Digital Radio

My mistake, yes it was 7HT. Don’t ask me where I pulled 7HD from…

A handull of markets? If you’re referring to the capital cities that’s about 60% of the Australian population. Add in Gold Coast and Newcastle and you’ve got 3/4 covered. It’s pretty clear DAB+ is the standard. Anyway the units that are fitted to Fords, Mitsubishis etc. are DAB/AM/FM so they’ve got all bases covered. Can’t see the problem.

I see what you’re saying, but my point is if they hold back too long it puts the whole radio industry under threat. It DAB isn’t even an option in new cars people just switch to Pandora or Tunein. I really think the Australian commercial radio industry is at a crossroads and DAB is kind of their last hope… The car is where most listening happens and I think if people start sampling Pandora and overseas stations because there’s no DAB in the car it’s game over. Just my opinion. You see a lot of cases with other mature industries where they are suddenly swamped by something new because their product is inferior. Variety on FM is very limited in this country because of the way licences are allocated which makes it very vulnerable to better offerings - moreso than in other countries like the US which has better FM stations and a lot more variety. DAB and the additional stations it offers is their only hope for survival in my opinion.

I think the issue is that the ACMA hasn’t yet determined what the platform is going to be for digital radio outside of metro areas - will it be DAB+ or will it be DRM?
Or a bit of both?

If DAB+, I can see issues with spectrum in congested areas like Newcastle-Wollongong and Gold-Sunshine Coasts, where all of these markets appear as though they will have to share VHF 9, and when ducting occurs, it’s going to wipe out signals for a lot of listeners.

There was a report released late last year that I took to mean it was DAB or nothing at this stage. Pretty sure it even said DRM wasn’t being progressed. I think what will happen is the capitals and larger regional cities will have DAB and everywhere in between will make do with FM. The industry and government (ABC) just aren’t going to pay to convert to digital of any kind in places like Longreach or even Dubbo. My guess is that they’ll let AM stations convert to FM in these type of towns. But the point is the industry can’t afford to wait in the cities with cars, especially with Apple and Android in cars more common than DAB. It’s a risk.

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4TAB 2 is back to normal programming this morning.

Awww that sucks :frowning:

That’s a pity - I was enjoying the 4IP/Stereo 10 sounds. Although they didn’t have all the old Stereo 10 jingles I remember :slight_smile:

Well, there is one strength that terrestrial stations have over internet stations.

Localism, be that your local town or the likelihood that you will hear more Australian music/news etc.

The terrestrial broadcasters should play to those strengths.

Also, most DAB+ only stations can also be accessed via Tunein etc via Android/Apple, so I don’t see those stations at any disadvantage compared to internet only stations.

One thing that always interests me about Internet connectivity in cars regardless of platform, one requires a data link presumably via 3/4g data networks and that ain’t cheap for constant streaming of music. I haven’t seen an all-you-can download flat rate service provider for mobile networks, so this is an option I certainly wouldn’t be using even if my next car has the hardware.

DRM has a huge issue in hardware availability. I believe the only two standalone receivers available now are an Indian receiver (Avion?) and a Chinese one (Newstar?) and both have terrible reviews on reception performance.

Whether the market has taken DAB up or not, it really is sound business sense to expand this for regional areas on the proviso that extra channels are made available. I agree entirely that one channel block for the whole of the country is a tad limiting! Receivers are abundant and the technology is mature. Current chipsets are making it even easier to integrate DAB into low end products ( like that Kmart wooden stereo DAB radio I saw today for a whole of $39). By geez, I could get one for the can at that price… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Various reports around recently about EON Sports Radio including with the parts that interested me:

EON Broadcasting launches new sports channel

"We are already on line and can be found at eonsports.com.au Our app will be available very shortly and we expect to be live Nationally on digital DAB+ in February 2016.”


Glenn Wheatley and EON Sports Radio signs TopBetta

“Mr Wheatley said EON Sports Radio, which is about to launch nationally on digital, …”

Not sure where the spectrum is coming from for this network.

I think I remember seeing somewhere that the 2UE bitrate has dropped and not been replaced by anything yet. So possibly Fairfax/Macquarie are making way for EON?

The other possibility is SCA given their existing relationship with the operation of the Sunshine Coast stations, however SCA only have spare spectrum in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane (although only on their non-main multiplex which they haven’t used yet). In Adelaide and Perth they would have to drop a station or significantly reduce bitrates.

2UE’s DAB+ channel is still 96kbps. If Macquarie was going to broadcast EON Sports Radio, surely they’d get rid of the waste of space that is NTS?

At this stage, my money is going to be on SCA carrying this new digital channel.

At least if it’s just talk then it wouldn’t need a sizable allocation of bits.

They could easily get it back without impacting audio by killing slideshows - and indeed in Melbourne, just using the spectrum they paid for! But that won’t happen, so enjoy Stardust while it lasts.

You’d think it would be in the interests of all the Perth/Adelaide stations to lobby the government to let them use 9A, it’s not like there’s going to be DAB spectrum congestion around Perth/Adelaide.

Listening to EON Sports radio this afternoon it was a direct relay of Talksport UK Digital( included advertising).

Guy Dobson recently said to expect new digital channels from them soon so im also thinking SCA.

could it be taking over from Elf Radio?

i’m actually quite interested in this channel as long as they don’t bastardize it too much for australia. as a follower of a EPL team that doesn’t get a ton of coverage (west brom) it sounds like my type of station

Not sure if it’s been mentioned here, but for those looking for a cheap DAB+ radio, Kmart have the “Nora Mantle DAB+ Radio” on sale at the moment for $9. It also does FM RDS with radio text. Not the best radio I’ve had in terms of reception, but good enough to get an RDS decode on 2GO in Sydney and pick up 96.3 Coast FM sandwiched between The Edge and Wave FM. It has an included mains adapter or you can run it off the built-in rechargable Li-ion battery.

Not bad for $9!

elf is now off the air

Elf Radio has been off air for a couple of days now. As of today (or maybe yesterday), Sydney-only station Christmas Hope is finally off air too so make sure to rescan your radios!