Hit101.3 Central Coast

Last updated

Hit101.3
Logo of Hit 101.3 Sea fm.png
City Central Coast, New South Wales
Broadcast areaCentral Coast, Newcastle, Sydney
Frequency 101.3 MHz FM
Programming
Format Top 40 (CHR)
Affiliations Hit Network
Ownership
Owner Southern Cross Austereo
History
Call sign meaning
2 - New South Wales
Central Coast FM
Links
Website https://www.hit.com.au/centralcoast

Hit101.3 (call sign: 2CFM) is an Australian radio station located on the New South Wales Central Coast, part of Southern Cross Austereo. Hit101.3 broadcasts from the Central Coast Radio Centre on Henry Parry Drive, in Gosford, along with sister station 107.7 Triple M Central Coast. Broadcast areas are Gosford but can as well be heard in Newcastle, Sydney and parts of the Blue Mountains. The station was first broadcast from studios located in Mann Street, Gosford, where it was known onair as Coast Rock FM.

Contents

Hit101.3 is the most listened to radio station on the Central Coast and is popular in all time brackets, to ages between 10 and 54. In the 2012 Central Coast radio Survey, Hit101.3 was the overall number one radio station on the Central Coast, taking out age categories 10+ through to 54, doing particularly well in the target demographics with 39.4% of 18- to 24-year-olds tuning into Sea FM and doing quite well in the 25- to 39-year-olds range with 26.8% of that age category listening to Sea FM. [1]

The station

Hit101.3 play Top 40 music generally from the past two decades. They also showcase popular new music, and get listeners to give feedback via the web promotion 'Rate the Hits'.

The station uses the Radio Computing Services (RCS) NexGen Digital Automation system when on air, complemented by Adobe Audition. Sea FM's three production suites utilize the latest Pro Tools systems, and A-ware Software's MusicMaster v4 is used for Music Scheduling. All songs, commercials and station identification information is played digitally from NexGen, using a high bit-rate proprietary version of the MPEG-1 Audio Layer II codec. Hit 101.3, like most commercial radio stations, only use CD players as a back-up to their Automation System.

Central Coast Radio is also home to Southern Cross Austereo's network music library, a fully cataloged CD library consisting of over 200,000 High Definition music tracks. Research began for the CD library in 2006, gathering the required music from various sources, in preparation for the Network-wide rollout of the NexGen Digital Automation system. All songs for every station in the Southern Cross Austereo regional group originate from this library. The music is usually transferred to all stations overnight via a proprietary data transfer system, originally built into NexGen for the Clear Channel group of stations.

101.3 Sea FM has been on the Central Coast for over 19 years, trading as either 'Sea FM', or formerly 'Coast Rock FM'. [2]

On 15 December 2016 Sea FM Central Coast became known as Hit101.3 Sea FM in Southern Cross Austereo's mass re-branding of its regional radio network. Along with Sea FM Gold Coast they were able to retain their heritage name for the moment. [3]

On 3 July 2018 Sea FM Central Coast had Dropped the word "Hit" Out of its station name "Hit101.3 Sea FM", Reverting to its original name "101.3 Sea FM", as well as its sister station 90.9 Sea FM on the Gold Coast.

By October 2019, the station had rebadged and was officially called "Hit 101.3" along with other regional hit sister stations.

The station is networked between 4 pm and 5 am taking programming from sister stations Fox FM, 2Day FM, Hit105 Brisbane and 90.9 Sea FM, on the Gold Coast.

Establishment and ownership

Gosford Communications first submitted an application for a broadcast licence in August 1987. The Australian Broadcasting Tribunal(ABT) granted a commercial FM broadcast licence to Gosford Communications LTD, a wholly owned subsidiary of Country Television Services; a private company owned by Ted and Miriam Rodgers, in August 1988. [4] Within a month of being awarded the broadcast licence, Wesgo Communications PTY LTD (who owned the only other commercial station in the market at the time - AM station 2GO) launched an appeal against the ABT for granting a second commercial licence, and their appeal was upheld. A second appeal was launched by the ABT against the judge's decision to uphold Wesgo's appeal. After time in front of the Full Bench of the Federal Court, Gosford Communications were finally given the go-ahead. Initially, Gosford Communications owned 60% of the station, the other 40% was publicly floated; with shares offered to the local community and employees. [5]

On 1 November 1989 Country Television Services was delisted from the ASX when it was taken over by Roslyndale Securities Pty Limited. [6]

Coast Rock FM was first broadcast from newly renovated studios located in Mann Street, Gosford on 15 September 1990. The first song officially broadcast was Start Me Up by The Rolling Stones.

Sometime in the early 1990s, Coast Rock FM was purchased by Queensland TV operators, and owners of rival station 2GOFM; The Sunshine Television Network/STQ. In 1995 STQ was purchased by the Seven Network. Due to broadcast regulations at the time, Channel 7 was restricted to owning just one "type" of media outlet in any given area. As the Central Coast is considered part of the Sydney Metropolitan area, controversially, the Central Coast and Sydney's broadcast area overlap quite significantly - this factor forced Channel 7 to divest Coast Rock FM to another operator.

Sea FM LTD purchased Coast Rock FM and 2GO FM from the 7 Network in January 1996. [7] The company changed its name from Sea FM Limited to RG Capital Radio Pty Limited in 1996, [8] due to the acquisition of 2GO FM - future plans would be to change Coast Rock FM to Sea FM, but in order to maintain a point of difference between the new Sea FM and 2GO FM, the parent company's name would have to change.

Later that year, Coast Rock underwent significant changes. In the space of one night, Coast Rock was essentially "switched off" at its Mann Street studios, and moved to join former rival 2GO in their studio complex in Henry Parry Drive. Previous Sea FM Program Director, Allan Cameron, was the last announcer to do a live shift from the old studios in Gosford. A few months later, Coast Rock was re-branded as Sea FM, to match RG Capitals' other radio properties - 90.9 Sea FM (Gold Coast) and 91.9 Sea FM (Sunshine Coast). The first song to be played by the new Sea FM was Things Can Only Get Better by D:Ream.

RG Capital Radio PTY LTD was floated on the ASX in October 2000, and subsequently changed its name to RG Capital Radio Limited.

In 2002, RG Capital entered into negotiations to sell 101.3 Sea FM to DMG Radio Australia. The deal would have been a trade-off for the joint acquisition of a new FM broadcast license for the Central Coast, along with the purchase of number of existing radio licenses in regional Victoria. A full agreement could never be reached, however - and this saw the proposed venture fall through by December 2002. [9] DMG eventually went on to successfully bid for the new FM license, thus paving the way for the birth of the Central Coast's third FM commercial radio station, Star 104.5. [10]

In June 2004, Sea FM's parent company, RG Capital Radio LTD was acquired by Macquarie Bank for a reported A$173 m. The newly formed Macquarie Media Group (MMG) then purchased DMG Radio Australia's regional portfolio in September of the same year for A$193 m. [11] Macquarie Regional Radioworks was formed to oversee the radio operations, and maintained a similar management structure to that of RG Capital LTD. November 2006 saw MMG purchase a 13.8 per cent stake in rival radio operator, Southern Cross Broadcasting, which put a number of Australian Television stations under the MMG umbrella. [12] In December 2009, MMG security holders voted in favour of a conversion from a triple-stapled structure to a single ASX-listed company. MMG was renamed Southern Cross Media Group with former RG Capital Radio CEO Rhys Holleran as the Chief Executive Officer. [13]

Related Research Articles

NOVA Entertainment is an Australian entertainment company that operates commercial radio networks in metropolitan and regional areas of Australia.

hit106.9 Newcastle Radio station in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia

hit106.9 is a commercial FM radio station broadcasting in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, on a frequency of 106.9 MHz, and is part of Southern Cross Austereo's Hit Network. Triple M is a sister station sharing the same building.

Southern Cross Austereo

Southern Cross Media Group Limited, doing business as Southern Cross Austereo, is an Australian media company which operates broadcast radio and television stations. It is the largest radio broadcaster in Australia, operating 86 radio stations, and has a reach into every state and territory.

Triple M Central West is an Australian radio station, licensed to Orange, New South Wales. It is owned and operated by Macquarie Regional RadioWorks, and transmits on 105.1 MHz on the FM band. It originally broadcast on 990 kHz, before switching to 1089 kHz, before switching to the FM band. The former Am frequency of 1089 was turned into a relay station of an automated Sydney station, and later purchased by Broadcast Operations Group.

Sea FM Former Australian radio network

Sea FM was an Australian radio network, consisting of stations in Queensland and NSW owned by Southern Cross Austereo. Some Sea FM stations were later sold to meet media ownership requirements. Prime Television Limited purchased Sea FM Townsville in Queensland and Grant Broadcasters purchased Sea FM stations in Devonport and Burnie in Tasmania. All Sea FM stations currently owned by Southern Cross Austereo except Cairns, Mackay and Rockhampton / Gladstone, are part of the Hit Network after Southern Cross Media merged with Austereo.

Triple M Hobart Radio station in Hobart, Tasmania

Triple M Hobart is part of the Southern Cross Austereo network of Triple M Network radio stations, Based in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

Hit 100.9 Radio station in Hobart, Tasmania

hit100.9 Hobart is part of the Southern Cross Austereo's Hit Network, based in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.

Star FM was an Australian radio network, consisting of Top 40/CHR formatted stations in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The brand was created by NOVA Entertainment, then known as DMG Regional Radio, in 1999, with the network being sold to Southern Cross Austereo.

Hot FM (Australian radio network) Former radio network in Australia

Hot FM was a radio network broadcasting to Queensland and Western Australia. Owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo, the stations broadcast a mix of local and networked programming. On 15 December 2016, the stations were merged into the Hit Network.

3GG is an Australian commercial radio station based in Warragul, Victoria owned by Capital Radio Network. Formerly owned and operated by Resonate Broadcasting and prior, RG Capital and Macquarie Regional RadioWorks, it was acquired by the Capital Radio Network in February 2015.

91.9 Sea FM Radio station in Maroochydore, Queensland

91.9 Sea FM is a commercial radio station licensed to, and serving the Sunshine Coast and surrounding areas. It broadcasts on 91.9 MHz on the FM band from its studios in Maroochydore. It is owned by EON Broadcasting, and is sister station to 92.7 Mix FM.

hit93.1 Riverina Radio station in New South Wales, Australia

2WZD, which is branded as hit93.1 Riverina, is an Australian radio station that transmits on 93.1 MHz FM and is owned by Southern Cross Media.

Central Queensland's Triple M is a commercial radio station broadcasting from Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia. It is currently owned by Southern Cross Austereo and broadcasts an Adult Contemporary (AC) format. It features both locally produced content & nationally syndicated content. They have two repeaters, one at Gladstone (95.1FM) & Mount Murchison (101.1FM). It was previously known as '101.5/95.1 Sea FM' until it was rebranded as Triple M in December 2016, alongside many other Southern Cross Austereo stations. It is a part of the Triple M - Greatest Hits network.

90.9 Sea FM is a radio station on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It is part of Southern Cross Austereo's Hit Network, and is also the network hub for the regional Hit Stream, broadcasting shows at times from 9am - 12am across the Hit Networks across Australia.

Triple M Riverina MIA Radio station in New South Wales, Australia

Triple M Riverina MIA 963 is an Australian radio station in New South Wales. Owned and operated as part of Southern Cross Austereo's LocalWorks network, it broadcasts a classic hits format to Griffith, New South Wales and surrounding areas. The station launched on 14 September 1936, and marked only the second commercial radio station to launch in the Riverina. The station was formerly operated by DMG Regional Radio, Macquarie Regional RadioWorks, and Southern Cross Media Group - and broadcasts from studios in Griffith alongside sister station hit99.7 Riverina MIA.

4RO is an AM radio station broadcasting to Central Queensland from Rockhampton, Queensland on 990 kHz.

hit103.1 Townsville is an Australian commercial radio station in Queensland. Owned and operated as part of Southern Cross Austereo's Hit Network, it broadcasts a contemporary hit radio format to Townsville, Queensland. First broadcast in 1932 as 4AY on 890 kHz AM, changing to 891 kHz in 1978. The station operated under call-sign 4RR from 1987 until, in 1994, the station relaunched on the FM band as active rock-formatted Hot FM. At the time, the station was owned by Rural Press - later sold to dmg Regional Radio, then Macquarie Regional RadioWorks and Southern Cross Media Group.

hit Central Queensland is a radio station in Central Queensland part of the Hit Network. The station is owned by Southern Cross Austereo.

Hit South Queensland Commercial radio station in Queensland, Australia

hit South Queensland is an Australian commercial radio station broadcasting to South West Queensland and the Darling Downs. Owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo, the station broadcasts a contemporary hit radio music format with a local breakfast show based from studios in Toowoomba.

Hit Western Australia Radio station

hit is an Australian commercial radio station broadcasting to regional areas of Western Australia. Owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo, the station broadcasts a contemporary hit radio music format with a breakfast show based from studios in Perth, Western Australia.

References

  1. ↑ "Neilsen Survey #1 2012 Central Coast" (Press release). Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  2. ↑ "Official Web Site" . Retrieved 2 March 2010.
  3. ↑ "The Big Brand Flip Completed". 14 December 2016.
  4. ↑ "News Article". Central Coast Star. 22 August 1989.
  5. ↑ "News Article". Central Coast Sun. 23 August 1989.
  6. ↑ "Country Television Services Limited". Delisted.com.au. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
  7. ↑ Sea FM Ltd(RG Capital AU) acquires Coast Rock FM,2GO FM(Seven Ne) from Seven Group Holdings Ltd (1996/07/10) - Thomson Financial Mergers & Acquisitions - AlacraStore.com Sea FM LTd., RG Capital Australia, acquires Coast Rock RM 2GO, FM Seven from Seven Network
  8. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Regional Radio Submission-Source-Government of Australia
  9. ↑ AsiaPulse News, 17 December 2002
  10. ↑ DMG Financial Announcement
  11. ↑ Macquarie pays $194m in radio deal -
  12. ↑ Macquarie Media takes stake in Southern Cross -
  13. ↑ Macquarie Media Group Announcement -

Coordinates: 33°25′23″S151°23′58″E / 33.422935°S 151.399348°E / -33.422935; 151.399348

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.