The Australian Communications and Media Authority is seeking public comment new radio services in the Bundaberg and Kingaroy regions of Queensland. The ACMA is proposing a new community station for Bundaberg and NewsRadio services in the areas.
Proposed licence area changes are:
- ABC Parliamentary News Network/NewsRadio national broadcasting service at Wide Bay on FM frequency 97.7 MHz, with a maximum power of 10 kilowatts;
- Remove the planned but non-operational national FM frequency 97.7 MHz at Murgon from the Kingaroy licence area plan (LAP) to make it available for the ABC NewsRadio service at Wide Bay;
- Make FM 96.3 available, with a maximum power of 200 watts, for a new community radio service at Bundaberg in the Bundaberg LAP;
- Change the transmission site and increase the maximum power to 500 watts of the existing community radio broadcasting service 4WHO at Yarraman in the Kingaroy LAP.
ACMA also proposes to create a new licence area, Bundaberg RA2, for the new community radio service and to increase the size of the Yarraman RA1 licence area to reflect the changes in the technical specifications of the 4WHO service at Yarraman.
The NewsRadio proposal stems from a Commonwealth Government commitment to extend this ABC service to all transmission areas of Australia with a population of 10,000 or more.
The proposed changes are contained in the draft variations to the Bundaberg and Kingaroy radio licence area plans on the ACMA’s web site.
Closing date for comments on the proposals is Friday 24 December 2010.