It amazes me that months of dead air happens on a commercial station in a capital city, DAB or otherwise. That space could be put to so much better use
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Yep - but that would potentially upset the status-quo
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I remember when Dance Hits launched back in 2019, Dance and Gorilla went off the air for some time. Gorilla came back a few months later but at a lower sound quality. Dance didn’t come back until earlier this year. This could possibly have had something to do with the changes in the radio market, i.e. ACE taking over Nine’s music stations.
Likewise Fun was on air for most of this year but disappeared as soon as 2CH went off air. It seems as though market dynamics also play a role in BOG’s decision to broadcast or not broadcast their DAB stations.
I think you’ve probably overthought that, put 2 + 2 together & come up with 5?
It’s possible, but of what benefit would it be them doing that, if it was market dynamics at play, they wouldn’t be taking a station off, then putting the same station back at another time, they’d do what SCA & ARN do, & take a station off & replace it with something new/different?
What you’re suggesting, is like taking Smooth FM or WSFM off air for 6 - 12 months, then bringing it back with the exact same name & format, because 2UE changed from talk to music.
If what you’re suggesting is correct, then wouldn’t it be more likely they’d bring back FUN when 2CH went off air, so they could pickup the lost 2CH listeners, not drop FUN because 2CH with a similar format is no longer there either?
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The only thing I can think of as a “reason” would be based on the rules regarding the amount of time a station can play music for, and the associated rate for paying for the music performance rights.
Obviously shutting the stations down overnight would make more sense than random lengthy downtime, if that were their aim, but maybe they run them to all ensure it never tips over a certain amount of music played.
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I just can’t fathom the reason being someone not checking a computer playlist. Not even the cheapest, nastiest of community stations would be that…lazy
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Could just be as said earlier, BOG don’t have program fail alarms on their DAB+ playout and the automation PC just runs out of playlists. A full time tech would check all the services regularly but contractors would probably not.
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It doesn’t take a tech to work out that there’s no sound.
Surely BOG staff can do their own monitoring of DAB output and then get a tech to fix anything that isn’t right.
Probably also comes down to BOG not wanting to pay.
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Yes fair comment - sadly quite a few broadcasters want their engineering work done at or below cost and that flows on to wages and employment conditions as well as staffing levels.
Radio and TV is highly reliant on alarms and remote control to keep it going. Staff are spread very thinly and site visits are often few and far between. Once alarms are not working and being monitored or remote control is offline the outages soon follow.
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With all due respect I don’t think you understand market dynamics and the nature of the competitive radio market. It’s not rocket science.
Don’t you think that BOG possibly have taken FUN off the air since 2CH disappeared because their major competitor is gone, and there are no rules saying they must use the spectrum or lose it?
You obviously don’t listen to DAB radio so you probably wouldn’t have any idea that BOG remove their stations all the time when a competitor is gone or bring them back when there is a new player.
A similar thing happened years ago when EON stopped broadcasting, most of the BOG stations went off air. Like I said earlier, it’s market dynamics and they can do whatever they want.
It’s market dynamics and the nature of the competitive radio market and the operators can do whatever they want with the spectrum they own. There are currently no rules in place saying they must use the spectrum or lose it.
Never in the history of business has that been a strategy. Your competitor dissappears so you decide to close down because you no longer have a competitor. You must have gone to a different school of business altogether.
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I guess you have run a successful radio network so you know it all.
I’m just stating the facts as to what they are doing and a possible reason which is not technical, no need to get all strung up about it.
Having them off air may save them money, who knows, and there is no requirement for them to be using their DAB spectrum 24/7.
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The analogy breaks a bit as this is essentially a digital multichannel. Obviously they maintain their primary channel.
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Have you ever worked in radio to understand radio market dynamics? I have & do work in radio, strange as it might seem, I do have some idea on how it all works.
I’ve only spent the last few years as a DAB+ transmission technician in Sydney. I know exactly when BOG stations go off the air & what happens to the DAB data when they do.
As the transmission company, all the services on all networks are constantly monitored & logged (audio recorded), so I think I’m qualified to say what I’ve said previously. I know when the stations are on or off, but it’s up to the broadcaster (BOG) not me to keep them individually operational.
Other networks monitor & log their stations, BOG obviously doesn’t, but funnily enough earlier this year, the SCA Sydney techs alerted TXA to some transmission issues, that they happened to hear while listening to Gorilla in the office.
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Only one person getting all strung up here:
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That’s like Coca Cola shutting because Pepsi go out of business. Usually when a competitor shuts down it’s time to swoop in and take their customers/audience.
BOG’s stations going offline isn’t strategy. It’s incompetence.
And were 2CH and Fun the only competitors. What about 2UE? Instead Fun chose to compete with a pair of ear muffs.
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It’s great that you think you know it all, but you are wasting your time arguing the point that I made that FUN went off the air as soon as 2CH did?
I’m speculating as to why they might have done it however you seem to be in denial to the fact.
The same thing happened with EON a few years ago and when Dance Hits launched, Dance and Gorilla went off the air for a while. Gorilla came back online last year and Dance only came back this year. Zoo is also not on the air all the time but only occasionally.
I know I’m waisting my time arguing about it, because we all know that you do know everything.
There’s 2 genuine possible reasons for BOG doing what they do with the DAB & your suggestion isn’t one of them, it’s just not logical in any way shape or form, business wise or other.
They are doing it either because the playout system runs out of music logs to play & they don’t bother checking it, or they stop the music DAB stations for a period of time to reduce/alleviate paying APRA/AMCOS Copyright music fees.
If I’m wrong about something, or someone suggests I’m on the wrong track about something I’ve said, I have no problem saying, you know what, on reflection & thinking about it more, others might be right & I’ll say on here I’m happy to be corrected or change my thoughts, but it seems you’re in denial about why you think BOG do what they do, because no one has agreed with your speculation, everyone has tried to make you see your thinking is floored but you lash out at them, because you’re right & everyone else is wrong, & I’m really sorry you feel that way.
Caralis might be cheap, but he’s not stupid & what you’re suggesting makes no commercial business sense at all, in any industry, not just radio as @webguy has eluded to further up.
There’s no point me continuing with this discussion because I can’t win, so I’ll leave it here for others to take further if they want.
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Your patronising attitude really stinks however in regards to BOG, it is entirely up to them what they do, I’m sure Caralis knows a lot more than you about how to run a radio network.
My original point which you seem to be convulsing over, was that FUN went off the air as soon as 2CH did which was one of their major competitors, and the market dynamics changed and the same thing happened when EON went off the air in 2017, when most or all of the BOG stopped broadcasting.
You could be right, it might be a technical issue, or it could be that they can save money by not broadcasting when the market dynamics change, when the competition goes down.
Anyway, we are all entitled to our opinions but there’s no need to be patronising and insulting to others.