New nightly show on Triple Country from 19:00 to 22:00. Apple Music Country Radio. Good to have some content added.
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I have been enjoying Steve Price and Natarsha Belling on Australia Today. Listen via the digital station, so simple, no need to download an app, sign up, find the program, check I have battery, data and coverage.
Digital radio works simply, even if it is DAB+
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When the light flashes on my portable digital radio I need to plug it in to recharge the batteries. 
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It’s actually not a bad program. Natasha Belling is the real star too. Her and Steve work well together and she balances out Steve’s grumpy attitude to everything!
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I would rather the current Triple J ‘Requestival’ format on DAB instead of more commercial talkback, but each to their own.
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It’s just such a shame that the rollout has been so slow and patchy (in terms of where it’s available) that most people haven’t been exposed to it, let alone be able to access it.
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I think the economics don’t stack up in the regional areas for a rapid roll out.
The Gold Coast is an exception and should be switched on this year.
Not sure about other regional markets like Newcastle, Wollongong, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Central Coast, Sunshine coast, Townsville, Cairns. You’d expect these will be next in line to switch on but it could take a few years, depending on costs and the benefits associated with switching on in these areas for the incumbent commercial operators and ABC/SBS.
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There has been some movement on the Gold Coast, with the joint venture registering as a company this month. As with all joint ventures each station has an equal share, which means SCA owns ⅔ and Grant owns ⅓.
PS. Of course the Sydney JV ownership is different do to the oddity of John Singleton thinking digital wasn’t worth investing in.
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And the registered office address is SCA in Sth Melb?
Sad to think the compromised plan for digital radio will be realised by the licensees rather than continuing to negotiate for a better DRMT.
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Yes, with the Principal Place of Business address being the Triple M and Hit studios on Oracle Boulevard. It is effectively a subsidiary of SCA, with the ultimate holding company being Southern Cross Media.
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In Sydney just “for fun”. The changes or upgrade for the DAB multiplex in Sydney for the ABC the changes are as follows.
Old ABC Classic = New Double J 72k
ABC Country = Radio National 64k
ABC Jazz = ABC Sydney 64k
ABC Kids = ABC Classic 120K
ABC News = No Service
ABC Sydney = Triple J 72k
ABC Sports = ABC Jazz 88k
ABC Radio National = TripleJUnearthed 72k
SBS Chill = SBS Chill 72 k
Double J = ABC Sport 40k
Triple J = ABC Kids Listen 64k
Triple J Unearthed = ABC Country 72k
So the only one missing is ABC News, the SBS stations had no changes.
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Looks like some movement but don’t know how fast it will be, & is it really a JV, regional DAB+ is done differently to Metro?
I’m pretty sure in Darwin, Grants own the site & equipment, it’s built differently to the Metro’s, because Grants wanted to do it their own way.
I heard that Grants were very interested in the Gold Coast DAB+, they were going to build & own the site but get the ABC/SBS to essentially pay for it, then charge everyone a big buck for rental/operations etc, making money out of it, only problem was the ABC/SBS told them to get stuffed, & this has caused a lot of the hold up from it progressing.
Nothing official in my statement, but something I heard from reliable/credible sources.
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Bit different to Darwin and Mandurah, you’d imagine, in that there’s actual commercial competition.
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Not really, in the metro’s there’s a single separate company who owns the DAB+ gear, most or all are shareholders of said company, but essentially they’re only access seekers to the broadcast company (as MRN was under John Singleton), regionally there’s nothing stopping one broadcaster or another outside company who wants to build a DAB+ transmissions site & then charge everyone as access seekers to use it to broadcast DAB+, there’s no rule to my knowledge everyone has to own part of it as a JV or even have a shareholding.
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Seems like ABC NewsRadio is working now with 40kbps.
Minor in the grand scheme of things I know, but it’s a pity that some of the DAB+ slideshow images weren’t updated: Still using old logos/branding (with the now defunct “metallic pretzel” ABC logo rather than the restored 1975 classic) on some stations! 
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Same in the regionals. There is still a separate company that runs the transmitters and holds the licences.
The main difference is that the metros are managed by CRA, so the registered address etc is CRAs.
The regionals appear to be managed by the actual broadcasters. In Mandurah, Darwin and Canberra that’s easy as there’s only one commercial operator. In Hobart and now Gold Coast there’s only two so easier to manage internally. The Hobart, Canberra and Gold Coast companies are all registered to SCA in South Melbourne. I guess SCA take that role being the majority shareholder (2/3 stations) in Hobart and Gold Coast.
I believe this to be correct, however my understanding is that all of the commercial licencees have to be offered an equal share at the beginning and the access fees have to be at essentially an at cost basis, and the same for all’s access seekers. That being that contracts etc can charge whatever the market rate is, but a non-shareholder can’t be price gouged.
I would think this means a third party can only setup a multiplex if none of the broadcasters are interested in setting up a JV company (which would presumably mean they also wouldn’t be interested in broadcasting on DAB+)
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@SydneyCityTV to make it clear, I didn’t rescan yet 
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After rescan its back.
My parents have a radio with broken LCD so you can’t see any menu options, so difficult to rescan so wanted to map it out. They don’t listen to NewsRadio. I like to listen to ABC sports when I visit from time to time, so I can scroll to “double J” I can roughly figure it out and restore it as a present.
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I didn’t have to rescan my Sangean DPR-34 & Sony DAB+ radio to get ABC NewsRadio back, as it just appeared there as it always has been. As mentioned, all the other ABC stations have been shuffled around, meaning I had to reconfigure the presets for the ones I want stored.
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Probably the different chipsets or software why my Newsradio broke on my PC. I was interested when going to Canberra to observe the behaviour there. It didn’t seem to “replace” Sydney stations with Canberra stations when I tried. I had to select the Canberra version of the station in the car and my pocket radio (after a rescan).
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When I was down in the Southern Highlands for a day trip last month, I did try to scan in the ABC/SBS stations from Canberra at Bowral Lookout in Mt Gibraltar (it’s a good spot to pick up both Sydney & Canberra DAB+ stations) on my DPR-34, but couldn’t null out the Sydney ABC/SBS stations. This was after the DAB+ upgrade had occurred there.
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