Sea FM 101.5/95.1

4RGK is a radio station in Central Queensland, broadcasting as Sea FM. The station is owned and operated by Southern Cross Austereo.

History

4RGK began test broadcasts in Rockhampton and Gladstone in September 2000, and officially launched as Sea FM in October 2000, broadcasting to the Rockhampton area on 101.5 FM and the Gladstone area on 95.1 FM.

When the station was launched, it was owned by RG Capital Radio, which already owned the existing Rockhampton AM station 4RO.

A rival radio company, DMG Regional Radio, also launched their FM station in Rockhampton at the same time, with Hot FM beginning transmission in Central Queensland. RG Capital Radio and DMG Regional Radio both successfully bid for the FM licenses in 1998, eventually leading to the simultaneous launch of the two competing stations in 2000.

Unlike Sea FM, which began broadcasting a 'live and local' format between 5am and 6pm, Hot FM heavily relied on networking their daytime programming from their hub in Townsville. In 2005, RG Capital Radio and DMG Regional Radio merged to become Macquarie Radioworks, and the two rival stations became stablemates. The merger also meant that the two AM stations 4RO and 4CC were also owned by the same company, and as a result had to be offloaded and were later sold to Prime Television.

Since the original merger, a number of other mergers have occurred which has affected Sea FM's formatting. Macquarie and Southern Cross Broadcasting merged to become Macquarie Southern Cross Media, then Macquarie Southern Cross merged with Austereo to become Southern Cross Austereo. Since Sea FM became part of Southern Cross Austereo, the station is now considered to be part of the Triple M Local Works stream to be aligned with the network's metropolitan Triple M stations.

Sea FM's music format has varied since its launch, with the station currently playing a mild classic hits format with some new music included, much similar to the music format of Triple M. Sea FM's programs mainly originates from the local Rockhampton studio at the Rockhampton Media Centre, although some programming originates from 4TO FM in Townsville and Gold FM on the Gold Coast.

Sea FM also broadcasts a local news service, with a Rockhampton-based journalist reading local news during the breakfast show at 6:30am, 7:30am, 8:30am, and then during the morning programming at 10am and 11am. All of the other news bulletins are provided by Southern Cross Austereo newsrooms in either Townsville or the Gold Coast.