Triple M Townsville has finished their coverage for the day, but says they will have hourly updates overnight. And then Steve ‘Pricey’ Price will be on tomorrow morning to continue.
Wildy on Power 100 looks to be settling in for the night coverage.
According to schedules on the ABC Far North, North Queensland and Tropical North pages - coverage resumes Sunday morning from 5.30am with Michael Clarke. Followed by Susan Graham-Ryan again at 10am, Adam Stephen again at 2pm and looks to continue until 9pm.
With ongoing flooding and weather impacts in Queensland’s north, there has still been some continuing coverage on radio across the radio.
According to schedule ABC has been running extra coverage all week, with more localised programs specific to the north, including today.
From a quick flick around Power 100 and Triple M have been running with local announcers with continued updates as well, including Pricey covering extended weekend morning shifts.
With the impending crossing of Severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia, both Hit and Triple M stations in Port Hedland and Karratha are sharing a simulcast broadcast with the latest information.
ABC Karratha has been broadcasting an extended local Breakfast and Mornings program so far.
Local Indigenous station Ngarrda Media is also broadcasting cyclone updates according to their Facebook post.
Just wondering if the ABC or government have a position on which bands (AM/FM/DAB+) they prioritise during a disaster. Should I just make sure friends have FM/DAB+ radio?
I always assumed AM (for long distance coverage) but during cyclone Alfred AM transmitter failed and they took over ABC classic FM for ABC local which was a great idea. DAB continued throughout without interruption. There seems to be a policy to transition from AM to FM/DAB even in regional centres. Obviously Radio Australia left shortwave years ago. And I would love DRM to get picked up, but not holding my breath.
During cyclone Alfred I discovered quite a few friends don’t have a portable/battery radio (elder millennials). I assumed everyone had one in their kitchen. I lent a couple of radios out to friends and they asked for recommendations for the future. I am thinking I should just recommend a FM/DAB+ radio, like the Sangeon models that take AA and can charge NiMH.
In terms of coverage, having access to both AM+FM is best in an emergency. A lot of ABC AMs pump out heaps of power and can be heard far afield, and still probably makes up the bulk of sq km area covered by the emergency broadcaster.
Yes, over the years some ABCs have moved to FM, but in most of these cases the moves were to create ‘more local’ stations so a lot of the time the AM station is still heard in areas with ABC Local Radio on FM. Coffs Harbour, which still hears Grafton AM, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast which still hear Brisbane are some examples.
Don’t forget too that many parts of Australia don’t have access to ABC Local Radio on FM, including many capital cities and large more remote areas where AM gets out much further.
DAB I feel has reached close to its maximum rollout extent, at least in its current form, and certainly isn’t required for coverage (there are no parts of Australia that have DAB+ coverage that don’t have either FM or AM).
Whatever band ABC Local Radio is on, so for example Brisbane would be AM due to that been where Local Radio is.
That was to get the information out to the most people regardless if they had a AM, FM or DAB radio, and the decision to take over Classic FM frequency was made before the failure at the 612 site
After Tropical Cyclone Albert unleashed on Queensland and Northern NSW earlier this year the Queensland Government have used the the potential of future disasters to create a campaign called the Get Ready Queensland’s Crisis Crew.
The crew is a kit of emergency essentials like Dunnita the toilet paper, Toot the can of baked beans and good old Scratchy (pictured) the battery powered radio.
Pretty sure a lot of these signs have been around for at least 20 years (possibly more now but that’s the extent of my memory).
They’re very common on main highways when you go from one coverage area into another (for example, along the Hume from Albury to Melbourne, there’s a sign just past Wodonga pointing listeners to 106.5FM, then one further down towards Benalla pointing listeners to 97.7FM, and finally one down towards Seymour pointing listeners to 774AM).
