In Melbourne we now have 3 DAB Stations playing Christmas Carols/Songs. Light Christmas, Elf Radio and Now Santa Radio
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It could potentially be four in Brisbane closer to Christmas…
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Yeah, you almost don’t want to get attached to a SCA digital station - I think Buddha is basically the only one that has survived in some form or another since it launched.
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They happened to play Pseudo Echo’s Funky Town and that has a rock feel. Even Boom Crash Opera’s Dancing In The Storm was played on Easy 80s. Paul Norton’s Stuck on You was also played and has a rock feel.
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“ABC Grandstand” has been renamed to “ABC Sport”. Is the Grandstand branding being retired across the entire ABC maybe?
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Triple M Country have been running some great music specials of late with legend Trevor Smith. Brad Cox at 19:00 tonight and Keith Urban last week. Love MMMcountry. Would be great to add some announcers, Trevor Smith a perfect fit
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Elf Radio has appeared on digital radio in Canberra. The SCA-ARN stations are now:
HIT104.7 - 112kbps
HIT Buddha - 80kbps
MIX106.3 - 96kbps
The Edge - 64kbps
Elf Radio - 32kbps
Club Lime Radio - 64kbps
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No Easy 80s Hits? That seems strange given the 80s stations rate well on DAB elsewhere.
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I do love how they have extra bits. Canberra has that aspect correct.
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There’s probably no agreement between the heads at ARN and SCA on whether to run ARN’s Gold/WS 80s or SCA’s EASY 80s HITS.
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Australia is fortunate to have these Christmas stations confined to DAB. I’m always amazed that high rating US radio stations switch their format to all Christmas music. Imagine if WSFM , 4KQ or GOLD FM were playing only Christmas music.
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I know, it’s quite astonishing actually.
I’ve been in LA (in November) when KOST switched to Christmas one year. It’s a top 3 station in LA. Even crazier is it goes to No 1over Christmas.
Lite FM in Chicago is another one.
I can’t help feeling sorry for the poor on air staff having to listen to Christmas music their entire shift…
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Christianity appears to be still very strong in America.
I think if you wind back the clock to 40s I believe more stations had religious programming, society has changed, I believe Christianity was a part of everyone’s life back in Australia then, but this generation you have a choice. I think in America this appears to be different. It may depend on what part of the US are in. I don’t have hard facts as this is probably someone’s thesis topic with 10 years or research 
.
The other side is I think Australia radio stations today are extremely risk averse especially with music formats (on the main stations) . Gone are the days they will try out a hot country music format. Maybe an exception is 24/7 sports by SEN is “risky” in Sydney. Not sure if you can profile that risky.
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I agree on the Christianity in the US in general but from what I heard on KOST and Lite it’s not really about that. The Christmas music is of the pop variety for the most part and it seems to be more about modern Christmas stuff like best Christmas movies, Santa and celebrating the colder weather. It doesn’t really have a religious overtone as such…
Yes Australian radio is extremely risk averse by comparison…
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Yes, the closest we ever get is semi regular airings of Wham’s “Last Christmas” or Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
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KIX Country South West is about to launch on the West Coast.
The station will launch on December 1st on DAB+ Digital Radio broadcasting on the first provincial DAB+ multiplexer operated by West Coast Radio (The Wave/Coast in Mandurah).
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So Smooth Relax appears to have flipped to Smooth 80s.
Why, why, WHY???
It now sounds exactly like Easy 80s Hits and 97.3 80s!!
Angry email heading to Smooth HQ today
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No thoughts, no originality in Australian radio. I really don’t get the obsession with segmenting everything by decades either. Senseless.
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Seems like Nova is tinkering across the board. We’ve got Nova Noughties added in Melbourne, Nova 10s in Sydney, and Smooth Relax flipping to Smooth 80s in Brisbane.
Somewhere out there there’ll be a Smooth 90s, based on stream URLs 
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Wonder how long Radio Maria will last if Nova are making a move into more digital stations again.
Santa Radio to Noughties Hits after Christmas I assume…
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