I don’t think it matters. Richard Wilkins and David Campbell both know a lot about music but they very rarely use that knowledge on Smooth.
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thats coz they cant deviate from the script wriiten for them by the program team
If Trevor Sinclair has ended his association with 2CH (which sadly wouldn’t be something that would surprise me after the departures of Rob Duckworth, Kayley Harris, Bob Rogers and Cherie Romaro), then one wonders if Tim Webster & Chris Kearns will eventually part ways. Or do we think the sports broadcasting histories of both announcers are enough to keep them somewhere within SEN/2CH?
Either way, I’m probably going to stand by my earlier prediction of 2CH eventually becoming an announcer-less station on DAB+ even if there may still be voices heard on there during the early part of 2021.
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Sad state of affairs. The main reason radio works v streaming audio is the listeners fall in love with the announcer/presenter *non-sexual
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Yeah, I wish they would give them a little bit more scope, control some music etc.
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2CH or lets say the former 2CH is 89 today.
I have my doubts it’ll make it’s 90th in any form. 
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An early photo.
Source: The Daily Telegraph, 11 Feb 1932. NLA Trove.
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I still remember the 80th birthday and the special edition of “The 9 O’Clock Special” with Mardi Cole. The very beginning of the end for 2CH was probably the (re)launch of 95.3FM as Smooth not long after this.
Sadly, I agree.
Remembering that 2CH got 5% during its final survey on 1170AM, you have to wonder where the station may be now (I suspect, potentially starting to give Smooth & WSFM a run for their money) if SEN didn’t buy the station and flip it over to sport.
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The promise that 2CH may have become a successful DAB+ only station has sadly died after the release of Sydney’s first Digital-only survey for 2021.
Hopefully the numbers will stabilise in coming surveys, but I won’t be holding my breath.
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I think some factors of the downfall as digital station.
- Changing from 9B to 9A gave a free kick for 2ue. It meant people became aware of 2ue.
- The sound quality decline. In my view they should of made SEN 1170 32k mono and Niche 32k mono then 2ch stick to 64k. The sound even at 48k is average. Not loud, or a full sound. The change in studio to North Sydney is when I noticed this. The post I did RE 2SM vs SEN audio for the same show on the AM Band also illustrates the sound quality of whatever SEN uses for 1170 is a bit inferior to 1269.
- The stuffing around of 4A error code is probably what killed it the most. Its does impact coverage adversely.
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Did anyone really expect 2CH to continue to exist in its current form? Has any DAB+ only station ever actually succeeded in Australia?
My guess is the mature age listeners simply realised it’s easier to switch to 954AM than to download an app and churn through mobile data.
There’s enough clutter with radio, Spotify and internet radio as it is. Don’t try reinventing the wheel 2CH.
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Yeap that’s what some older family friends of mine did and I expect a lot of other former 2CH listeners did as well.
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Or Croc could do Paul Thompson at SA FM did for FM, give away of radios with digital radio.
Digital is cheaper and simpler than mobile data, no ongoing costs. Sounds much better than AM.
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Why would they have to download an app? If they don’t have a DAB radio?
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How else are they going to listen to 2CH if they’re not sitting at a desk with a computer?
It’s only on DAB+ or online.
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I know that. I was posing a question as to why it would be “easier to move to 954 rather than download an app”, when the obvious solution is to listen via DAB.
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The obvious solution is to turn the dial on your existing radio down from 1170 to 954 AM, then you don’t have to do anything, (install an app or buy a new DAB radio).
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They did a give away on the Facebook but not to any scale. I think if they were serious they would of made it bigger, make sure the audio is stable and quality great and have an advertising campaign on TV too/ some billboards promoting we are still here.
I think it was really only a half hearted effort (overall). I can understand as the core business of SEN is not the 2CH music format.
I also question the survey too. I am not sure how easy it is. It feels like voting for the senate at the federal election and you have to vote under the line for DAB stations (given the sheer number of DAB stations). If you really know person you will find it (ie voting analogy), but maybe for the normal punter they look above the line and not find 2CH any more. One day I hope I get a survey. It will be mostly (other for me 
)).
I wonder how other AM performed? Did it go up? People may still think 2CH DAB is an AM station?
A dial? Exactly how old are these wirelesses?
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Should we really be that surprised there wasn’t a major promotional push for 2CH’s move to a digital-only station? Unlike the FM stations which routinely go all out with billboards and TV ads, 2CH have rarely splashed out on such campaigns in recent decades.
Also further proving just much of Sydney’s media seemed to barely know that 2CH even still existed, the stunning lack of any stories from newspapers and TV news bulletins about Bob Rogers’ retirement last October compared to what they did for Alan Jones a few months earlier.
We should’ve seen the broader Sydney media make a massive deal about how this guy who’s been on radio for 78 years has decided to call it a day, but there was barely any mention of it outside industry circles.
If the DAB+ surveys have stations listed in numerical/alphabetical order, you’d imagine that 2CH would be at or near the top.
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