Star 104.5 ( ACMA call sign 2GOS) is a commercial

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

station broadcasting to the Central Coast region from

Gosford Gosford is the city and administrative centre of the Central Coast Council local government area in the heart of the Central Coast region, about north of Sydney and about south of Newcastle. The city centre is situated at the northern extr ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. It is owned by

Nova Entertainment NOVA Entertainment is an Australian entertainment company that operates commercial radio networks (and associated digital brands) in metropolitan and regional areas of Australia. NOVA Entertainment is owned by Lachlan Murdoch's Illyria Pty Lt ...

. It is licensed to broadcast to a coverage area stretching from

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

in the south, to Morisset in the north, however fortuitous coverage into most areas of Sydney, parts of the Blue Mountains and

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

is also possible due to the close proximity of both markets. Star 104.5's studios are located in Erina, while the stations

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

facility is located in Somersby.

History

The station launched at 17:15 on 16 March 2004 as "104.5 Star FM", with an

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

format of "80's, 90's and Today". 104.5 Star FM was commercial free for the first week after launching, before implementing a "Never more than 4 ads in a row" promise. Enrique Iglesias was flown into the station's studios in Erina by helicopter for the launch, along with the inaugural breakfast team of Meshel Laurie and Todd Widdicombe. The first song played on the station was "Not In Love" by Enrique Iglesias. In 2006, Star 104.5 changed format from

, to Rock Variety with the position statement of "Star 104.5 Plays Rockstars". The station also had a change in breakfast team with Meshel Laurie leaving the station. Vic Davies and Kim Czosnek joined Todd Widdicombe on the breakfast show. The "Rockstars" format continued through to 2011, when Star 104.5 moved away from a pure rock format to Adult Hits and adopted the position statement of "The Music We All Love". Throughout this time, Star 104.5 still played

Rock Music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

among other genres.

Current format

Star 104.5's current "More Music Variety" format was launched in 2015, with a strong focus on

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former descri ...

from the 1980's and today. The station runs many popular promotions such as Katy Perry's $20,000 Superstar Secret,

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently re ...

's $20,000 Superstar Secret and the $50,000 Mystery Words.

Audience reception

In the 2017 Gosford radio ratings, for the first time in the station's history, Star 104.5 had the biggest audience in the region with 80,600 weekly listeners aged 10+ tuning in. In Star 104.5's target 25-54 demographic.Xtra Insights Gosford Survey, 2017
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Technology

Star 104.5 (and the wider

network) use the state of the art Zetta playout system from

Radio Computing Services RCS, originally Radio Computing Services, is a provider of scheduling and broadcast software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built ...

, and is programmed using the "G-Selector" music scheduling system. The Nova Entertainment network employ a shared music library across all stations in the group, with all music being stored in a

lossless Lossless compression is a class of data compression that allows the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data with no loss of information. Lossless compression is possible because most real-world data exhibits statistic ...

audio format.

Current Lineup

Weekdays: * Early Breakfast (5:00am to 6:00am) * Rabbit and Gina for Breakfast (6:00am to 9:00am) * Emma Murphy (9:00am–12:00pm) * Adam Price (12:00pm–4:00pm) * Hayden Else (4:00pm–7:00pm) * More Music Variety Overnight (7:00pm to 5:00am) Saturdays: * More Music Variety (12:00pm to 6:00pm) * Saturday Night Party Hits (6:00pm to 2:00am) Sundays: * More Music Variety (2:00am to 6:00pm) * Rabbit and Gina Podcast Show (6:00pm to 8:00pm) * The Best of Fitzy & Wippa (8:00pm to 10:00pm) * More Music Variety Overnight (8:00pm to 5:00am) The weekend and early breakfast programmes are hosted by a range of presenters.

Past notable on air members

* Meshel Laurie * Todd Widdicombe - 92.7 Mix FM * Vic Davies *

Julie Goodwin Julie Goodwin (born 31 October 1970) is an Australian cook, author, radio and television presenter. She came to public attention when she won the inaugural season of '' MasterChef Australia'' in 2009, defeating artist Poh Ling Yeow in the final ...

* Kim Czosnek * Kent Small *

Ugly Phil Ugly Phil O'Neil (born Phillip Surridge on 14 March 1963) is a radio DJ/announcer. He was born in the United Kingdom, and lived the majority of his life in Australia. Before adopting the on-air name of Ugly Phil he was known on-air as Phil O'Neil ...

* Dave Evans * Rod & The Flack * Alice Cooper * Jess Hardy * Craig Annis * Michael McPhee

References

External links

Official siteStar 104.5 Live

{{DEFAULTSORT:Star 104.5 Nova Entertainment Radio stations established in 2004 Adult contemporary radio stations in Australia Radio stations in New South Wales 2004 establishments in Australia