That’s a bit harsh on community radio, most are volunteers just trying to do their best.
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Actually I meant the commercial radio scene as the circus, with the clowns such as breakfast announcers and shock jocks as its performers. Sorry if you took it the wrong way. I almost exclusively listen to community radio these days. I definitely prefer a novice community radio announcer to a shock jock.
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I could understand how radiohead may have got that confused, but I got dxnerd’s point straight away. Aside from ABC Newsradio, I pretty much listened to the local community stations around this part of Sydney, though the local closest to me; 2SSR FM has been through several stages over the years.
When first moving to the area back in the early 00s, the station sounded quite good, some weird programming, but the actual presenters selection of music was pretty adventurous for the time. I had no interest in the masonics, but their program on wednesday night back then for three hours was the only place you’d hear disco music like the village people, Arabesque, Donna Summer, and a good amount of ABBA.
There was a “Scott” guy on Saturday night who played several 70s and 80s songs that no-one heard for ages. I always got the impression that he must of bought out a commercial radio station’s library, because it sounded like every track he played was from a mint 7 inch single. You could hear the vinyl artifacts, but they were very minor.
2SSR FM went through some major changes during late 2005 into 2006 where much of their programming changed. From that point they sounded very ordinary, around 2008 they played a syndicated show, two guys playing a top ten from back then and talking about it, but it was often at some weird hour of the night, this was the only program worth listening to back then. Around 2017 2018 they seem to have rediscovered their old selves again, with many of the older 2002-2005 programmers re-ermerging. I vaguely remember a guy by the name of “Seymour” who had the program “Suitcase of CDs”, but most of his show was a 50s 60s and 70s hits and memories kind of format, not bad in short bursts, but a bit too much when it came to three hours.
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You wouldn’t be referring to ‘It’s Time’ would you? I think that originated at 2SSR and is very much still going; Braidwood FM airs it every week.
Community radio is a bit hit and miss but when it’s good, it’s very good. The listener does have to do the work in finding shows that suit their individual taste- most people can’t be bothered to do that.
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Yeah “Its Time” airs on 8pm Monday nights on Braidwood FM. On HHH FM Hornsby it is on at 9pm Wednesday. It does air on many other stations and sometimes the stations don’t air the “current show”. I do enjoy the show, I recommend to anyone who enjoys looking at old charts and history.
Currently they are going through the top hits countdown of the 70s over the weeks. But normally they pick a chart from the 60s to the 90s and select songs from the “current week” in history. The billy bob chart show by @dxnerd on Thursdays 1pm is also great. Its a 2 hour session , I wish the “It’s Time show” was also 2 hours as I think 1 hour you only scratch the surface of the chart.
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Of course another thing about community radio is that even when you’ve done the work and found some content that suits your individual tastes, often a show will come to an end after only a short amount of time and/or rather abruptly.
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s perfectly understandable that a lot of community radio shows are only around for a short amount of time especially when there are people in the sector (notably younger talent) hoping to eventually go onto broader media horizons. But it can still be sad to find out a show is ending/has ended just as the presenters were starting to get really good!
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I listened to a bit of the networked Luke & Susie show on 1WAY FM this morning. The content is ok for the target audience I guess, but it is very disjointed. The talk segments and songs are not connected, because it seems 1WAY were playing their own songs. Towards the end of the show they said the phone lines were open and took a few calls, but in Canberra the show isn’t live so there was no number given out to call, of course. Coming up to midday one segment ended, but there was no goodbye from Luke and Susie before the news.
It appears that the networked show is just cut up chunks of the original show that are then played inbetween songs on the local stations rather than it being a fully networked program. If it was fully networked it would sound a million times better, I think.
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Yep, that’s the one. I’d often listen when there was a 70s or 80s year, occasionally listened if there was a 60s, but somewhat before my time. Their commentary was always informative and interesting. When first coming across it in 2005, it aired at 8:00 on Thursday nights on 2SSR FM, then moved to 3:am on Wednesday mornings around 2007. THey were nice people, I even got the show on my own internet station during 2010 and 2011.
During the weekend test broadcasting of SWR FM back in the 1990s, when we operated from the Greenhouse at Acquilina Reserve, a number of members and I tried communicating this often expressed listener complain to management. Attempts were made to link programs together with similar themes. We’d often try to have all the youth / pop / chart / dance / indie rock programs on a Saturday, and then the language and talk programs on Sunday, but management at the time wasn’t open to this. The program schedule by 1998 became rather abstract again, and about six months after a number of us left, rumours were circulating around that part of Sydney that management were not happy. By this stage (June July 1998) the station mostly played taped shows. By August 1998 SWR FM was completely off my radar, but to what I’ve come to understand over recent years, sometime in 1999, the then members had to get all the equipment out in a huff, as they received a notice that the studio building was going to be demolished within 72 hours for the construction of baseball courts for the up and coming Sydney Olympics.
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…absolute rubbish … I was working on plans for those courts back in 1997 and the land had been obtained by the OCA long before that …
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Well, that’s what I heard from two ex-members, and it was mentioned on here a long time ago, but I won’t dispute it as peoples memories do get rather foggy and maybe some clarity may have been lost in the process of chinese whispers, but the common thread was that they had to get everything out quick smart. Not too long afterwards they got new studio’s in Blacktown’s showground. Maybe your planning body did inform the station a long time before the period in which they had to vacate, however they may have been a communication breakdown at the station. I don’t know, I wasn’t there anymore, but during the time I was, management’s communication to members was rather laxed at times. One of the management committee members did produce a basic newsletter which came out every three months, but copies of it would often be left on the desk in the studio for programmers to pickup when they’ve completed their show.
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As per above, seems like the simulcast ceased at the end of last year. The local Drive show also appears to now be unhosted, with the profile of presenter Steve Lanzon now gone.
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And I’m sure 965 has lost many audience who tuned in for that hour.
Now the only simulcast is Nine which runs comfy stories for the state govt for the clapped out tv journos who went to work for the premier and now are keen for a favour.
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Braidwood FM is back to full power by the way. Not sure if the problem was found but it fixed itself; perhaps it was water ingress.
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it should not have been on 96.5 - it is at odds with the family radio positioning they have. what i would be putting on instead is an hour of worship music, for people to wind down from work on the commute home.
Very accurate!
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That’s good.
Was it low power last Friday night? (when I last received it up here).
There was no RDS then, has that been on or is that back on now too?
88.9 2RSR is now back on air.
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Yes full power by Friday. RDS has been on throughout. Last Wednesday it wasn’t decoding till Manar (the intersection of Goulburn Road and Kings Highway). Normally it decodes on the crest of the GDR about 12 km east of Bungendore.
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Thanks, yes, I have received it here with RDS before, but not last Friday.
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