Italian Language Radio
1611 - ??? -
3MP are flanked by Non English radio stations, but with presets, it
matters not.
With AM radio - you almost need to identify the English Language
stations, there's a large variety of stuff on the AM dial - I was
quite suprised ! (being a usual FM listener)

Post by Paul Melville Austin

NC <<

But to put it in the presets you still have to find it initially. The
problem that any station that is near the top or bottom of the spectrum has
is not being passed over when tuning from one station to another. 3MP is the
top of the commercial stations in Melbourne, and it is unlikely that someone
is going to tune up from 3AW unless they know there's something there
already. It's an unfortunate situation, but one that will always exist.
After all, someone has to be the 'top' station. Maybe they should market
themselves as that ;-)

[Andrew Bayley]

Post by Mike Pfeiffer
But to put it in the presets you still have to find it initially. The
problem that any station that is near the top or bottom of the spectrum has
is not being passed over when tuning from one station to another. 3MP is the
top of the commercial stations in Melbourne, and it is unlikely that someone
is going to tune up from 3AW unless they know there's something there
already. It's an unfortunate situation, but one that will always exist.
After all, someone has to be the 'top' station. Maybe they should market
themselves as that ;-)

I think it comes down to marketing and/or programming more than just
'position, position, position'. A spot in the middle of the dial might help
gain the occasional listener scanning the dial but i think it comes down to
what the station has to offer rather than the actual position.

3AK, way down at 1503 on the dial, was #1 with Beautiful Music and before
that was also rated well as the Good Guys/No Wrinklys. The formats were
strong and marketed well, and so people knew it was there and knew to tune
down the end of the dial. (same could be said of 2SM in the 1970's) And
moving up the dial is no guarantee, especially these days with digital
tuners and such, of being able to pick up listeners by default as 3AK has
found now. If you have a good product and promoted well, listeners will
know to find you whatever spot on the dial.

[Wombat Lover]

1593 is 3RG (or Rete Italia) broadcasting in Italian

1611 is 3XX (available in selected areas only)

1620 Hillside Radio (available in the other area that 3XX cant be heard)

1629 Radio 2 (available If not shadowed by another station)

1638 Arabic?? (always available)

But I guess, if your radio doesnt go this high, You can rest assured that
1593 is available to listen to, and after awhile can actually make some
sense

[Matthew Cook]

Post by Wombat Lover
1638 Arabic?? (always available)

It's 3ME, (usually IDing as 2ME).

[Wombat Lover]

3ME...gotta make sure they dont slip to 3NE, or anything similiar

[The Listener]

"Radio real estate" - good point. Was a bigger deal back when there
was only dial tuning but still an issue in some areas of life today
with digital tuners as you put them on seek etc.

Also, radios last a long time so there's lots of dial tuners still
around - that and the fact many older people don't bother/can't/refuse
to change their dials. Take my grandparents for example, my grandad
was technically minded and always changed the stations, but now he's
dead, my grandmother is very reluctant to change stations - 4BC had
their fill in b'fast team the past fortnight and she really hates them
but that did not encourage her to try 4QR or 4BH. Perhaps those still
listening to 2UE b'fast are the oldies like my nan who don't want to
fiddle with the dial.

There's an newspaper article from when SEA FM was awarded the 90.9
licence and them commenting to the minister about how close the ABC
Coast FM station was going to be located (91.7).

Of course, HT is on 102.9 - which is 12MHz away from SEA FM and 10
from Gold - it's closer to the Bris stations 104.5/105.3 so people
tuning to and from Austereo back to SEA would tune thru 102.9 and such
a location might be helpful.

Station X spent its final years on 102.9 - perhaps Peter Tate has some
opinions on it.

Post by Paul Melville Austin
Poor old 3MP - not only are their ratings dropping through the floor but
1377 is now a very lonely part of the commercial radio dial with the
departure of 3XY and 3AK for 693 and 1116 - are there any available
frequencies in the lower part of the dial for them to move to - or could the
licence be converted to FM?