Many cars are eliminating AM radios, especially electric vehicles where interference from the electric motors and other components becomes a problem. Given that much listening to radio is done in the car and there is expected to be a transition towards EVs, this will one day become more of a problem for AM stations.
While existing commercial stations might argue that allowing commercial AM stations to convert to FM for free might give them an unfair advantage, the commercial AM stations could argue that the status quo gives will give them an increasingly unfair disadvantage.
This is true, although the mantra in the industry definitely seems to be ānever give a sucker an even breakā, so.
And given the slight modernisation of playlists that the other Capital stations have seen with the switch to FM in their solus markets (ie. XL FM/GN FM)ā¦
ā¦like, 6PR shouldnāt be so controversial given itās old-skewed talk (although even SCA may object with how MMM is like these days, now it properly exists in the west again). But are the Perth FM incumbents that worried about what a hypothesised āIX FMā [they may need to come up with a better nameā¦] might do on a more level playing field? Canāt have a blow-in from the ābushā disturbing usā¦
ACMA needs to grow a pair, it seems they are trembling in their boots in fear of upsetting CRA and the commercial radio industry, they are the regulator!!!
I would have thought the commercial radio stations in Perth would have welcomed this. ARN could then make an offer for 6IX so they can launch KIIS in Perth, and Nova blowing up 6PR after conversion to launch Smooth.
Lastly what is the point of Am to FM conversions in competitive markets if the incumbents are going to write another angry submissions to ACMA. Is ACMA going to then cancel the whole process like what seems to be happening in Perth??
That is exactly what will happen with the AM to FM conversions in competitive regional areas. I skimmed the document yesterday and ACMA have included some waffly wording to the effect that the incumbants should āagreeā before the conversion happens. So itāll be another case where ACMA stands back and lets the operators argue and the whole thing stalls. Honestly they are pathetic.
6PR isnāt a Nova-owned station though (may be thinking of fiveAA?) - theyād have to pry 6PR out of Nineās hands. Weāre only talking one music station here.
Also keep in mind that theyād have to unwind the ARN-NovaEnt joint venture for Nova 93.7 in order for ARN to buy another station, just like in Brisbane (NovaEnt would not have to).
Yes and MMM, Mix and Nova are running scared? It has been more than 30 years that the likes of 6PM and 6KY have, I am sure, more than made good on their invest in the bidding wars for AM to FM conversion back in the early 90s. And hasnāt it dawned on the incumbents that any available FM slots will be tempting for the federal government to auction off as easy money?
Capital Radio is a regional player.
It is David V Goliath, and Goliath needs ACMA for protection.
Even if 6IX converts to fm Mix, Triple M, and Nova will still be more dominant in the ratings.
ACMA just needs to call their BS and implement option 1.
All I can say is wake me up when frequency changes or format conversions actually take place (2030 sounds like a good time to maybe possibly see some changes) - this is why Iām most often following the much more dynamic markets and spheres in the US and Canada through their various radio industry websites and forums than anything here where nothing seems to change. I mean it took till 2003 for northern regional SA to get a commercial FM station for godās sake so I never have held up much hope for initiatives either growing up there or since the last decade living here in Perth.
That may be so, but the other commercial AM station, 6PR, is owned by Nine Media, which owns many high rating radio stations in other capital cities as well as the Nine TV network as well as newspapers in Sydney and Melbourne.
But how would talkback 6PR compete for listeners on FM any better than AM? After all there is no talkback FM station I know, so 6PR would not pick up any new listeners on FM that were not already there listening on AM. Heck they had 6GT for music on DAB+ and killed that off to concentrate on their core talkback (news and sport) market, irrespective of whether it is on AM, FM or DAB+.
ARN/SCA probably have a concern that someone might pull a reverse 4KQ-SEN and flip 6PR to music were it to move to FM, since the playing field had been levelled with 40kw of RDS FM stereo available in all corners.
Does that mean Brisbane has no talkback station anymore? There is certainly a market for this format, where here in Perth it is only 6PR, all other stations are music. The only threat to the existing FM commercial music stations (none are talkback, maybe MMM with sports??) would be music. For that it is 6iX which is music and both a different format to the existing (more like Smooth or The Wave, one is on DAB, the other serves Mandurah) and a different competing operator entering the FM band (Capital Radio).
Even though ARN or Nova could make a grab, SCA would certainly be unhappy and I get the feeling they are most powerful (and more representative in Perth). ARN/Nova would be fighting with each other (Nova would dearly love to move Smooth to FM but from my reading here it is not easy given the ownership constraints, and ARN would fight Nova I am sure to bring/rebrand both the KIIS and Gold format). They would need to have the appetite for that and collectively counter SCAās strong push to avoid any changes to the commercial FM regime.
I think more the point is how will an AM 6PR compete with an FM ABC Local (if the ABC conversions happen quicker). Will 6PR suffer and ABC benefit? Probably. People will forget AM even exists with 2 lonely stations (PR/iX) the only major ones there.
Brisbane has 4BC (sister station to 6PR). They play a few songs at breakfast but then itās talkback. Brisbane has 4 commercial AM stations - which is a bit of an anomaly as Perth and Adelaide have only 2 each.
4BC - news/talk
4BH - classic hits
SENQ (Ex-4KQ) - sport
4TAB (Ex-4IP) - racing
Yes thatās part of it. But even in the 70s before FM Brisbane had at least one more station than Perth and Adelaide. The other factor was 4IP becoming a Brisbane station. Of course Brisbane was bigger than both back then too, but only marginally bigger than Adelaide actually. Perth was smaller than Adelaide back then.
Iāve often wondered whether if 4BH had converted to FM as planned in the early 90s (giving Brisbane 3 FMs like Adelaide and Perth), would they have allocated a further 2 new FM licences in the early 2000s (like they did in Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane), OR just another 1 (like they did in Adelaide/Perth). Could have gone either way I reckon.
Brisbane is only 20% more people compared to Perth being 50% more people than Adelaide and both Perth and Adelaide have the same number of commercial radio stations (and I am sure Brisbane had less than 2.1 mil people when they got their last commercial AM/FM station)ā¦ so ā¦ excellent strategy adopted by ACMA to ensure at least one FM slot reserved for another commercial FM station in the near future, completely blindsiding the commercial FM owners.
