Digital Radio - Content

The beginning of the end of the golden era of 80s pop music coincided with the exact moment The Only Way Is Up was a hit for Yazz and the Plastic Population in 1988. It was all downhill from there LOL :slight_smile: True fact! If you were there you’d know what I mean :laughing:

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2nd that

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True, the SAW era wasn’t great in many respects. But locally you still had Ian Moss, Southern Sons, Jenny Morris.

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Haven’t seen it mentioned yet but Elf Radio is already on-air in Brisbane.

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Also in Melbourne. I noticed it on iHeart.com earlier this week.

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Went to the Gold Coast for a day trip today and my car radio would not pick up the local dab stations. Although some it had preset from when i used to live there are showing up. However when the radio hit 9D mpx it couldnt show other stations… same behaviour on my sangean… it would stop on 9C but no station list would download and my jbl tuner 2 could not even see the mpx.

However when the radios had presets from that mpx they showed up and worked…

Almost like the mpx is there and working but when a radio scans it cant see whats in the multiplex.

They seem to be having alot of trouble with the GC mpx

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Respect to Smooth DAB+ in Perth today. They really are treating this like their FM sisters over on the east coast. They ran some beautiful music today for the day of mourning.
Local news and traffic all day and even did a minute silence right on 11am.

What they have set up is perfect.

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As someone who wasn’t alive until the tail end of that decade, I feel like I can approach this issue without nostalgia getting in the way.

As far as I’m concerned, the '70s was the best era for mainstream rock/pop music, followed by the '80s, followed by the '60s. The '90s comes in fourth place.

(Sorry about going so far off-topic.)

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I’d say 80s, 90s, 60s, 70s.

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70s was great for Motown, Soul and Disco. In fact, a lot of the dance music that was so popular in the late 90s and early 2000s, originated from 70s and 80s disco music.

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For me it’s 80s, 70s way ahead. 60s and 90s about the same but a way back

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We can probably all agree that any decade from the latter half of the 20th Century beats any in the 21st, though.

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Agree with @Brianc68. 80’s the pick decade.

Saw the best of so many genres. Nu-wave, yacht rock, pub rock to name but a few.

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True, they had DJ’s on the weekends for quite a while but that seems to be on the increase, alas, also the number of commercial breaks :neutral_face: They certainly advertise it as Smooth FM, don’t even know if they mention it is digital, I guess since they have no FM counterpart, they just view DAB+ as a natural extension to FM, which indeed it is. I am also getting used to the more edgy 96fm 80s, but that is on auto-play and ARN may start fiddling with it (switch to 96fm 90s or bring Elf Radio … thankfully neither have happened, especially the latter :upside_down_face:).

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For some the 60s for quickly forgotten (even when I was listening back in the 80s … to the 80s!), but the 70s and 80s live on … So the 90s? Well to me it was the short and probably last trend of alternative / pop rock initiated in the 80s by REM and exemplified by groups like the Goo Goo Dolls and Smashing Pumpkins in the 90s.

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Why are the 60’s in music written off so easily. IMO the 60’s is where it all started. The best group of all time comes from then, The Beatles, closely followed by the Rolling Stones. Then to name a few other groups and artists Pink Floyd, The Who, Kinks, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Cream, The Yardbirds, Beach Boys, Animals, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix and there are many, many more. There is no comparison with the boring 90’s and the 70’s were just a continuation and maturing of most of the groups mentioned. The 80’s were good but IMO overrated, lots of disco and synch pop. :grinning:

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Hmm disco was more late 70s. I don’t discount the 60s, there was some amazing and groundbreaking stuff. But when it comes to what I want to listen to it’s just more 80s and 70s for me. I think there was a change in the 70s and it wasn’t just an evolution of the 60s. There was also a distinct change from the 70s to 80s. It’s just personal preference but to me the 80s are untouchable from a pop and even rock perspective.

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I get it, it’s all personal preference but the 60’s influenced ALL decades coming after them. I don’t want to be boring (and list them) but there also many singers, groups from the 60’s on the pop side of things. Probably the biggest of all, Elvis. I tend to favour rock before pop. I like the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s but see the 90’s as a “wasteland” and in no way to be compared to the 60’s. I like the 00’s and 10’s better, as far as rock goes (I have a younger partner who keeps me up to date). :blush:

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Audio is back on the 2SM DAB only stations of FUN and Gorilla but not ZOO.

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Audio has been back on FUN since Smooth Vintage launched and Dance has also been on for a while now too with a good playlist.

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