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10 March, 2010 - AN UPDATE OF PROGRESS WITH THE NEW DIGITAL STUDIOS
(FUNDED BY A
LOTTERIES WA GRANT), THE MOVE TO FROM 90.5FM TO 101.7FM (FOR FULL PERTH
METRO AREA COVERAGE) AND DAB+ DIGITAL RADIO BROADCASTING AS WELL, ALL FOR CAPITAL
COMMUNITY RADIO IN 2010:
(a) DIGITAL STUDIO EQUIPMENT UPGRADE: work in the current studios
building alterations is still underway with delays caused by various
hurdles to overcome, and we're not far from moving to a temporary on-air
studio whilst our contracted broadcast engineer and volunteer station
technicians begin the task replace our very old studio technical
equipment. This will include modern state of
the art digital studio equipment, including digital studio control
desks in our studios. Our modern vinyl record turntables and digital CD players
will naturally be retained, and we will have three studios instead of
two in the station premises at Wireless Hill Park. Two of the
studios are for on-air use (what you, as listeners, hear), the third
studio is for production use. The temporary studio has been prepared
in the station premises, to be used over the coming months whilst those
new studio rooms are built and the digital studio equipment and separate
equipment racks room are installed.
(b) MOVING FROM 90.5FM TO 101.7FM: planning has been underway
since very soon after ACMA announced us as the successful applicant for
the 101.7FM frequency last November, currently now being used on low power by
one temporary
licensees, Phoenix
Radio for country music. Current expectations by ACMA will allow us to
move to 101.7FM in the middle of 2010. However a lot needs to be
done, as we will also expect to need to shift our transmitter location from
Wireless Hill Park in Ardross to the hills (on the Darling Range), and
with the studios remaining at Wireless Hill, provide a program link
between Wireless Hill and the transmitter location. This all
entails gaining quotes and then purchasing link and transmission
equipment costing between $70,000 and $100,000 in total installed, and
this equipment is not "off the shelf", requiring some time for delivery.
We have almost concluded our discussions with the various Darling Range radio and TV
mast operators to obtain the best financial and technical outcome in
gaining access to an existing mast in the hills for our transmitter
equipment.
(c) DAB+ DIGITAL RADIO BROADCASTING: in December, 2009, Capital
Community Radio, because of its success in gaining the 101.7FM
frequency, was added to the previous 2009 grouping of the other six Perth full metro area
coverage community radio stations to benefit from a recent Australian
Government funding agreement. This is to provide for these
stations to also broadcast in the new DAB+ Digital Radio format
(listeners will require a DAB+ Digital radio to hear the broadcast,
however the FM broadcast will continue indefinitely). It is
currently expected test transmissions in digital format will commence in
May, 2010, and also cover the full Perth metro area.
12 November, 2009 - CAPITAL 90.5FM TO MOVE
TO 101.7FM: The Australian Communications & Media
Authority (ACMA) announces Capital Community Radio (CCR) as the
successful applicant for allocation of the permanent community licence
on Perth RA1 - 101.7MHz, thus providing CCR with the opportunity to have
full coverage of the Perth metropolitan area. CCR will relinquish
their current Perth RA2 - 90.5MHz licence to take up the new licence,
approx. mid 2010, once procurement, installation and commissioning of
the required technical equipment is completed, and the agreements
necessary for the transmission mast/tower location are finalised.
A red letter day for the volunteers and listeners to Capital 90.5FM.
Click here for the full media announcement by ACMA. The
Seniors of all the Perth metropolitan area can now look forward to "The
Golden Years of Radio" on air on their radios. Live streaming on
the Internet to the world will of course continue.
July, 2009 - LARGE GRANT APPROVED TO CCR BY
THE WA LOTTERIES COMMISSION: LotteryWest WA has
approved a grant of a little over $136,000 to allow Capital 90.5FM to
completely upgrade studio equipment to the latest digital operation, and
providing two "on-air" studios and one "production" studio, in lieu of
the current single "on-air" and single "production" studios.
Technical equipment will also have its own enclosed and secure room.
Building alterations will be required internally and a temporary studio
will need to be created in our same premises away from the current
studio area building and technical works. It is hoped to begin the
works prior to Christmas 2009.
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