Geelong and Ballarat are solus markets with two stations in each. If Grants wanted to get DAB+ off the ground, they would have already. Likewise for Bendigo - it’s an SCA solus market despite Gold’s FM repeater.
The other markets are more complicated and have higher populations, thus a greater incentive to roll out to these markets earlier.
Gold Coast: Hot Tomato (Grants), Hit and Triple M (SCA)
Newcastle: 2HD and New FM (Caralis), Hit and Triple M (SCA)
Gosford: Star (Nova), Hit and Triple M (SCA)
Wollongong: i98 (WIN), Wave FM (Grants)
The Sunshine Coast is more tricky with five stations between two markets:
Nambour: Hot (Grants), Mix and Sea (Eon)
Gympie: Zinc (Grants), 4GY (Caralis)
So “Australia Today” has popped up on DAB in Melbourne, squeezing bitrates lower on other SCA stations (so basically back to the ‘Santa Radio’ config).
Playing looping music with “Australia Today with Steve Price. Honest Opinion. Real Talk” in the text area - so I assume it will light up for 3 hours a day then just loop the show or something?
If it is just that show, they should switch to mono rather than stereo at 32k, will work better for the speech content.
I’d been rescanning occasionally looking if ARN had filled the gap left by Kinderling - still empty.
Of course with this particular pop-up station almost half finished there’s no real point asking for it to be on DAB+ now, but it’s a pity the Kinderling placeholder loop wasn’t replaced in Sydney by Show Radio on April 1 for city-wide coverage…even 32bkbps everywhere would be better than having to rely on a relatively low powered transmission on 107.9!
The regular and frequently repeated sweepers suggest that iHeartRadio (which in this country is pretty much an ARN brand) “Proudly Support” the AFTRS pop-up, so you’d think allocating some space on Sydney DAB+ for Show Radio a couple of weeks a year isn’t too much to ask for…
Same here, just I assumed it’s just a bad character not being recognised, not a typed ?.
Maybe they’ll claim it’s a “pop up” station temporarily, then pull it before it has to appear in ratings. Very weird given their press for it about how groundbreaking it was to have a ‘streaming’ radio show.
You are actually correct, they paid for the licences, not the frequencies.
However the frequencies were determined in the final licence area plans prior to them being auctioned, so the frequencies won’t be changed.
Agreed. I don’t even believe there will be a reshuffle as it will end up becoming a political issue, upsetting too many interests including community radio organisations.
Now I am confused. This all started with what was replacing Kinderling Kids. But was that slot owned by ARN (96FM 90s) or SCA (in connection with Australia Today) in Perth?
So has anything happened in other capital cities in terms of what happened to these bits. Presumably this is not the appearance of “Australia Today” (unless those ARN bits were sold to SCA?)
The ARN bits were not sold to SCA, they always belonged to ARN and they haven’t replaced Kinderling. Australia Today is with SCA, they have used their own spectrum with this channel.
No changes to any stations in Perth. No Steve Price station (thankfully), and no replacement for Kinderling; maybe ARN are waiting to onboard another station that is leasing the space?
