I agree with the comments around SBS being on FM. I am not sure if SBS radio is really needed in this day and age (having two stations) with the internet and DAB available. 97.7 FM could be used for local radio in Sydney, Newsradio could potentially switch to 702 AM.
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Agree. And also noting that the SBS stations are on Digital TV as well. I didn’t realise SBS Radio had 2 frequencies in Sydney, I’m pretty sure there’s only 1x FM station in Brisbane on 93.3
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SBS Radio 1 is on 1107 AM and 97.7 FM for SBS Radio 2.
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The thing is that while many would welcome a switch to FM, they are unlikely to call / text. Whereas those against it will let their feelings known, skewing the discussion towards the status quo.
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I wondered this too, whether they’d feel compelled to muck with the format upon an FM conversion as many of the commercial stations did years ago. Even a subtle shift towards some more music in certain shifts might be a good move.
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It would be an excellent move.
IMO the ABC needs to step in and fill a gap that the commercial stations are starting to abandon - adult music aimed at over 40s and 50s. And I don’t mean Double J, which is far to obscure and sounds exactly like triple J to me.
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Listening to the old Clive Robertson air checks on 2BL they played a lot a music during breakfast compared to today. This was in the late 70s. It would of been a great listen.
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How strong is the coverage of Gold Coast FM stations like 91.7 in Brisbane? Maybe they could replace the Gold Coast relays of ABC Classic and Triple J with ABC Radio Brisbane and Radio National.
Great in some areas, but pretty poor overall.
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Not sure if you’re suggesting that the Gold Coast could do without the ABC Classic and JJJ relays. They are needed as the Mt Cootha signal isn’t good enough on the coast.
I’ve previously suggest that the News Radio stations in SEQ and NNSW could be moved to a synchronised signal on 94.5. That would see the 95.7 Gold Coast News Radio move and the Mt Nardi News Radio swap with Local Radio on 94.5 and add to the signals from Sunshine Coast and Cooloola coast. Given the signal is mono and it isn’t a high fidelity station any mush areas should be tolerable and there is always 936 available. That would free up 95.7 for Brisbane which is a frequency that matches in with the Brisbane band plan. It also works because there is no difference in daylight saving for News Radio.
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Gold Coast’s ABC stations are all already on FM. If they removed ABC Classic from the Gold Coast, it would be to make room for additional ABC stations in Brisbane to move to FM.
The only issue is if ABC news Radio wants to carry different sporitng events in the Gold Coast and Brisbane e.g. AFL vs. NRL or different matches. Does this ever happen?
Both Brisbane and Gold Coast have DAB which is usually used to carry alternative sporting events.
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That is an excellent idea. Possibly even 90.1 could also be freed up for Brisbane or for the Gold Coast community station 94.1, if RN was on a synchronised signal on 96.9 from NNSW to the Gold Coast, and potentially, even Brisbane, as it would be 0.4 mHz away from Family 96.5 and KIIS 973. That would be much more efficient.
Then you could also make 94.1 available for another ABC conversion in Brisbane.
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The problem with other ABC stations being synchronised is daylight savings makes it a problem to synch with Mt Nardi.
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News Radio is the only ABC station that could become a SFN with no format changes. I don’t think they do local sport breakouts these days? There are no local inserts or considerations for DST
Classic has state based news in Breakfast and is time shifted for DST.
RN also has state based news and I think is time shifted too?
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Yes to both
That’s not a big issue. They make references to the different time zones at the top of the hour and they could sync the schedule with NSW. Not many people are listening so I doubt they’d get too many complaints.
You could probably also get away with it for ABC Classic FM, syncing with NNSW on 95.3, freeing up 88.5. They have less than half the listeners of Triple J on the GC, so in the big scheme of things, not too many people would care if it also ran to the NSW schedule.
88.5 could then potentially become a new frequency for RN in Brisbane if ABC Classic FM on the Sunshine Coast was synced to Gympie on 93.7.
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Does this sync approach work for FM? Or lots of mush? This is where dab is superior. It’s a shame dab hasn’t become mainstream. Just feel that since America going HD radio is part of the issue.
The lower bits for me is a turn off( for me) with music radio. If they stuck with 64k and above, then much better. Anyway, this has been repeated so many times here. So, back to my question: Is this much of a big issue for stereo transmission? Does tropo kill it? Example 90.9 FM on the central coast for NewsRadio would be a no brainer. Then for Newcastle. Potentially for Sydney too if they move Alive FM ?
I don’t think RN does. At least when I used to listen to breakfast, it was just “it’s 8 o’clock” before the news. So you’d need to adjust programming to run it live, that or the time calls would be an hour out.
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AM to FM is an interesting proposition for my home town of Hobart.
Obviously we have all the ABC services being a capital including DAB. We also have SBS FM.
With the mountainous terrain AM does very well, and covers Southern Tasmania adequately.
I think the biggest issue might be actually finding 3 spare FM frequencies the ACMA would be happy to allocate.
From my understanding Hobart only has one recognised free allocation, 103.3.
3 into 1 doesn’t go. And you might be thinking 1 free, how many stations does Hobart have to be full….Big Mountains and big power on FM….plus lots of little repeaters around the place….And don’t get me started on community stations taking up allocations when 1 city wide FM would be more appropriate.
For the Hobart ABC’s to go FM will take some significant work to get things sorted….
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