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The Australian Radio Network continues to thumb its nose at the "two stations in a capital city market" policy by aggressively marketing The Edge 96.1 as a Sydney station (this Sydney Tower "wedding" is a prime example) when they already own WSFM 101.7 and MIX 106.5 in the same market.
The licence for The Edge 96.1 vests in Katoomba, 90 minutes by road to the west of Sydney. Its transmitter is at Wentworth Falls, only a few minutes less distant from Sydney, but with the advantage of being well elevated, thus giving signal penetration into the Sydney metropolitan area.
Any pretence by ARN that they operate The Edge 96.1 as the regional station its licence demands has long since been abandoned. It is marketed as a Sydney station, targeted at a youth market via a hip-hop music genre that narrows its appeal even further, and is clearly aimed at more than the geographic area its licence covers.
When is ACMA going to address this flagrant misuse of this regional licence as a de facto third Sydney licence?
While on the score of ARN and their seeming nose thumbing of ACMA, why have they been allowed to "horde" available Sydney FM frequencies at Winmalee (99.1) and Camden as translators?
These issues need addressing by ACMA before they become so entrenched that they are simply accepted as having been historically tolerated. That is, unless the horse has already bolted.
The people of the Blue Mountains and Penrith deserve to have their radio station back.