I read that yesterday and have foregone sleep emailing him on this very matter. It’s beyond baffling, it’s incompetent to not fully utilise your resources.
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This is the audio:
Listen from 39 minutes in, only about six minutes or less of listening whilst you browse MS.
I also don’t think there’s a huge younger audience that’s hanging out for ABC Local radio that won’t listen because it isn’t on FM. It’s a case for having Triple J utilise regional opt-outs, not one for moving ABC Local to FM - you’re not going to listen to dry talkback and news just because it’s on FM - and I certainly don’t want the ABC trying to ‘FM’ their format on local radio.
If there was a plan to remove Classic FM from the FM dial, then the local FM service needs to be distinct from what is currently on AM. Let the AM station service the market it does now (or at least did before the recent shake ups trying to target younger audiences) and find the gap that isn’t being filled on the FM band - such as a BBC Radio 2 or original format Vega style of station - with key segments of local programming rather than yet another fully national feed.
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I’m definitely up for a BBC R2 format on FM. Even Double J.
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I recently had to do a large amount of long distance driving (Bris to Syd and back 5 times in the space of 2 weeks) and it baffles me there is no “frequency finder” app for the ABC suite of radio stations.
I was looking for something that uses GPS and gives a list of frequencies to try for various stations such as newsradio, local radio and radio national. As an orginisation that has a national presence i would have thought this would be an obvious thing for the travelling public. instead i was using the abc website which is not the most efficient thing to do in this case.
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A decade ago ABC used to have a mini foldable Z-card which showed all the frequencies of its radio network stations across Australia. I got one from ABC Shop at Queen Victoria Building when I was in Sydney.
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It works so well for Coast FM/91.7/ABC Gold Coast, regularly out rated by 612 despite being AM and 100km away.
Don’t settle for that, R2 or better.
Make one.
Download “Radio Guide” from the app store
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100% agree. There’s a basic frequency finder buried on an abc website somewhere, but it wouldn’t be hard to put it on the ABC listen app.
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That’s great if you have internet coverage and a device with sufficient battery. This is the problem with the ABC, the decision makers are slaves to the idea that everyone has sufficient devices and internet to use their services.
Paper has its advantages and for the ABC to cover all people, paper copy should be available.
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Lots of love for BBC2 on the forum but every time I’ve listened there’s been too much talking for my liking. Also annoying is how the DJs talk over the start and finish of songs - last week one started singing along half way through. On that occasion they were purposely playing “bad” songs.
Sorry but I love BBC R2. Occasionally a bit too much commentary but I still think it’s a gap that would work in Australia. When I’m in UK I flick between BBC R2, Magic and Absolute.
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Oddly that article link has disappeared from Radioinfo… There were 2 comments pointing out the bizarre lack of mention of DAB+ or even the ABC Listen App…
That is one of the most annoying aspects of presentation on UK radio. Why on earth do they think we want to hear the DJ babble over/sing along with songs at either end of the track.
A few DJs started doing that here too a while back. Thankfully it didn’t become widespread. Never heard it in the US.
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Radio Guide stores the database locally and works well without coverage 
However you’re right about battery though
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ABC North Tas Breakfast in Tassie was nice last Christmas. They took up my topic of Christmas advertising, especially the use of cute children to pull heart strings.
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They also have a heavy side-chained compressor on the audio that gives it the “ducking” effect on the music when they speak over it. Very UK sounding.
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I believe the excessive commentary on BBC Radio is probably a relic from when the BBC was mandated not to play more than 5 hours per day of commercial music (which slowly increased as time went by until it was abolished in 1988):
There’s also probably the argument that the BBC doesn’t want to sound ‘too commercial’ with wall to wall music, so they drag out the filler between songs.
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At one stage BBC Radio 2 was unlistenable with the amount of processing they were using. As well as the ducking side-chain device. And all the different processors would interact with each other to give a juddering effect and create their own intermod. Was so disappointed when I heard it sound like that over the air in the UK. Awful.