About Move FM

Move FM

Move FM is a commercial FM radio station serving Lithgow and the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, with its signal also reaching into the Blue Mountains. Broadcasting on 107.9 MHz under the ACMA call sign 2ICE, the station airs a contemporary hit radio format and is owned by the Midwest Radio Network, operating as the FM music companion to the network's heritage AM station 2LT.

Overview

The station's broadcast area is the Lithgow RA1 licence area, centred on the city of Lithgow at the western edge of the Blue Mountains, about 140 kilometres west of Sydney. Programming is in English, and the format is contemporary hit radio — current chart music aimed at a younger adult audience — complemented by local news and local stories, as described in ACMA-derived station records.

Move FM transmits from Mount Lambie with an effective radiated power of 16,400 watts, and operates a repeater on 99.5 FM at Wentworth Falls, extending its coverage into the Blue Mountains. The station's studios are located at 289 Main Street, Lithgow — the purpose-built facility that has housed the Midwest Radio Network's operations since 1974, shared with sister station 2LT.

The web address www.movefm.com.au is listed as the station's website in its Wikipedia entry. It is presented here as an attributed candidate rather than a load-verified official address, in line with this profile's sourcing policy.

History

Move FM's story begins in 1996, when the Midwest Radio Network sought and was granted a licence to establish an FM station to complement its long-running AM service 2LT. The new station went to air as KISS 95.3, broadcasting on 95.3 MHz — the supplementary FM licence that joined the Main Street Lithgow facility from 1997.

The station's early years were eventful. A frequency conflict with a Sydney station forced a change: in 2005 the station moved from 95.3 MHz to 107.9 MHz, changing its name accordingly, to accommodate the pending launch of the Sydney station Vega 95.3. In 2011 the station was renamed again, becoming Move FM — the identity it carries today.

Behind the scenes, the ownership story mirrors the turbulence of regional Australian radio in the early 2000s. In August 2002, 2LT and the FM supplementary licence changed hands and went into administration. In 2011, the original proprietor — operating as the Midwest Radio Network — took back control of the stations, restoring local ownership to the Lithgow operation.

One of the more remarkable episodes in the station's history concerns its former frequency. On 15 April 2004, Move FM's former 95.3 MHz frequency was auctioned by the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal for $106 million — one of the highest prices ever paid for a commercial radio frequency in Australia. In exchange, the Tribunal awarded Midwest two licences for additional FM frequencies and coverage areas, allowing the network and sister station 2LT to extend their reach by operating repeater and translator stations in the Blue Mountains. Technical issues delayed the activation of some of these translators, which were not expected to be fully operational until the 2020s.

The Midwest Radio Network itself dates to 1938, when it was incorporated in New South Wales and established to act as licensee for 2LT. Today the company is described as largely a management services and holding company overseeing its radio assets, with 2LT now in its ninth decade of broadcasting.

Programming and Content

As a contemporary hit radio station, Move FM plays current chart music — the top 40 hits of the moment — aimed at a younger demographic than its AM sister station. ACMA-derived records describe its programme style as "Top 40, Local News, Local Stories," capturing the standard regional CHR formula: hit music through the day, local news bulletins, and community information for the Lithgow and Central Tablelands audience.

The station operates alongside 2LT from the same Lithgow studios, and the two services are programmed as a complementary pair: 2LT carries the talk, news and classic content on AM, while Move FM delivers the contemporary music format on FM. This AM/FM pairing is a long-standing model in Australian regional radio, giving the one operator two distinct audiences in the same market.

Local content is central to the station's licence obligations. Regional commercial stations must meet ACMA local content requirements, and Move FM's local news and stories serve Lithgow — a city with a distinctive industrial heritage as a former coal mining and manufacturing centre — as well as the surrounding Central Tablelands towns of Oberon and Portland and the Blue Mountains communities reached by the Wentworth Falls repeater.

Coverage and Audience

Move FM broadcasts on 107.9 MHz FM from Mount Lambie to the Lithgow RA1 licence area, with the 99.5 FM repeater at Wentworth Falls extending coverage east into the Blue Mountains. The combined footprint covers Lithgow, the Central Tablelands and parts of the Blue Mountains — a region that includes commuter towns serving Sydney, the industrial city of Lithgow itself, and the tourist centres of the mountains.

The contemporary hit radio format targets younger listeners — typically the 18–39 demographic — making Move FM the youth-oriented commercial service in a market where 2LT serves an older audience. No publicly confirmed ratings figures are cited for this market; regional audience measurement in markets of this size is conducted through periodic surveys rather than continuous capital-city-style measurement.

The Blue Mountains repeater gives the station a presence in one of New South Wales' most populous regional corridors, where it competes for younger listeners with Sydney's FM stations whose signals reach parts of the mountains, as well as with community stations such as Radio Blue Mountains 89.1 in Katoomba. The 2004 frequency deal that created this expanded footprint — swapping the valuable 95.3 MHz Sydney-adjacent frequency for additional regional licences — remains one of the more consequential spectrum transactions in Australian commercial radio history, and its full technical realisation stretched across two decades.

Ownership

Move FM is owned by the Midwest Radio Network, the company incorporated in 1938 to operate 2LT and now functioning as a management and holding company for the Lithgow radio assets. The network's stations — 2LT on AM and Move FM on FM, plus the associated repeater and translator licences — broadcast from the long-standing studios at 289 Main Street, Lithgow.

The 2011 return of the stations to the control of the original proprietor ended a period of external ownership and administration, restoring the Lithgow operation to the company that had founded it. The network remains an independent regional operator in an era when much of Australian regional radio has been consolidated into national groups such as Southern Cross Austereo, ARN and the Super Radio Network.

Digital Presence

The station's listed web address is www.movefm.com.au, and it appears in online radio directories and streaming aggregators that carry its live signal to listeners beyond the FM footprint. Like most regional commercial stations, its digital presence centres on live streaming and social media promotion of its music programming and local content.

As Move FM, the station represents the contemporary face of the Midwest Radio Network's Lithgow operation: a hit music station born in 1996 as KISS 95.3, reshaped by frequency changes and ownership upheavals, and now broadcasting current hits to Lithgow, the Central Tablelands and the Blue Mountains on 107.9 FM — with the Wentworth Falls repeater carrying it east.