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

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

station broadcasting to the Central Coast region from

Gosford Gosford is a waterfront city at the northern end of Brisbane Water on the Central Coast in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Gosford Waterfront is known for its boating and scenic views on the shores of Brisbane Water. Gosford is ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, 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 Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

in the south, to

Morisset Morisset ( ;) is a commercial centre and suburb of the City of Lake Macquarie local government area in the Hunter Region, Hunter region in New South Wales, Australia. Morisset is a part of the Greater Newcastle area, it is located west of the l ...

in the north, however fortuitous coverage into most areas of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, parts of the Blue Mountains and

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

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 (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

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 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

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 Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (; born 8 May 1975) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He started his recording career in the mid-1990s on the Mexican label Fonovisa where he released three Spanish albums ''Enrique Iglesias (album), Enrique ...

was flown into the station's studios in Erina by helicopter for the launch, along with the inaugural breakfast team of

Meshel Laurie Meshel Laurie (born Michelle Laurie 29 May 1973) is an Australian podcaster and author. Comedy career Laurie's first Melbourne International Comedy Festival show was ''Dairy Belles'' which she performed with Corinne Grant. In 1998 she was gr ...

and Todd Widdicombe. The first song played on the station was "Not In Love" by

. 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

leaving the station.

Vic Davies ''Club Veg'' (initially called ''The Morning After Show'') was an Australian radio show created and presented by comedy duo, Vic Davies and Mal Lees (with writing contributions in the early years from Stephen Quinn). The show began on Triple J ...

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 is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

among other genres.

Current format

Star 104.5's current "More Music Variety" positioner 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.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

from the

1980's File:1980s replacement montage02.PNG, 335px, From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, '' Columbia'', lifts off in 1981; US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ease tensions between the two superpowers, leading to th ...

to today. As of mid-2021, the station played an average of 12 tracks per hour, comprising three songs from the 1980s, three from the 1990s, and the remainder from the 2000s and 2010s. During 2023, the amount of older music in the playlist was reduced, and in early 2024, the station dropped music from the 1980s entirely. The station runs many popular promotions such as

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists in hist ...

'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 r ...

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

Audience reception

In the 2017

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. Between 2017 and present day, Star 104.5 has consistently performed well on the Central Coast. In 2022, Star 104.5 was the Number 1 Station for All People aged 10+, with every show on the station also Number 1 for All People aged 10+. In 2023, the most recent radio ratings for the Central Coast saw Star 104.5 again secure the Number 1 position for All People aged 10+, a full 3.4 points ahead of their nearest competitor. Xtra Insights Central Coast Survey, 2023
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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 for radio, Internet and television stations. History RCS was founded in 1979 by Dr. Andrew Economos. The idea for RCS and its first product, Selector, ...

, and is programmed using the "G-Selector"

music scheduling system Music scheduling systems are employed to sequence music at radio stations. Although these systems were originally implemented by manual index card methods, since the late 1970s they have exploited the efficiency and speed of digital computers. They ...

. 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 statisti ...

audio format.

Current Lineup

Weekdays: * Early Breakfast with Meg Alexander (5:00am to 5:30am) * Star 104.5 Breakfast with Gina & Matty (5:30am to 9:00am) * Adam Price (9am - 3pm) * Meg Alexander (3pm - 7pm) * More Music Variety Overnight (7:00pm to 5:00am) Saturdays: * More Music Variety (12:00am to 6:00pm) * Saturday Night Party Hits (6:00pm to 2:00am) Sundays: * More Music Variety (2:00am to 6:00pm) * Gina and Matty Podcast Show (6:00pm to 10:00pm) * More Music Variety Overnight (10:00pm to 5:00am) The weekend and early breakfast programmes are hosted by a range of presenters.

Current Management

* Market Lead: Paul Moltzen * Program Director & Music Director: Shayne Sinclair * Audience Engagement Director: Lauren Montgomery * Creative Director: Matt Lygo

Past notable on air members

* Todd Widdicombe – 92.7 Mix FM *

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 Kent Andrew "Smallzy" Small (born 16 April 1984) is an Australian radio presenter on Nova FM. Career Small started his career at age 19 at Star 104.5 on the New South Wales Central Coast. After spending two and half years working with NOV ...

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

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

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