Transmission
96FM transmits on 96.1 MHz across Perth and surrounding areas. It currently transmits on the Perth Radio Services tower adjacent to the Channel 7 tower in Television Rd, Bickley. Its ERP is 40KW omni-directional, which is the standard of the commercial FM stations in Perth. As well as covering Perth, 96FM can be heard as far North as New Norcia, South to Waroona and East to Northam. The studio itself, however, is located at 169 Hay Street, East Perth.
Previously the studios were located at 111 Wellington St East Perth from 1983–1998. Before moving over to Wellington St the station was located on Terrace Rd East Perth. 1980–1983.
Originally when the station first went to air in 1980 the transmitter facilities were shared with the STW9 tower. However the advent of mobile phone networks, problems associated with site crowding plus the impending launch of 6PM & 6KY onto FM led to the establishment of the Perth FM radio group site.
The programme is fed over a microwave link from East Perth to Bickley. Each of the FM stations on the site has an STL collection dish. The feed is picked up, decoded, and then fed into an exciter. At this point the 19 kHz sub audio pilot tone is injected. This enables FM receivers to show the 'FM Stereo' light as 'on'. Then after leaving the rack in the hut, the signal is fed into a combiner. In this way the transmission facilities are shared at the tower and the antenna array.
As a standby measure the stations can feed programme over a 128k/bit ISDN link using a broadcast codec. However data charges on ISDN make this uneconomic to do full time.
96FM is also available on DAB+ Digital Radio in Perth.
Read more about this topic: 96fm (Perth Radio Station)