1 September, 2010 -  WE HAVE NOW CHANGED BROADCASTING FROM 90.5FM TO 101.7FM - 6SEN Capital Community Radio is now a stronger, clearer signal for your reception in the Perth metropolitan area.  On 1 September, we commenced our new permanent community radio licence on 101.7MHz, replacing our low power permanent 90.5 licence, relinquished on 31 August.

Initially we are able to give you Capital 101.7FM transmission from Wireless Hill in Ardross, where we currently transmit on 90.5FM, (Wireless Hill is also the location of our station studios).  The transmitter location is expected to change some time later on to Walliston in the Darling Range, once other issues are resolved for us by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).  At Wireless Hill we are therefore restricted in how much power we can transmit, however we have been able to start at double the power we were transmitting on 90.5FM, and will gradually raise the power, thus increasing the coverage of the Perth metropolitan area with good quality signal - we hope this will over the coming months be able to reach a level of 10 times the power we had on 90.5FM.  When we move our transmission ultimately to Walliston, we can potentially treble that power level yet again from the limit we have at Wireless Hill.

REMEMBER - FROM 1 SEPTEMBER, 2010, CAPITAL 90.5FM  HAS BECOME  CAPITAL 101.7FM

We now look forward to great things with our ultimate coverage for the Seniors of the entire Perth metropolitan area on CAPITAL 101.7FM, prgressively increasing over the coming months.

13 July, 2010 -  CAPITAL 90.5FM  TO BECOME  CAPITAL 101.7FM  ON 1 SEPTEMBER, 2010 - 6SEN Capital Community Radio is very pleased to advise that we will at last be changing to our new permanent community broadcasting licence on 101.7MHz on 1 September, 2010.  Thus we will finish transmission on 90.5MHz at midnight on Tuesday, 31 August, 2010, at which time the current temporary broadcaster on 101.7MHz (Country 101.7) will also cease broadcasting on 101.7MHz.  At 12.01am on Wednesday 1 September, the Capital Community Radio broadcast program with then begin on 101.7MHz.

11 July, 2010 - LotteryWest grant approvel advice - funds to provide painting, replacement furniture and miscellaneous other costs for building renovations in preparation for the Digital Studio Equipment Upgrade project, which will follow immediately the above works and replacement carpeting is completed.

5 July, 2010 - Wireless Hill for 101.7FM - the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has approved the broadcast transmission site for 101.7FM at Wireless Hill.  This is an interim arrangement to allow Capital Community Radio to switch from 90.5FM to 101.7FM as soon as practicable.  Our final preferred location for 101.7FM transmission is on the Darling Range, giving full quality sound throughout the Perth metropolitan area.  Broadcasting from Wireless Hill will give a much greater coverage of the metro area, but not all at full quality, however technical difficulties that ACMA need to have resolved to their satisfaction at our chosen Darling Range site (in Walliston) could mean considerable delay in us being able to reach our full audience in the metro area with a quality signal.  We are working to assist resolving the problem along with the other parties involved, to expedite our 101.7FMtransmission relocation to Walliston.

24 June, 2010 - Digital Radio Broadcasting - advice from the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA), who are project managing the cooperative effort to bring digital radio transmission to the full metro coverage community radio stations in Perth (including Capital Community Radio, soon to be on 101.7FM), that we should expect to be transmitting on DAB+ digital radio very soon after we move to 101.7FM.  DAB+ digital radio will also be full Perth metropolitan area coverage.  The studio end digital audio conversion equipment has already arrived at our station, ready for installation.  The community station transmission multiplexor for Perth stations will be at the NEW10 (TV channel 10) tower site in Walliston, and is scheduled to be installed over the third quarter of 2010.

31 May, 2010 - Community Broadcasting Foundation grant approveal for transmission equipment - funding of has been gratefully received for equipment required to allow Capital Community Radio to broadcast on 101.7FM.  This includes part funding for a transmitter priced at $47,000 plus GST, and a quality antenna.

31 May, 2010 - Radiothon 2010 raises another record - just over $20,000, for the first time, has been raised in the 2010 Radiothon, conducted for the first time from a Monday morning to Saturday lunch time, and held as usual, during May.  Another tremendous effort from our loyal band of listeners to "The Golden Years of Radio".

18 May, 2010 - AN UPDATE OF PROGRESS WITH THE NEW DIGITAL STUDIOS (FUNDED BY A LOTTERIES WA GRANT), THE MOVE TO FROM 90.5FM TO 101.7FM (FOR FULL PERTH METRO AREA COVERAGE) AND DAB+ DIGITAL RADIO BROADCASTING AS WELL, ALL FOR CAPITAL COMMUNITY RADIO IN 2010:

(a) DIGITAL STUDIO EQUIPMENT UPGRADE:  work in the current studios building alterations is still underway with delays caused by various hurdles to overcome, and we moved on 18 April to a temporary on-air studio whilst our contracted broadcast engineer and volunteer station technicians begin the task to replace our very old studio technical equipment.  This will include modern state of the art digital studio equipment, including digital studio control desks in our studios.  Our modern vinyl record turntables and digital CD players will naturally be retained, and we will have three studios instead of two in the station premises at Wireless Hill Park.  Two of the studios are for on-air use (what you, as listeners, hear), the third studio is for production use.  The temporary studio is in the station premises, to be used over the coming months whilst those new studio rooms are built and the digital studio equipment and separate equipment racks room are installed.

(b) MOVING FROM 90.5FM TO 101.7FM:  planning has been underway since very soon after ACMA announced us as the successful applicant for the 101.7FM frequency last November, currently now being used on low power by one temporary licensees, Phoenix Radio for country music. Current expectations by ACMA will allow us to move to 101.7FM around August of 2010.  However a lot needs to be done, as we will also need to shift our transmitter equipment location from Wireless Hill Park in Ardross to the Walliston in the Darling Range, and with the studios remaining at Wireless Hill, provide a program link between Wireless Hill and the transmitter location.  Costs have been agreed and an agreement reached on 26 April, 2010 for a site in Walliston, and quotes accepted to allow purchasing link and transmission equipment costing between $55,000 and $80,000 (giving us considerable savings on our budget which is a little over $100,000) in total installed.  This equipment is not "off the shelf", requiring some time for delivery, once ordered in June, 2010.  The concluded agreement with the particular Darling Range radio mast operator has obtained the best financial and technical outcome in gaining access to an existing mast in the hills for our transmitter equipment.  It will also help contain future maintenance costs by providing full access to the site for our volunteer technical staff, and remote electronic access to the equipment for operational and fault finding purposes.

(c) DAB+ DIGITAL RADIO BROADCASTING:  Capital Community Radio has been advised that because our 101.7FM change from 90.5FM will bring us full Perth metropolitan area coverage, digital broadcasting will commence on our station once we have moved to 101.7FM, not before, with both our 101.7FM and digital radio broadcast (the same programs) then covering the same area.
In December, 2009, Capital Community Radio, because of its success in gaining the 101.7FM frequency, was added to the previous 2009 grouping of the other six Perth full metro area coverage community radio stations to benefit from a recent Australian Government funding agreement.  This is to provide for these stations to also broadcast in the new DAB+ Digital Radio format (listeners will require a DAB+ Digital radio to hear the broadcast, however the FM broadcast will continue indefinitely).  The studio end digital audio processinhg equipment is now scheduled to arrive at our station by the end of May, and is expected to be installed in some time later, whilst the transmission facility is being installed with that of all other stations, on the TEN10 (channel 10) mast at Walliston (on the Darling Range).  It is now estimated by the coordinating body for the community radio digital broadcast rollout that the digital format for Capital Community Radio will commence in October, sometime after our change to 101.7FM.