Stereo 974

3WRB Stereo 974
City	Melbourne West
Broadcast area	Tottenham
Frequency	97.4 MHz FM
Format	Community
Language(s)	English, LOTE
ERP	200 watts
Owner	Western Radio Broadcasters Ltd.
Sister stations	None
Website	Stereo 974

Stereo 974 (call sign: 3WRB) is an English language pop and Languages Other Than English (LOTE) station in western Melbourne, Australia. It broadcasts on 97.4 MHz. It commenced broadcasting in the mid-1980s. Western Region Broadcasting was changed to a corporation structure with a Board of Directors and membership but was fraught with problems and the committee was brought before the then Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal, Mr. Peter Westaway at Naura House in the first instance and later at the Brimbank Council offices. When the Station Management and ABT agreed on new regulations, Western Region Broadcasters began providing local area broadcasting once again. ^[1]The original committee consisted of Noel Grieg (President), David Sharpe JP (Vice-President), Anthony Cerantonio, Trudy Burke, George Eliades (Technical Engineer) and approx 200 members. The station started at a 40' shipping Container in Duke Street, Braybrook later moving to the West End Market in McIntyre Road, Sunshine and finally, under the new Management of Rod Boyd, to its current location at 594 Geelong Road, Brooklyn.

History

The radio station commenced transmissions under the original callsign "3WRB", with an original coverage area including the present Melbourne West RA1, Werribee RA1 and Melton RA1 sub-metropolitan licence areas.

A split in management in the early 1990s saw the station temporarily change its on-air identity to "B-97", and feature mainly dance / top40 music. Intervention by the then Australian Broadcasting Authority set conditions for the continuation of the licence, including a restructure of management and programming.

Following on from there, the radio station was under the 3WRB banner once again. After many years of continued stability, the radio station publicly relaunched with a music / ethnic focus under the brand name "Stereo 974".

Programming

Daytime programmes from 08:00 to 18:00 (8 in the morning to 6 in the evening) Monday to Friday are English language pop. Breakfast, weeknights and weekends feature non-English programming, mainly in Vietnamese.

3WRB presents over 40 hours of non-English programmes per week, for which it received grants from the Federal Government (via the Community Broadcasting Foundation) of approximately $2000 per annum per averaged weekly hour. The most recent grant round saw the station receive just under $40,000 for the six months to 30 June 2009 for ethnic programmes alone.^[2]

The station features a popular overnight programme, Truckstop, from midnight until 06:00 in the morning every day of the week, with extended country music programming until 08:00 on Saturdays and 10:00 in the morning on Sundays. The programme includes all the best from classic to new country, rockabilly and trucking music. The programme is computer playlist generated, with occasional recorded voiceovers from station General Manager and Truckstop host, Rod Boyd.^[3]

Stereo 974 is also extremely proud to present the world's longest running Beatles radio programme Let It Be Beatles each Monday night 22:00 - 24:00 (ten in the late evening until midnite). Let It Be Beatles has been on air continuously every week since September 1992, presenting rare recordings, news, Fab chat and lots of fun with regular hosts Graeme Dickenson, Gary Lally and Greg Armstrong.

Rise FM

One of the most memorable shows on 3WRB was Rise FM, started in June, 1993, and co-founded by Melbourne-based DJs Evan Spencer and Nathan George. It was a two-hour radio show that played electronic music from the underground rave and club scenes, as well as briefly discussing raves and aspects of the rave / techno music culture and upcoming events. It ran in this format from 22:00 hrs. (10 in the evening) on Thursday nights until the mid-1990s and included a range of regular co-hosts who would drop in and say hello. It also featured 45-minute live mixing sets from local and international DJs that were visiting Australia at the time. A lot of sexual and drug-related innuendo was included in the discussions between music which was part of its wide appeal to its Melbourne audience. Rise FM later moved to Kiss 90 FM as an overnight show retaining Evan but also featuring DJ Hellraiser regularly.

Coverage area

ACMA Coverage Area Map

References

Radio stations in the Melbourne and Geelong markets

AM and FM stations with an asterisk are also available on digital ¹Lion FM and Surf City Sound timeshare on 1674 AM

AM stations	ABC Radio National 621* 3AW 693* 774 ABC Melbourne* 3CR Melbourne 855* RSN Racing & Sport 927* ABC NewsRadio 1026* SEN 1116* Vision Australia Radio 1179 SBS Radio 1224* Magic 1278* 3CW 1341 (Geelong) 1377 3MP* 3XY Radio Hellas 1422 3KND 1503* Rete Italia 1593 Vision Radio Network 1611/1665 3CW 1620AM Program ACR Chinese Radio 1629 2ME Radio Arabic 1638 Rythmos 1656 Radio Haanji 1674 The Greek Radio of Australia 1683 Islamic Voice Radio 1701

FM stations (Melbourne wide)	Light FM 89.9* SYN 90.7* smoothfm 91.5* 3ZZZ 92.3* SBS Radio 93.1* Nova 100 (100.3)* KIIS 101.1* Fox FM 101.9* 3RRR 102.7* 3MBS 103.5* Gold 104.3* Triple M 105.1* ABC Classic FM 105.9* PBS 106.7* triple j 107.5*

FM stations (local)	3ABN 87.6-88.0 (various) Kiss FM 87.6-88.0 (various) Middle Eastern Radio 87.6 (Essendon) Surf FM 87.6 (Frankston) J-Air 87.8 (St. Kilda) Southern FM 88.3 (Mentone) Plenty Valley FM 88.6 (Yarrambat) WYN FM 88.9 (Werribee) KIX Country 89.3 (Geelong) 93.9 Bay FM (Geelong) 3WBC 94.1 (Box Hill) UGFM 94.5 (Kinglake) 94.7 The Pulse (Geelong) Joy 94.9 (Melbourne CBD) 95.5 K-Rock (Geelong) Golden Days Radio 95.7 (Caufield) 96three FM 96.3 (Geelong) 96.5 Inner FM (Heidelberg) 3MDR 97.1 (Emerald) Stereo 974 (97.4) (Brooklyn) Casey Radio 97.7 (Cranbourne) 979fm 97.9 (Melton) Eastern FM 98.1 (Croydon) OKR FM 98.3 (Kilmore) RPP FM 98.3 (Frankston) / 98.7 (Mornington) Apple FM 98.5 (Bacchus Marsh) North West FM 98.9 (Glenroy) Yarra Valley FM 99.1 (Woori Yallock) 3NRG 99.3 (Sunbury) Vision Australia Radio 99.5 (Geelong) Flow FM 106.3 (Healesville)

Digital only stations	ABC ABC Country ABC Jazz ABC Grandstand ABC Extra Double J Triple J Unearthed Australian Radio Network Chemist Warehouse Remix Pure Gold '80s Pure Gold '90s The Edge Digital Macquarie Radio Network NTS NOVA Entertainment Koffee Coles Radio Pacific Star Aussie Digital KOOOL RSN Racing & Sport RSN Carnival RSN Carnival 2 TAB Live SBS Radio SBS Chill SBS PopAraby SBS PopAsia SBS PopDesi SBS Radio 3 SBS Radio 4 Southern Cross Austereo Buddha Radio Kinderling More Digital Stardust Triple M Classic Rock Digital Community 3MBS Digital LightDigital SYN Nation

By call sign	3AK 3AW 3CR 3CW 3EA 3ECB 3EE 3FOX 3INR 3JOY 3KKZ 3KND 3LO 3MBS 3MEL 3MMM 3MP 3NOW 3PB 3PBS 3PTV 3RN 3RPH 3RRR 3SBSFM 3SCB 3SER 3SYN 3TSC 3TTT 3WRB 3WYN 3UZ 3ZZZ

Previous and aspirant stations	3AB 1116 3BM 1341 3MGR City FM 94.9 Hitz FM 89.9 Kiss 90 FM (89.9) Pulse 95 (94.9) Lion 96.1 / 1674 MTR 1377 Barry Radar NovaNation

Australia Radio Markets Adelaide Brisbane Canberra Darwin Gold Coast Hobart Melbourne Newcastle Perth Sydney See also List of radio stations in Australia

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, April 11, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.