Bay went off the rails a bit in recent years, Krock did too but I think their new breakfast team is pretty good. It’s the cost cutting and only a few regular jocks that sucks the life out of it, especially Bay which has gone super old sounding with their jocks in recent years.
New Geelong studios, running only the best in broadcast quality software… Audacity.
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Janet: Sandles, we need to keep watching our pennies, is there any way we can tighten our budget?
Sandles: Mrs Cameron, we’re already using freeware for our computers.
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Actually if you saw the ridiculous user-based pricing that Adobe has gone for with Audition - it’s not really affordable anymore. It’s basically about $400 per user per year. When you have a station with a bunch of users, it adds up pretty quickly.
You’ll probably see Audition disappear from a lot of radio stations in the next 12 months, replaced with offerings like Ocen Audio or Audacity.
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I think that’s more a reflection of the ruthless desire/need for companies to cut costs with little regard for the impact it has. It might sound a lot on it’s own, but it’s really a drop in the ocean when you consider that those users are being paid tens of thousands of dollars a year, and other software they use has price tags not too far behind.
While the cheaper/free alternatives may be sufficient for casual users who just need to record and slightly edit a short grab for playback later, it won’t be a good day once professional level tools such as Audition start disappearing from production studios.
I think you’ll find the majority of the work being done on Audition in an on air studio is quick edits of interviews and the like. A couple of guys might use it for jingles and stuff, but that would be the exception not the rule.
When you consider we used to be able to own a copy of Audition for $500 per studio, and we now have to pay in some locations several thousand dollars a year for the same product, I’d say it’s more a cash grab from Adobe rather than broadcasters trying to cut costs.
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http://www.abc.net.au/reception/
Test Transmissions in Maryborough, Victoria
The ABC has been advised by Grant Broadcasters that GOLD Central Victoria (98.3 FM) will be conducting test transmissions using changed technical operating specifications from Tuesday 3 April through Wednesday 11 April 2018. Maryborough residents are asked to please contact the ABC Reception Advice Line on 1300 13 9994 if you experience any degraded reception when listening to ABC Radio (107.9 FM), ABC Classic FM (105.5) or triple j (107.1 FM) during the test period.
So, how did this go for Gold?
Improved coverage in the vicinity of the FM 98.3 translator?
Where’s the ACMA documents on this or is it not needed?
And I don’t get why Grant would be advising the ABC of this… Are they anticipating impacts to ABC radio reception? I can’t think what to though.
if you change specs, you have to advise all others of the change. It’s part of the ACMA guidelines to manage interference.
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I meant that I thought the ACMA would be the ones responsible for advising other broadcasters.
That way other stations know that the change in specs are ACMA approved.
For broadcast radio, the licensee broadcasts a message on air and public notice in a newspaper connected to the area.
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What technical spec did they change? Polarisation or ERP?
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Don’t know @NRN11, would’ve been none the wiser if not for ABC notification.
No variation to LAP, so not on ACMA site. Can only think they weren’t up to full spec and now are or are closer to it.
If anyone in Bendigo or the network knows, please contribute.
The Bendigo LAP was updated in April 2017 to increase the allowed height of the 3EL Bendigo service from 40m to 90m, and increase the max ERP from 100W to 250W.
My bet would be that they’ve begun work on implementing these new specs, potentially testing a few different configurations to determine what works the best.
The follow is a submission made by Grant Broadcasters in 2009 seeking the change due to coverage problems within Bendigo.
http://archive.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib310879/grant_broadcasters-submission_revised_draft_lap-bendigo_radio.pdf
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Heh…we use that in school…
Maybe Janet needs to do a deal with Adobe and get a network license. That, and make 2NM and Power FM’s streams sound a lot better…not like they’ve grabbed a radio and fed it into their software using the Line In/Out ports.
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They’ve got that problem with streams in a lot of places. The biggest problem is that they’re sending them out of the stations at horribly low bit rates so that they won’t drop out over their ADSL connections, which as we know are sub-standard in a lot of regional areas.
Oh, I thought they’d just put a USB microphone on a cue speaker… 
Just blow those 2 up and start again.
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No, then we wouldn’t have any radio stations that actually serve the Upper Hunter…or any media. I wouldn’t know how long the Argus/Chronicle/Advocate are going to run in its current form, if any. If SCA or Caralis buy the Grant stations (heaven forbid), I can see 2NM being rebranded into 2HD or KOFM and Power FM becoming New FM or (S)Hit FM. I’m surprised ABC Upper Hunter hasn’t been shifted across from Newcastle to Tamworth, the rural report has in some form. That leaves Scone.com.au, and even then it’s focusing on ONE town.
Sorry, if you think we rednecks don’t need anything local and have Newcastle and Sydney stories shoved straight up our collective arse, but we DO need 2NM and Power FM to still be around, given the lack of options out there. Even if they’re not the best run stations out there, I wouldn’t say there are any Australian media organisation being run properly either.
Just fix up the streams, they sound atrocious.
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I wouldn’t worry about either of them buying up 2NM/Power FM, as the Muswellbrook commercial radio licence area has a 30%+ overlap with the Newcastle commercial radio licence area, meaning that they can’t buy the stations. So 2NM/Power FM are in safe hands from being bought by either SCA or Caralis. 
It is also for the same reason on why 2NM is not eligible for an AM-FM conversion unlike with most other regional solus markets.
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