The 80s has dropped to 32 kbps in Melbourne as well. Sounds very ropey even on a 3 inch speaker. Not good!
No sign of Taco or any other new “stations”
What multiplex is it on?
9B - So it seems that SCA might be finally using it’s allocated bandwidth on that multiplex.
It’ll be interesting to see what comes out of “TACO”. A return for The Range? A completely new station?
Its odd that they haven’t seemingly aligned TACO with the Hit or Triple M networks like they recently did with all of the other DAB stations.
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SCA could be leasing it out to a Mexican broadcasting group.
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Doesn’t Bill Caralis already have enough of his own stations on DAB in Sydney?
Given that’s it’s just simulcasting Triple M at the moment, it might just be a temporary station to test their use of that multiplex. TACO night just be an arbitrary name that means nothing to no one other than the engineers.
I doubt we would see another DAB station run by SCA given how soon it is to their most recent relaunch last weekend. I think it’s more likely that they’ll just it to increase the bitrate of their main stations in Sydney or they’ve leased it out to an external operator.
I’d definitely rule the range out. The also have the capacity in Melbourne and Brisbane to have kept it if they wanted to. The Range Facebook also details the switch of the online stream from the national DAB+ stream with no ads and limited programming to the Toowoomba stream which has local ads and also ads the American Country’s Countdown which was not on DAB+. It seems like a lot of effort to go to if they’re planning on bringing it back.
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ARN have launched The Edge and The 80s in Perth.
With only 128kbits available, based on what they’re doing in other cities, I suspect 96FM is 48kbits, The Edge is 48kbits and The 80s in 32kbits.
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Yeah, that sounds plausible. I remember when SCA did a national DAB+ broadcast of 105.1 Triple M Melbourne coded as “M3” for about a month or so in 2012, perhaps “TACO” might be something similar.
I don’t know if it’s already been mentioned, but apparently Coles Radio started broadcasting on Canberra DAB+ yesterday. Do we have anyone in the nation’s capital who can confirm whether or not Coles Radio is indeed now broadcasting on DAB+ locally?
The odd one for me is that CW Remix is 48kbps, it doesn’t strike me as a station they care about other than the 20 cents they get from Chemist Warehouse, so strange that it is prioritised over putting both the 80s/90s stations to the higher bitrate.
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I can confirm it is broadcasting on the DAB+ trial at 32kbps.
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It appears that ARN are now doing the same as SCA and running their stations at the same bitrate in all cities. This is inline with what my contact at ARN told me a bit over 12 months ago that they were moving from local to centralized playout for these stations. Based on this, The 80s would be on the lower bitrate so that they can fit it in in Perth.
I’m in Perth.
Of the Commercial DAB only stations, we get:
Oldskool Hits at 40kbps (
)
Buddha Hits at 48kbps
Easy Hits at 48kbps
MMM Classic at 48kbps (no MMM Greatest Hits or MMM Modern)
Coles at 32kbps (
)
Smooth at 48kbps
The 80’s at 32kbps
The Edge at 48kbps (complete with Western Sydney plastic surgery ads 
)
X Digital at 32kbps
Kinderling at 48kbps
KIX Country at 32kbps
My Perth Digital at 48kbps
NTS at 64kbps (
)
I think that’s all of them.
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Gee how come no MMM Greatest Hits or Modern?
NTS at 64kbps (
)
I am glad NTS is 64 compared to the music stations. That repetitive talk station needs more bits :). How many bits is 6IX?
Still waiting for Paul McCartney “week” to finish.
Also, no sign of any Totally Arbitrary Commercial Operation (TACO) in Brisbane 
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That’s an awesome backronym , TVC!
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I agree, I’ve heard more than enough Paul McCartney already. A week of him is sheer overkill.
Will be interested to hear what MMM Greatest Hits has for its regular playlist.
And also as to what pops up on this Totally Anonymous Commercial Offering in Sydney.
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Same in Melbourne.
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Oldskool Hits’ bitrate has been reduced to 40kbps in Sydney (and presumably in other cities) as well.