Digital Radio

[crankymedia]

@Moe

2CH and Nova Melbourne/Sydney are music stations running at sufficient bitrates, but they all choose to run with SBR (HE-AAC v1), which is marginal to negative in terms of audio improvement at those rates.

I recall the group investigated and came to this conclusion.

[Radiohead]

I’m very pleased with the variety that MMM Aussie are playing. In the last 20 mins or so, I’ve heard the following unflogged songs

Truganini - Midnight Oil
Accidentally Kelly Street - Frente
Reasons - John Farnham
Almost With You - The Church

[Adrian]

Totally agree, really hope it lasts and rates

[NRN11]

Those songs need to be added to the normal Triple M playlist. Getting sick of hearing “Power and the Passion” and “You’re The Voice”

[Adrian]

A good taste of new stuff alsO

[Radiohead]

Yes, they also played The Polish Club’s “Clarity” along with those others I posted, a great new(ish) song

[Adrian]

There FB page still says modern. You think there would change it

[Radiohead]

For some reason, the audio on ZOO in Sydney is mono only at the moment.

Other 2SM Digital stations are still stereo.

[Radiohead]

Just discovered that there are now ADS again on The 80s… Just heard 2 in.a row, not sure often though.

In recent times there haven’t been ads - apart from iHeart Radio promos. Not since nearly every ad was a Crim Safe ad, and they were only about every 30 mins.

[Brianc68]

The iheart radio promos are possibly more annoying than commercials…

[Moe]

@Radiohead

Not since nearly every ad was a Crim Safe ad

They advertise a lot on Gold, so probably freebies?

Last I heard the feeds from ARN on DAB are all a single national feed, rather than localised state ones, which could limit how much they can actually do with advertising.

I think the main motivation the broadcasters have is to make it so that you don’t listen to the digital stations to avoid ads, even if they don’t make any money from them. If people start to switch off the FM stations in favour of DAB ones because of a lack of ads, then that’s a risk to their business model.

That said, personally I find ads to only be an acceptable trade off when there’s the feel of a live station - something like The 80s is just run off a playlist - why should I listen to ads on that when they aren’t adding value beyond putting a music library on shuffle?

That’s the main thing that turns me off most DAB only stations - they just don’t feel like ‘radio’ to me - have an announcer every once and a while - not a huge amount, but just enough for it to feel like there’s some connection with the audience.

[Radiohead]

@Moe

That’s the main thing that turns me off most DAB only stations - they just don’t feel like ‘radio’ to me

The same could be said of commercial FM radio at times too - Internet radio would be more appealing if they were to play more Australian music.

[motosenokia]

@Radiohead

For some reason, the audio on ZOO in Sydney is mono only at the moment.

I’ve got Zoo off the air at the moment.

EDIT: Up and running again at 1:37pm.

[mars_argo]

@Radiohead

The same could be said of commercial FM radio at times too - Internet radio would be more appealing if they were to play more Australian music.

No.

Australian music is over-rated, over-hyped and over-played.

Nothing wrong with a decent Australian track if it can stand on its own two feet.

If it’s just being trundled out because it’s ‘Aussie’ then all we are doing is promulgating crap.

[Radiohead]

Just checked, still mono sound only though.

[crankymedia]

@Moe

I think the main motivation the broadcasters have is to make it so that you don’t listen to the digital stations to avoid ads, even if they don’t make any money from them.

ARN have been bereft of a policy to monetise their digital spectrum for years outside of producing and leasing to clients eg. Chem W’house and Kinderling.

SCA went the other way and deluged with cheap inventory. Both not smart.

@Moe

uncer every once and a while - not a huge amount, but just enough for it to feel like there’s some connection with the audience.

@Moe

That said, personally I find ads to only be an acceptable trade off when there’s the feel of a live station - something like The 80s is just run off a playlist - why should I listen to ads on that when they aren’t adding value beyond putting a music library on shuffle?

Exactly.

This is the place for radio to revisit high yield inventory as Paul Thompson led Nova with.

Smaller audiences to digital stations can be compensated by smaller inventory and higher prices.

Before anyone claims Nova didn’t turn a profit with high yield inventory, please don’t bother. Operationally, stations were profitable.

@mars_argo

Nothing wrong with a decent Australian track if it can stand on its own two feet.

If it’s just being trundled out because it’s ‘Aussie’ then all we are doing is promulgating crap.

Correct. The quota requirement works against Aus music and a whole station of Aus music is bound to be padded out with less quality ‘quota filler’.

[motosenokia]

Famous Technology & Hi-Fi YouTuber Techmoan’s (aka Matt) take on Digital Radio in the UK and review of a stylish Ruark Digital Radio. An interesting watch!

[Radiohead]

@crankymedia

The quota requirement works against Aus music and a whole station of Aus music is bound to be padded out with less quality ‘quota filler’.

I think I have to disagree here.
For example, I think MMM Aussie is a great listen.
“Lower quality” I think is really a wider variety of music, more unflogged songs.
There’s a lot of great local songs that deserve airplay but don’t normally get it.

[Moe]

@motosenokia

Famous Technology & Hi-Fi YouTuber Techmoan’s (aka Matt) take on Digital Radio in the UK and review of a stylish Ruark Digital Radio. An interesting watch!

It’s amazing how that doesn’t look much fancier than the crappy Kmart brand DAB+ radio I’ve got in front of me - seems like there’s one or two different firmwares that run these devices, so they all end up with near identical user interfaces and experiences.

His point about the robustness improvements to DAB+ is a good one - the ‘muddy’ sound you get from DAB when it has low signal is really horrible sounding, far worse than static on an FM signal.

I’ve not heard it in person, but lossless recordings from DAB in the UK from years back sound horrible - and that’s when most stations were 112kbps joint stereo, not the 64-80kbps mono you get from some now.

The funny thing for me is that Ofcom were regulating minimum standards for bitrates - and then gave up and handed it over to industry for themselves to determine how high was a minimum standard. About the only thing sacred seems to be BBC Radio 3…

[Laoma]

Techmoan is one of my favourite channels. I do agree low bit rates sound average. Happy we have dab plus. No more am radio in the uk?