I’m not sure (the info I was passed on didn’t indicate), given SRN already have a presence at Soma it might be one of the other sites
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This is probably one for @TV-Expert , but didn’t 2AY try and get an FM repeater for Corryong? 97.3 I think it was. This frequency now used at nearby Tumbarumba for an ABCFM relay.
If they activated Corryong, 2AY could use 94.9 as the TCBL on that channel (Revival Time Radio) is long gone.
No movement on the Braidwood translators for GN/Eagle, either. I’m guessing that they’ve done the sums and decided against it.
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I think they decided they couldn’t compete with the mighty Braidwood FM 88.9!
Yes 2AY wasn’t on air on 97.3 when I passed through Corryong last year. Hit and Triple M were though (on 95.7 and 96.5).
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I passed through in January and it wasn’t on, and never has been to my knowledge. RTR 94.9 shut down in 2011.
On Braidwood FM, we had to move to 88.9 in order to upgrade to 2 kW; we couldn’t have 2 kW on 94.5 because of the 2EC conversion. 88.9 is a much better frequency anyway- even before 2EC used 94.5, fBi would have caused havoc in many parts around Braidwood.
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Agree, I can now receive it when there is tropo, I never received it when it was on 94.5
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Looking through the old ABA & ACMA sites, I can’t find anything about 2AY proposing an FM translator for Corryong.
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I’m sure I read it somewhere, but if you can’t find it, it probably didn’t happen!
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I’m sure I read it too somewhere, so I don’t think we are imaging things, but I can’t find it on the ACMA site either or in any of my saved Excel transmitter list files.
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Would 2AY bother to be competitive or still be a 3AW relay if they converted to FM?
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I was thinking that yesterday too, that they might be tempted to flip 2AY to MIXX or EDGE when they go FM.
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However 3AW programming is very popular on 2AY apparently. A few years ago I recall they did remove Tom Elliot’s afternoon show at the time and there was an uproar.
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2AY is a distant fourth - no matter how vocal the Elliot fans are, you’d easily blow the station up in favour of an Edge/Mixx format.
That, or actually program for a format gap in the market…
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I’ve been thinking about some of the conversions that have already been approved, since Bill Caralis died I’m not sure the SRN ones will go ahead now or anytime soon if the kids are sensible & thinking about selling the network?
Lets take Armidale for an example, multiple FM sites to cover the licence area for 2AD which essentially came about because Bill didn’t pay his site rental costs, so the owners said no you’re not putting anything else here & he had to look elsewhere, they current plan is not efficient in any way, unless you’re not going to pay any future bills, you’d be better off keeping the AM (which I think you would be anyway) or going back & doing it properly.
Now if the kids decide to keep the SRN network & pay all the bills, I’m sure the site owner of the current FM100.3 transmitter would be more than happy to host a 2AD FM transmitter, & thus the mishmash of what’s planned now wouldn’t be needed, also if they plan to sell the network & I was a potential buyer had they already converted 2AD to FM with the planned setup, I’d either deduct a lot of money for my offering, or straight out say I don’t want Armidale stations included in my purchase of the network as ongoing operationally it would cost me a lot more to run the multiple transmitters across multiple sites, than it would running 1 FM or AM transmitter at 1 site with maybe 1 translator somewhere around town & the same goes for other towns with similar proposed conversions for similar reasons.
If I was the Carails kids, I’d hold of any changes to the network & wouldn’t be asking ACMA for any conversion planning until I’d fully decided what I wanted to do with it, keep it or sell it, & if I was going to keep it, am I going to pay all my bills going forward, if I was going to sell it I’d leave it up to the new owners to decide do they want to convert to FM & if so they can have the expense of doing it, or if I was going to keep it & pay my bills, I’d go back & negotiate with the current FM site owners to add another station at that location & then go back to ACMA & re-plan the FM conversion.
Expending money to convert places from AM to FM then short to medium term selling the network off, isn’t going to make you more money or value the network any more than it already is, especially if the conversion has been done poorly, like some of the proposals are, or as we’ve seen the AM to FM conversion doesn’t even match the sister FM service/coverage, let alone replicate the current AM coverage.
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3SH was the same. They actually had Len Johns come in for an hour between 5 to 6am so they could take drive from 3aw and still meet local content requirements. From memory 3SH actually outrated Mixx Fm in the last survey. So talkback was very well received saying that Jacqui Felgate taken over drive killed afternoon talkback like many people on here I would prefer music and that’s what we now get
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You’d think they would have had a pretty good idea of what they would do before Bill died anyway, they would have known this was coming.
In a way, I’d like to see them keep it but take a different approach to what Bill did and be prepared to invest in talent and facilities and want to be competitive.
It would be kind of boring if SCA or ARN bought the stations.
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I disagree on this one. If ARN bought it, it would be good for the radio industry as it will give them a similar number of regional stations as SCA, and it will make them more competitive on a national scale.
Also, they would stream all their stations on the iHeartRadio app as well as the RadioApp and most likely switch the talk stations to the regional Pure Gold format, whilst honouring any live sport commitments that have already been put in place for the remainder of their contracts with AFL nation for example.
It would be good for Newcastle as it would give listeners the Power FM and regional Pure Gold format, hopefully with an FM conversion for 2HD. They would have to sell the 2 Muswellbrook stations; possibly Ace, Capital or Resonate would pick these up.
It would be good for Sydney as 2SM would probably be sold to Ace, bringing the Magic format to Sydney.
Gympie/ Noosa would benefit as 4GY would have to be sold, again possibly Ace, Capital or Resonate would be in the running for this one.
The Gold Coast would also benefit with the Radio 97 translator on 104.1 FM possibly taking the AC format (similar to River 94.9) with Hot Tomato taking the Hot AC format , and Hot Tomato Gold taking the regional Pure Gold format, it would give Gold Coast listeners and advertisers a new format.
You would think if ARN entered the Newcastle market, they might also decide to launch DAB in the second biggest city in NSW, with a similar line up as the Gold Coast, which would be a boon for listeners and the industry.
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Come in’s a bit of a stretch. It was voice tracked, probably the previous day (or Friday for Monday morning).
Scale doesn’t achieve anything for listeners - if anything it means they have more ways to gain economies of scale by making everything generic.
The best of SRN is the local programmers doing what they can in a market - BRock being left alone for example puts out a very good station, while by all reports (as they don’t stream for me to know first hand) lots of the FM super network stations have very strong local workdays before needing to join the network.
The bean counting side of the industry would be happy for more consolidation - but you’d almost certainly get situations where there’s a reduction in the unique formats in a market.
FM conversions throw a bit of a spanner in - talk formats surviving on AM makes sense - there’s not much else that works, and it’s hard for AM music formats to be competitive, unless your competitors shoot themselves in the foot like ARN in Brisbane… But once you have an FM station, it’s much easier to make a call to group that into common networked music formats.
SRN’s converted stations retaining the AM network content is kinda a weird outlier, which I can’t imagine survives an acquisition. They are possibly the only stations which had their motivation for conversion being just cost savings, rather than a desire to increase audience with FM friendly formats.
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Not saying it was never voice tracked the night before but on many occasions it was clearly done in the morning some examples appogising for the news not playing out correctly or mentioning recent weather events. Take it he was a breakfast announcer on a metro radio station at 6am he was probably their anyway preparing breakfast content for Magic 1278
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A stronger competitor to SCA would be good for listeners and also for advertisers.
Whether you like or not, consolidation is here to stay so we can’t pretend that it isn’t or shouldn’t be. It also doesn’t mean radio is any worse, as there’s plenty of good and better content and music now than there was 20 years ago, when there was less consolidation IMO.
An ARN or Nova expansion would benefit regional listeners too, as they will have 2 music stations in small regional towns to choose from, rather than just 1 poorly run music station. For example a Power FM and 2ST would be a better combo than say a Real FM and a talk station for over 65s. How is that any choice?
Having a local breakfast show followed by networked content from 9am to midnight is fine , if the music and content is good, and there is state-wide news at the top of the hour. One station for classic hits and the other for AC or Hot AC.
Also, BOG are not interested in streaming their stations online, so no one can listen to them outside their coverage area and they don’t participate in ratings which is a silly cost-cutting measure IMO. Having 2SM in new ownership with a music format (for example a Magic format if Ace were to own it) would be better for Sydney listeners and advertisers.
The Gold Coast and Newcastle listeners would also benefit big time with a change in ownership and format of Radio 97 and 2HD , to music, for example and having them available to stream on the Radio App or online.