All 3 of Perth's ABC AM stations will be moving to FM in 2026.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-12/abc-radio-stations-in-perth-will-move-to-fm-in-2026/106121114

AM (medium wave) has always been a problem in Perth due to the difficulty of getting a good ground plane in the sandy soil. So coverage has always been sub-optimal.

They must have plenty of unused space in the FM band there.

Unlike in Sydney where the band is chockers from end to end.

The ABC move in WA requires the Community station that I volunteer at moves to 88.9 to make space for ABC on 102.5 100Kw which is moving their AM 720 which is currently on 60Kw to FM band.

It is unknown as to HOW ACMA allocated 102.5 to KCR over 20 years ago as its in the middle of the FM band and the policy is that low powered stations occupy the upper and lower ends of the FM spectrum leaving the mid section. for stations over 2Kw.
This I believe is so to allow auto tuning receivers to FIND low powered stations which they can never do IF located adjacent to a high powered station.

The Perth spectrum does NOT have many vacant slots so its now quite hard to secure a FM licence in the Perth RA1 plan.

The implications of the ABC going to 102.5 has also meant that 2 country stations up the coast being Lancelin and Green Head (I think) need to move OFF 102.5 as the ABC will flood them on 102.5 100 KW.

KCR had 16 weeks OFF the FM band due to mismanagement by the local Council kicking KCR of the their old tower which KCR had used since 2016 with Council staff utterly unaware of the ACMA regulatory requirements to re-locate a transmitter. KCR was given 2 weeks to find another spot which was impossible as negotiations with other likely looking tower owners taking weeks and weeks and then failing to produce another site.
KCR kept going by hiring a EWP to hold the array aloft so the tower could be bowled over..the hire fee of that was around $22K and Council gave KCR 6 months to find another site which did not happen so we went silent for 16 weeks until we found another nearby site that had a unused pair of dipoles which we could use.

Whilst that was going on the Frequency change reared up and that has complicated things even more as KCR needs a 4 week minimum Simulcast on 102.5 with a recorded loop advising KCR listeners that KCR has MOVED to 88.9 so we needed another site to do that and found a solution nearby whilst our new approved location has antennas mounted on a 30M tower and a weather proof A/C free standing cabinet is set up to take the transmission gear.

Whilst KCR was silent on the FM band the Lancelin station running only 200 watts was often clearly heard in Perth at times so one could only imagine what 100Kw would do to them.

6WF used to broadcast on short wave in the 19m band, and it was received here at good strength. I listened to cricket matches which were not broadcast here. Not sure which frequency was used, it was either 15415 or 15425, can't remember.

Another article: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-15/perth-am-to-fm-switch-goes-ahead/106343336

Switchover occurs on Feb 23.

Robbert,

The Short Wave broadcasts by 6WF in Perth were aimed primarily to the North of WA and put in place to provide listeners anywhere NORTH of Geraldton with some reasonable radio service and are long since gone.
The call signs were VLW & VLX. (If my memory is correct) with one at 15MHz and the other down around 9MHz and with 15 being used during the day time and 9MHz during the night.

In the 1950's communications north of Geraldton were virtually only by mans of telegrams using then Morse and as Trunk lines were upgraded steadily northwards phone calls were possible and program lines began to spread out across the vast North of WA.

Initially the upper frequency response was around 5.6kHz limited by the use of Line Filters on the open wire pairs to enable initially 3 channel voice circuits to be sent over the same pair of wires and as time progressed a 12 Channel system was also added in the spectrum used by the 3 Channel system and all were sorted out by very good line filters.

The voice circuit of the pair of wires with a 3 Channel system above were sorted by a 5.6kHz Low Pass Filter working in conjunction a 5.6 to 32kHz High Pass Filter to be able to ADD a 3 Channel system on top of a voice circuit and then when 12 channels systems arrived another filter set was installed which was a 32kHz Low Pass filter ahead of the 3 channel filter set which had a 32kHz High Pass filter the output of that went to the 12 Channel system which used the frequency band of 34kHz to 150kHz to derive another 12 voice circuits.

So that one pair of wires had a Voice circuit, then a 3 Channel system to derive 3 MORE voice circuits, then along came the 12 Channel system which derived another 12 voice circuits and those sorts of comms setups were VERY common all over Aust in the country areas and later the PMG squeezed yet another 12 channels above the earlier 12 Channel system using the band from 150kHz to 270kHz.

Many country places that had ABC transmitters ALL provided and run by the PMG then had a 5.6kHz program line and in the North of WA transmitters for the ABC were being installed and as more Voice circuits became available when the first of the 12 channel systems hit the scene 3 Voice circuits from the 12 that were provided were taken and used by a Program attachment that took the spectrum that channels 4,5 & 6 used and derived a 30Hz to 10kHz program line.

If the program line failed for whatever reason most ABC transmitters had a fall back audio source provided by a "C" type Cartridge tape which had about 1 hour of music on it and was just a overgrown 8 Track cartridge which had a cue foil to Stop it so it aways started with a voice message apologising for program interruption followed by music tracks.

But some smaller sites would fall back to an off air receiver setup with 2 receivers that were tuned to VLW & VLX from Perth and the output was controlled by a time clock setup.

The reception at times was VERY poor as far as true broadcast quality went but was better than nothing.

Nowadays it all goes to the bush via satellite feeds...how times have changed.

Kakadumh looks like your station gets a mention on the ABC.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-21/kalamunda-community-move-down-the-dial/106358500

Robert,

Yep sure did...The ABC sent 3 people to the studios taking one hour to set it all up and shoot it and then it was 1 minute on screen.

Good PR for the station though. Our Chair Roger was quite chuffed at being on ABC news.

The ABC were very good to KCR as KCR voluntarily moved to 88.9 and the ABC have been very supportive of KCR with the local Council in helping jumping through hoops to be able to move the transmitter onto one of their lighting towers at a local oval.

KCR hopes to be on that tower by March 12th when the temporary permit to use the ABC's tower nearby expires and KCR can resume full power of 200 watts ERP instead of the 50 watts currently allowed due to the height up the ABC tower (120 M UP) causing a lot of overspill beyond the licensed area of KCR.

When that is completed KCR will have a NEW home both for the transmitter and the studios and no longer be in a state of limbo as they have been since 2010.

The switch of 6WF has happened.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-23/abc-radio-perth-switches-to-102-5fm/106369210