About Star 101.9 Mackay

Star 101.9 Mackay

Star 101.9 — callsign 4MMK — is a commercial radio station broadcasting to Mackay and the Whitsundays in Queensland on 101.9 MHz FM from Mount Blackwood. Owned and operated by the Australian Radio Network, it plays an adult contemporary format — "Mackay's Real Music Variety" — positioned at the 25-to-54 audience between SCA's Hit 100.3 and Triple M Mackay. It launched in 1999 as 4MK-FM, became Zinc 101.9 in March 2009, and was rebranded as Star 101.9 in May 2016. The station streams on the iHeartRadio platform. No website URL is asserted in this profile's frontmatter.

Overview

Star 101.9 is Mackay's independent commercial voice — the station that has twice in the past decade upended the SCA duopoly of Hit 100.3 and Triple M Mackay. Where Hit plays today's hits for the young and Triple M plays the greatest hits for the 40-plus, Star plays the middle: 80s, 90s and now, the adult contemporary mix for the 25-to-54s who drive Mackay's economy. Its studios are at 37 Sydney Street, Mackay — relocated there from 85 Sydney Street in 2012. The station also broadcasts to Airlie Beach on 90.7, Glenden on 91.7 and Nebo on 92.3.

History

Star 101.9's history is the story of Mackay's FM revolution. In 1999, Mackay's new FM station launched as 4MK-FM with an adult contemporary format, taking the 4MK brand that had been associated since 1931 with the AM station on 1026 AM. The original AM station was renamed Easymix 1026 and relaunched with an easy-listening format. In 2005, 4MK-FM and Easymix were purchased from Macquarie Regional RadioWorks by Prime Media Group.

In late 2008, Prime launched the classic-rock Zinc brand in Cairns, Gladstone and Townsville. In March 2009, Prime announced that Zinc would launch in Mackay as Zinc 101.9 — with the 4MK brand returning to its original home on 1026 AM, replacing Easymix 1026. Zinc 101.9's local programming was a weekday breakfast show and a Saturday morning show, with all other programmes networked from Zinc 96.1 on the Sunshine Coast. In 2013, the station was sold — with sister 4MK and Prime's other Queensland radio assets — to Grant Broadcasters.

In May 2016, Grant retired the Zinc rock format and brand in Mackay and relaunched as Star 101.9 — following the same move in Cairns a week earlier. Grant's chief operating officer Alison Cameron said the company expected Mackay to welcome Star "in the same way" Cairns had, and noted that resources in Mackay had been restructured to be managed independently — "rare new on and off air employment opportunities in regional radio." Drive announcer Scott Linden moved off air to become local content director for Star and sister 4MK; breakfast announcer Rob Kidd remained in the 5am–9am slot with an 80s, 90s, now positioner across all shifts. The relaunch was backed by an overseas concert experience promotion and an increased schedule of street activity, and the new Star streamed live at star1019.com.au.

In November 2021, Star 101.9 — with the other Grant Broadcasters stations — was acquired by the Australian Radio Network, the deal finalised on 4 January 2022. The acquisition gave Grant's regional stations access to ARN's iHeartRadio platform. It was expected that Star 101.9 would integrate with ARN's KIIS Network while retaining its current name.

The 2016 relaunch's logic was demographic as much as musical. Zinc's classic rock had served the 40-plus men; Star's 80s, 90s, now variety chased the 25-to-54s — the demographic advertisers pay for, and the one Mackay's growing professional class belonged to. Grant restructured the Mackay operation to be managed independently rather than run from the Sunshine Coast, betting that local control would win a local market. The 2021 #1 proved the bet right, at least for a while.

Programming

Star 101.9 plays adult contemporary — "Mackay's Real Music Variety": the 80s, 90s and now mix, local breakfast and a Saturday morning show, with networked programming around them. The local breakfast has been the station's engine: Rob Kidd in the 5–9am slot at the 2016 relaunch, and by 2021 the Sam & Rach show with Sam Blacker and Rachel Zonta — which jumped 4.7 points to 21.3% in the 2021 survey, taking the #1 breakfast slot in Mackay. When Zonta went on maternity leave, former Power FM 949 Nowra talent Kaley Baker took her chair alongside Blacker. The format is the deliberate middle ground: not Hit's youth pop, not Triple M's blokey rock — the variety mix for the working adults of the sugar city.

Coverage & Audience

Star 101.9 broadcasts on 101.9 MHz FM to Mackay from Mount Blackwood, with repeaters on 90.7 in Airlie Beach, 91.7 in Glenden and 92.3 in Nebo — taking the signal to the Whitsundays coast and the coal country inland. Its audience is the 25-to-54 heart of the market: the workers, the parents, the business owners.

The survey history shows a station that peaked and then fought to hold its ground. In 2018, Star 101.9 sat at 12.6% for People 10+, well behind the SCA pair. By September 2019 it had climbed to 16.5%, a close third behind Hit on 23.1% and Triple M on 17.5%. The 2021 survey was the breakthrough: Star 101.9 up 4.3 points to 20.8%, the new #1 station in Mackay, with Sam & Rach's breakfast at 21.3% — the top breakfast show in the market. Blacker told Radio Today the team felt "incredibly grateful" to the listeners who had joined them at Star. But the 2023 survey brought the fall: Star down a further 2.7 points to 16.9% in the 10+, with Hit back on top at 20.6% and Triple M at 20.1%. Mackay's three-way commercial battle is among the most volatile in regional Australian radio — and Star 101.9 has been both its disruptor and its cautionary tale.

The ARN acquisition of Grant's stations in 2021–22 was one of the biggest regional radio deals of the decade — and it put Star 101.9 on the iHeartRadio platform, giving a Mackay station national digital reach. The promised KIIS Network integration, with the Star name retained, reflects ARN's strategy: local brands, national backbone.

Ownership

Star 101.9 is owned and operated by the Australian Radio Network, which acquired the station — with the rest of Grant Broadcasters' portfolio — in the deal finalised on 4 January 2022. Its licence callsign is 4MMK; the Mackay RA1 licence area's commercial licences (4MKY and 4MMK) were historically held by Barrier Reef Broadcasting Pty Ltd. Its sister station is 4MK on 1026 AM — the heritage AM station whose brand the FM station borrowed from 1999 to 2009. The station's studios are at 37 Sydney Street, Mackay.

Star's Mackay story is also the story of 4MK — the heritage AM brand the FM station borrowed for a decade, then returned. The two stations, Star on FM and 4MK on 1026 AM, remain sisters under ARN: the FM for the variety mix, the AM for the classic hits, 37 Sydney Street for both.

Digital Presence

Star 101.9 streams live on the iHeartRadio platform, giving the regional station national digital distribution through ARN's network. From 4MK-FM's 1999 launch to the Zinc years to the Star era, 101.9 has been Mackay's adult-contemporary station for a quarter of a century — Mackay's real music variety, from the sugar city to the islands.