After Sibu frequencies were launched in April 2019, Astro Radio can launch Era Sarawak, Hitz Sarawak and MY Sarawak in Bintulu.

 

Remember that Astro Radio launched Sibu frequencies for 3 Sarawak branch radio stations MY FM, Era FM and Hitz FM in April 2019?

 

In Sibu, MY FM on FM 105.9MHz, Hitz FM on 105.1MHz and Era FM on 96.3MHz.

 

After Sibu, Astro Radio can expand coverage to Bintulu for Hitz, MY and Era Sarawak branch because Bintulu is the 4th largest town in Sarawak after Kuching, Miri and Sibu.

 

About the transmitter site, Bintulu has two towers, namely Bukit Setiam and Bukit Nyabau. Both are located in different locations.

 

Bukit Setiam is located in Tatau, between Bintulu and Mukah, meanwhile Bukit Nyabau is located in Bintulu town. 

 

Here are the coverage simulation maps between Bukit Setiam and Bukit Nyabau, transmitter power is set at 2kW with 3 bay array dipole antenna (2.0dBd per bay array):

1. Bukit Setiam

2. Bukit Nyabau 

Between two transmitter sites, Bukit Setiam coverage is wider than Bukit Nyabau.

 

For radio broadcast, Bukit Setiam has the history, meanwhile none of radio stations use Bukit Nyabau as the transmitter site for Bintulu. Bukit Nyabau is only occupied for TV broadcast in Bintulu.

Bukit Setiam is used by RTM and Cats FM for radio broadcast currently.

If Astro Radio wants to launch MY (Sarawak), Era (Sarawak) and Hitz (Sarawak) in Bintulu, I would suggest Bukit Setiam as the transmitter site. From the coverage simulation map, Bukit Setiam can also cover Mukah and Selangau. So, listeners can tune to MY, Hitz and Era in Mukah via Bintulu frequency from Bukit Setiam.

About the frequencies, Bintulu has more empty slots than Miri and Kuching. Based on FM spectrum table, if me, I would nominate:

- Hitz: FM 102.7MHz

- Era: FM 104.8MHz

- MY: FM 106.5MHz

 

For the rest of Astro radio stations such as Sinar, Melody, Mix and Lite, I don't think Astro will launch them in Bintulu and Sibu, even Miri has no Lite and Mix because they are not local enough in Sarawak as they're main based (Peninsular Malaysia) radio stations. In addition, Gfk radio audience measurement survey does not count the listeners who tune to the radio stations in Sabah and Sarawak as Gfk focuses the survey in Peninsular Malaysia, so this may not help Lite, Mix, Melody and Sinar to get more listenership ratings with launching frequencies in Sibu and Bintulu. 

 

In conclusion, if Astro wants to expands its radio stations' coverage in Bintulu, same as Sibu, I believe Astro will only launch MY FM Sarawak, Hitz FM Sarawak and Era FM Sarawak in Bintulu.