ABC Radio Canberra takes out the #1 spot with 15.3%, followed by Mix 106.3 & hit104.7, who tied with 14.3%, with RN not far behind with 12.2%. As for the commercial AMers, 2CA fell from 7.9% last survey to 6.6% this survey, whilst 2CC fell from 5.2% last survey to 4.3% this survey.
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Wow look at the RN results in Canberra, 2# in Breakfast ahead of the Fm stations, and strong results in drive too. IMO ABC Canberra and RN got a big boost in this survey out of the leadership spill. However it did not help 2CC or News Radio which went down in this survey.
News Radio should have stayed on AM as it is a complete waste of the 103.9 frequency. It should have gone to 2CA for an Fm conversion or auctioned off to an new entrant.
To this day it is hard to believe that Canberra has only two fm stations when similar sized markets have three, and Canberra Fm like it this way.
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Plus, Goulburn & Cooma would soon have two commercial FM stations, with 2GN & 2XL set to convert to FM sometime next year or after.
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2CA has a 7:00pm - Midnight rating of 2.3%. The cumulative audience is 6,000 yet the average audience is *. The ads must be cheap on 2CA if only a few hundred people are listening at any given time.
The Canberra market is very stale with SCA/ARN treating it like a generic regional market similar to the Central Coast.
The regional playlist, and recent changes to the Hit 104.7 breakfast lineup has seen the station loose traction in the market. This has benefited Mix 106.3 which has had less changes to it’s line up, and is programmed locally. Hypothetically if 2CA did not convert and a new entrant was on 103.9 it probably would sound similar to Star 104.5 or Hot Tomato based on the current market.
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Yes only two commercial FMs in Canberra is a bit of a joke really. Places like Mackay and Cairns have three, and Townsville four!
Not to mention Hobart, which also has three commercial FM stations.
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Yes - largest share ever for RN in any market.
Is RN on FM in Canberra?
No on Am 846khz
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Wasn’t it moved because of reception concerns affecting the AM signal?
However I agree Canberra should have at least 1 additional commercial FM (it’s 30 years since the 2 existing FMs began there?) but I guess with the cozy arrangement between ARN and SCA nothing is going to change there
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Yes, both FMs launched on 27th February 1988.
ABC Radio Canberra taking out the top spot due to the recent Liberal Leadership crisis was kind of to be expected, I think. It’s the same reason I think talkback stations in metro markets might benefit in the ratings next week, but more about that later in another thread.
Anyone else willing to predict that 2CC will (yet again) change their breakfast and/or drive presenters for 2019?
Although I get that radio stations need to evolve over time, I still don’t get why 104.7 felt they needed to make major changes around Late 2015/Early 2016 when prior to that point in time, they were #1.
While the station’s ratings fell in all weekday timeslots, what I think would be a particular concern for Hit 104.7 from this survey’s results is their afternoon figures dropping by 3.8%! The interesting thing is that the ratings at Drive only dropped 0.1% on last time, which makes me wonder if Gemma Maddox (who again, I’ve held high regard for as a radio broadcaster since her Max FM days) has somehow fallen out of favour with Canberrans after her win in the last survey.
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Also there are no available frequencies left in Canberra due to the duplication at Tuggeranong. 95.1mhz has not gone to air yet at Tuggers, so if they don’t get that to air that would be your frequency for 2CA to convert, or to be auctioned off to a new player. Having to reallocate the frequency to Canberra and 2BS converting to this frequency will mean this won’t ever happen.
Could 1CMS swapping with 2CA or 2CC be a possibility, in theory.
Without knowing the specifics I do find it hard to believe they couldn’t juggle things around to find one additional high powered FM channel in Canberra. It’s not exactly the most highly populated/congested region in Australia. Look at how many FM signals they manage in Sydney and surrounds, or in Brisbane - Gold Coast.
From memory they decided there was too much overlap in the demo appeal of both stations and decided to take 104 younger. I stopped listening to 104 about a year ago now.
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The problem is by duplicating all Canberra commercial fm / community / and national services for Tuggeranong all available Canberra frequencies have been allocated. 107.9 is allocated to Yass so it could be used for low power at Tuggeranong at best.
If 95.1 cannot be used your only option would be to move the Queanbeyan community and open narrowcast service to other frequencies such as 93.9mhz and 94.7mhz.
You then you could use 96.7 and 97.5 for a 20KW commercial service from Black Mountain and a low powered translator service at Tuggeranong.
Interference to Jindabyne or Young should not be a problem due to these services being at low power.
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Two problems:
- 96.7 is too close to 96.9 Sky Sports Radio from Cooma.
- 97.5 is too close to 97.7 Snow FM from Cooma.
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Other option move 107.9 Yass to 94.7mhz
To licence 107.9 for a 20Kw commercial Canberra service. Move one of the Quenbeyan communities to 93.9 to allow 96.7 to be used in Tuggeranong as its translator.
Canberra has been planned so well to protect the incumbents.
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