I listened into 2CHY a few months back passing through Coffs and wondered what the deal with it was? It sounded very neglected, very little sign of youth and a playlist that sounded like Triple J from 30 years ago!
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https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/have-your-say/community-broadcasting-sector-sustainability-review
Apologies if this has been posted already, but submissions to this review are currently open.
Thereâs also a discussion paper and a report from the review conducted last year into the grants allocated via CBF.
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If you were making a submission @anthonyeden, whatâs your opinion?
Itâs usual Alison Paul, sheâs been there for four years and isnât young by her photo. Thatâs her style and it isnât changing.
Who is the CHY spokeswoman as no supers in that upload by NBN?
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This reminds me, remember when Jason Roe was running CHY? Now he was an interesting type, added a competitive edge to CHY.
CHY need consistency on Breakfast, no local Hit FM breakfast, need volunteers or someone paid for a quality local breakfast show and then same for drive when nothing is local.
Live at night with a format the others donât do would be good.
The commercial alternative format Nova Sydney launched with would go well, not JJJ but also not the hot AC of Hit. A broad playlist that fills the gaps yet is consistent.
All they need to be is consistent and theyâll knock some points off younger demos for Hit in the next phone call survey.
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When I drove through Coffs a few days ago they were still automated and playing alt rock, yes Triple J playlist from 30 years ago sums it up perfectly.
I donât think a format focusing on playing local bands is going to work. Way too niche and pretty much copying Triple J unearthed. The youth of today are not 100% into alt rock anymore, unlike the 90âs grunge period, and Triple J has adjusted their playlist since.
Better option would be to adopt a format similar to Radio Metro on the Gold Coast. BTW Radio Metro now plays almost as much Urban as they do EDM now. That would ruffle the feathers of the local Hit.
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Itâs a tricky one, and I havenât made a submission because I donât have a clear position myself.
On one hand, I believe the sector needs to be sustainable outside of government funding.
On the other hand, community radio has existed for many decades and still isnât particularly sustainable. Some stations are, but broadly the sector relies on a bunch of government funding. The sector has asked for a lot more funding as a part of their recent roadmap. The ambition is great. I worry that it will result in a lot of programs that will fold when the funding dries up.
I would probably focus on the regulatory environment to enable small-scale DAB, allowing new community operators to exist and innovate with new models.
Other than that, I think the CBP/CBF funding needs to focus on longer term outcomes instead of shorter term requests.
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Extremely well said, Anthony.
Any government funding is great, donât get me wrong. Getting something is better than nothing. But from a financial/budgeting perspective for some of us small sub-metro stations that have grown to a relatively medium sized operation such as SWR, how is a business (yes, community radio stations are still a business at the end of the day) meant to forecast and budget in advance for longer-term strategic manoeuvres, when there is absolutely ZERO guarantee that we get any funding in the first place at all in the current arrangement that CBF have. Financially, it is a massive risk. Yes, itâs great when we get some money to fund a project or development/operations, but like you said, when the money dries up what are we meant to do? Hault our development? Stop our operations? Because WHEN the money dries up, (not if) we are then stuck to fill the gap ourselves!
The sector needs sustainability with helping stations get in line with the times, and the CBAA are doing an absolutely wonderful job especially with providing stations the platforms and tools to get out there in a uniform fashion that the audience will familiarise themselves with eg. CR+ App, MetaRadio websites!!! All great stuff!
Getting more stations on DAB+ is definitely the step in the right direction. If itâs direct funding, then it would be great to have funding to go to towards long-term strategic goals. Having to write up pages and pages of grant applications every few months is unsustainable in terms of the retention of volunteers. Because most of the time, at least for us, itâs a VOLUNTEER giving up their valuable time away from friends, family, sometimes their DAY JOBS, to write up an application that has zero guarantee of any success. And then when an application is ultimately rejected⌠Why on earth in their right mind would a volunteer or member want to try and write up another application?? Thereâs a volunteer or member Iâll never see againâŚ
I could go on⌠
But yes, back to you Anthony, I 100% agree with your statement.
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Well said Alex. I hope you make a submission on behalf of SWR.
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What is happening with 2BLU Fm (RBM) they have been off air for quite some time now, anyone know what is happening there?
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91.4??? Wouldnt that cause an issue with 91.7 and 90.9
/end sacrasm.
Does anyone proof read these articles lol
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Welcome to Media Spy!
Nope! Has only gotten worse since Radioinfo took over Radio Today.
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Weâre excited to announce a significant technological upgrade in partnership with APRA AMCOS. Music Recognition Technology (MRT) will soon be implemented at 100 community radio stations across Australia, ensuring that more Australian songwriters and music creators receive the recognition they deserve. APRA AMCOS grants music licenses and pays royalties to Australasian music creators.
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I peered on their FB page & they said (today) that âthe aerial is stuffedâ.
I wonder if those strong winds last weekend did some damage?
@Ant5476 how long do you think the TX has been off air for?
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They werenât on air when I was down in Sydney a fortnight ago and their signal is always receivable in the part of Sydney I was in (Windsor)
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That would be about the same time I noticed them off air too.
Didnât they only replace their antennas in the last few years?
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Occasionally one gets floored upon discovering brilliant & creative radio program titles.
Melbourneâs JOY 94.9 has a great one with: âDykes on Mykesâ
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