About Triple M Limestone Coast

Triple M Limestone Coast

Triple M Limestone Coast is the rock-and-sport commercial radio station of Mount Gambier and South Australia's south-east, broadcasting on 90.5 FM as the regional member of Southern Cross Austereo's Triple M network. The station carries one of the longest continuous histories in Australian regional radio: it began as 5SE on 963 AM at 7:30 pm on Saturday, 3 July 1937, and remained on the AM band for 86 years before switching to FM in August 2023. Today it pairs the Triple M network's rock music, comedy and AFL coverage with a fiercely local breakfast show hosted by Ewan Grant — a 25-year veteran whose audience doubled in the 2024 ratings.

Overview

Triple M Limestone Coast programs the Triple M network's mainstream rock format: guitar-driven music from classic rock through contemporary releases, framed by the network's signature sports-entertainment brands — Triple M Breakfast with Ewan Grant, The Marty Sheargold Show, The Rush Hour with Bernie Vince and Jarryd Roughead, and Triple M Footy. The local breakfast show is the station's point of difference: while much of the schedule is networked, Ewan Grant's locally presented breakfast gives the Limestone Coast a daily dose of regional news, sport, interviews and humour. The station broadcasts on 90.5 FM across the Mount Gambier licence area and streams through Southern Cross Austereo's LiSTNR platform. Its audience is the Triple M heartland translated to regional South Australia: rock fans, sports lovers and the 25–54 demographic, in a market where the station competes directly with its own sister station, SAFM Limestone Coast.

History

5SE Limestone Coast was switched on at 963 AM at 7:30 pm on Saturday, 3 July 1937 — one of the pioneering regional commercial stations of the pre-war era, bringing commercial radio to the south-east of South Australia. Through the mid-20th century the station was the region's commercial voice, carrying the network programs of the day alongside local content. The transition to the Triple M brand came with Southern Cross Austereo's ownership, and the station became 963 Triple M — remaining, unusually, on its AM frequency long after most regional stations had converted to FM.

The FM switch finally came in 2023. That August, Triple M Limestone Coast moved to 90.5 FM, with the 963 AM frequency ceasing transmission on 7 August 2023. SCA's head of regional content Blair Woodcock framed the move as continuity rather than rupture: "Being a part of this community's rich history over the past 75 years hasn't disappeared because of the switch to FM; this transition now means we can continue to engage and connect with the community for many decades to come." Limestone Coast general manager Patrick O'Donnell promised listeners that all their favourite Triple M shows and music would be at the new FM home — with the improved audio quality FM delivers.

The ratings vindicated the move spectacularly. In the 2024 Xtra Insights Mount Gambier survey — the first in two years — Triple M surged 9.8 points to 19.8 per cent as the station listened to most, taking second place behind sister station SAFM and overtaking ABC South East SA. It was the only station in the market to grow its overall 10+ audience. Ewan Grant's local breakfast show literally doubled its audience, from 9.3 to 18.6, and the station's cumulative audience grew by more than 50 per cent — 5,600 new listeners. Woodcock credited the AM-to-FM conversion and the local content: the combination, he said, had "clearly struck a chord with our audience." Together, SCA's two stations gave the company the #1 and #2 positions in the market, reaching 35,800 people weekly — a 65.2 per cent reach.

Programming

The Triple M Limestone Coast schedule blends network and local. Triple M Breakfast with Ewan Grant is the flagship local program — a 25-year institution whose 2024 audience doubling testified to its connection with the region. Around it sit the network's major brands: The Marty Sheargold Show, The Rush Hour with Bernie and Jars, and Triple M Footy — the AFL coverage that is central to the network's identity and particularly resonant in football-mad regional South Australia. The music policy is mainstream rock: classic rock staples, 90s and 2000s guitar music, and contemporary rock, programmed to the Triple M template. Local news, sport and community information are woven through the day, with the breakfast show carrying the bulk of the region's daily conversation — the school closures, the football results, the agricultural news and the community events that make regional radio indispensable. In a market the size of Mount Gambier, the breakfast host is a civic figure as much as a broadcaster, and Grant's 25 years in the role have made him one of the region's most recognised voices.

Coverage and Audience

Triple M Limestone Coast broadcasts on 90.5 FM across the Mount Gambier and Limestone Coast licence area of south-eastern South Australia — a region of volcanic plains, vineyards, forestry and fishing towns stretching from the Victorian border to the Coonawarra — with streaming extending its reach through the LiSTNR app. Its audience is the region's rock and sports community: the 25–54 demographic, skewing male, that forms the Triple M heartland — farmers, tradies, small-business owners and sports fans across the south-east. The 2024 survey figures — 19.8 per cent station-most-listened-to, second in the market, with the breakfast show at 18.6 — describe a station on a steep upward trajectory, capitalising on the FM conversion to challenge the ABC and close the gap on its sister station. In a market of Mount Gambier's size, the station's local presence — its breakfast host, its community involvement, its regional news — is the difference between a network relay and a local institution.

Ownership

Triple M Limestone Coast is owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo as part of the Triple M network, with SAFM Limestone Coast as its Mount Gambier sister station. Southern Cross Austereo is one of Australia's largest commercial radio operators, and its dual-station strategy in Mount Gambier — contemporary hits on SAFM, rock and sport on Triple M — gives it the #1 and #2 stations in the market and a 65.2 per cent weekly reach. The station operates under a commercial broadcasting licence from the Australian Communications and Media Authority. The ownership history reflects the consolidation of regional Australian radio: from independent origins as 5SE through successive owners to its current place in a national network — while retaining, through Ewan Grant's quarter-century on breakfast, a local voice at the heart of the schedule. That combination — network scale with local soul — is the formula regional commercial radio has settled on, and in the Limestone Coast it is delivering the #1 and #2 stations in the market.

Digital Presence

The station streams live through Southern Cross Austereo's LiSTNR platform, which carries the full Triple M Limestone Coast schedule alongside podcast catch-up of network shows — breakfast highlights, Rush Hour episodes, footy coverage — and the broader SCA podcast library. Social media channels promote the station's programs, competitions and community involvement, with the local breakfast show's content shared for the regional audience. For a station that began on 963 AM in 1937, the journey from the AM dial to the smartphone app spans nearly nine decades of broadcasting history — and the 2023 FM conversion, with its dramatic ratings dividend, suggests the audience is following the station across every platform.