I have to say, I’m 100% plus, behind the ABC on their thinking of conversions.
I’m also supportive of everyone (except CRA & ARN’s) thoughts, on the conversions being short term gains for commercial radio, but not in the best interests of other non-commercial broadcasters, due to lack of FM spectrum & other reasons including, but not limited to matching AM coverage & conversion costs, or even necessarily listeners best interests.
Midwest Radio 2LT/MoveFM, really told ACMA what they thought of them & I totally agree with all of what they said.
I notice SCA didn’t put in a submission, though they don’t really have many Regional AM services to convert to FM now, so they probably don’t care?
I agree with 8SAT, that there’s too much FM spectrum already reserved or used by the ABC, with multiple overlapping Triple J & Classic FM services, & with 8SAT wanting the power levels of many of those services turning down, because they are overpowered compared with the other stations, commercial & otherwise in the areas.
To be honest, it looks like another case of commercial radio pushing for these conversions to gain access to more valuable FM spectrum & really shut out any other person broadcaster from operating competition in the markets, & much like commercial radio being given the DAB+ VHF spectrum for free, commercial radio wants these AM-FM regional conversions, to gain valuable FM spectrum for free, instead of having to bid for it at auction.
I’m surprised that they applied to convert 5SE Mt Gambier but seemingly not for 2WG Wagga Wagga. I would have thought they’d want both Wagga stations on FM, as they do in most other NSW regional areas.
I agree. It could be argued that the AM signal helps them better reach the out of town audience, but the recent rating suggest that audience would be minimal. Commercially, they’d gain far more from being on FM than they’d lose in the small audience that wouldn’t get FM as well.
1152 AM doesn’t really get out that far. 93.1 is comparable.
963 on the other hand, once 5SE clears off they’ll essentially be a clear channel down that part so they’d be mad to convert it.
I’ve received 963 in daylight in Shepparton before.
2WGs signal is not great outside of the Wagga area in my experience, certainly to the south towards towns like Henty and Holbrook. Hit on 93.1 has a better signal by comparison so think this would be an example of a conversion that has minimal loss of reach (and if anything slightly improved reach).
As far as DRM/DRM+ goes, we need a clear and decisive decision and soon if it’s to have any chance of success. Even now is probably 5-10 years too late. The best chance of success in my view would be to reserve the 64-87Mhz band for DRM+ and then open it up to one and all, freely issuing licences to whoever is interested.
DAB+ was never a good technology for Australia between the reception constraints, lack of SFNs to provide spectrum efficiency and also having to share a band with Digital TV. Unsurprisingly that was the technology we went with given the power and influence of Commercial Radio Australia, given that it was the technology that best protects incumbent broadcasters and raises significant barriers to entry for new players. I fear though we are stuck with it now whether we like it or not.
Especially the bit about AM signals helping reach the out of town audience. In my experience the reach of AM is exaggerated these days. Reception of AM commercial stations in my region like 4GY and 4BU is abysmal and doesn’t match the reach of their local commercial FM counterparts by a long margin. Perhaps super high powered ABC AM stations might still have an advantage in remote areas but even 612 in Brisbane isn’t receivable with any clarity beyond Caloundra - and both FM and DAB reach there.
The thing that strikes me about this whole consultation, particularly as it pertains to DRM, is that it’s 10 years too late. ACMA should have had a plan to replace AM a LONG time before this.
I agree. The same could be said here with 4CC and 4RO. I get 10kms out of Rockhampton and the commercial AM stations sound like crap. Some areas around Australia really need to convert there AM stations to FM.
I’m amazed that the commercial industry generally, despite this change being desired by them has not bothered to make a submission and relies on the fairly simple CRA submission.
This whole thing is simply corporate welfare - any other benefit is minor in comparison
No Government Agency will tell you whether the written submissions carry any weight - that just invites the cranks and people with too much time on their hands. There are a lot of reasons why you may choose to ignore a public submission (and that’s not necessarily to benefit industry)
They should at a minimum be compiling a publically accessible submissions report that summarises and provides a response to the submissions (even if it’s dismissive of them)
SDRs in Melbourne receive 2RG Griffith during the day there as well. But in Geelong I used to get a listenable signal from 5SE all day - I wonder if that will change when the latter turns off?
963 is a mess of a frequency with 4WK as well as those two sharing it on the eastern seaboard. One or more stations vacating it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.
Yeah 4WK can’t run single tower at more then 500w without smashing the absolute shit out of 2RG’s off air monitoring at night and early mornings.
I am talking from experience here when I was working at 4WK and we had a spark gap issues and had to isolate one of the towers we were running 1kW and had a call from the early morning announcer saying all he could hear in his off air monitoring was 4WK almost noise free… Crazy stuff
500W? That’d hardly do much for the signal across the Downs. It’s already pretty weak, to the south especially - I pretty much couldn’t hear it at night on the Granite Belt in my visits down there.
