Pulse calling on community help

Jessica Benton
Geelong’s community radio station is calling for help as it prepares to lose its powerful 94.7FM frequency to the ABC.
The station wants the community to bombard Australian Communication and Media Authority with submissions against shifting The Pulse to a frequency with reduced reach.
Station manager Gary Dalton said supporters of The Pulse had only a few weeks left to object.
“We’re trying to get as many submissions sent to the ACMA as we can, from community groups to avid listeners. We’re putting a call out for people to object,” Mr Dalton said.
“All we’re asking is to retain the 94.7 frequency number and be given a permanent broadcasting licence on this frequency.
“So many people go to the government asking for money but we’re merely asking to keep what we’ve already built up.
“If we stay silent we don’t have a chance.”
The authority wants The Pulse’s frequency for the ABC to begin local radio broadcasts.
Mr Dalton said the authority planned to shunt The Pulse to 91.9, which was too weak to cover all the region.
“94.7 is a very powerful signal and it’s the last one left,” he said.
“It allows us to reach an audience of up to 500,000 people, in the southern parts of Melbourne, right down to the Otways and as far across as Ballarat and the Mornington Peninsula.
“The new frequency will stop at Little River, somewhere in Port Philip Bay, Meredith and will miss the majority of the Surf Coast and beyond.
“The Australian Communication and Media Authority are telling us that as a community radio station we only have the right to broadcast in Geelong, but we consider all these areas as part of the Geelong region.”
Mr Dalton said Geelong did not need an ABC station because the region could already pick up all the station’s broadcasts from Melbourne.
Michael Martinez, the chief executive officer of The Pulse operator Diversitat, held little hope of retaining 94.7.
“Nothing is definite but we’re not overly confident we’ll keep our frequency,” he said.
“It’s up to the Australian Communications and Media Authority but, judging from what’s been said, their preferred option is to have The Pulse moved, which we’re not happy about.”
ACMA chairman Chris Chapman defended the plan to introduce ABC local radio in Geelong and at the expense of The Pulse.
“The proposed changes are part of a broader plan to extend these ABC services to all transmission areas of Australia with a population of 10,000 or more,” he said.
“Spectrum is congested for high-power services in each of these regions and ACMA was unable to identify any vacant FM frequencies that could be used for the ABC services.
“ACMA is therefore proposing to vary the frequency of various existing services in the radio markets.”