I guess it comes down to a cost-benefit analysis. Perhaps in the short-term Nine might keep 6PR on FM but in the longer-term if ratings decline they may also decide to get rid of it altogether and put a music format on FM.
Some good points made there. The good thing about a conversion to FM for 6IX and 6PR is at least they will both be on a level playing field to the other 4 commercial FM stations. Having all 6 commercial stations on FM is a good idea, as well as the ABC stations. It will be more competitive.
I doubt whether we would see a 7th and 8th commercial license awarded in Perth, simply because it would have no support within CRA and the incumbents would be opposed, as too would the ABC.
If they went with the nuclear option 5, and 2 new FM commercial licenses were added, they would have to do the same to Adelaide and Brisbane, possibly even Sydney and Melbourne, which wonât happen.
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Iâd like to see 6PR on FM and remain as a talk station. As mentioned by the others, ABC local radio stations are on FM too around the country.
These days I donât think FM should be only for music. We donât have a real commercial news/talk station on the FM band. Having a good sounding FM talk station might give a boost to the ratings. On the other hand for 6IX I am worried it will just âgo modernâ like what happen with WS FM and 2UW (MIX/KIIS FM) in Sydney. I know this sounds counter intuitive. I am happy we still have 2UE on AM and a music station. The golden oldies in my view would most likely disappear if 2UE became an FM station. We would just end up with a Smooth or WSFM middle the road safe repetitive radio station with no imagination (when it comes to the music variety). Seems to be a worrying trend in the capital cities for the music FM stations. At least XL/2GN is less likely to have this problem given it is a 2 station regional market. I hope Perth will go against that trend.
Some argue since the 90s, when 2WS and 2UW were around, the music has moved on, I just live in the past. Yet in other markets there are still Cruise/ 4KQ still pretty successful with a format similar (on the AM Band) to what 2UW/2WS was back in the 90s.
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I suppose the only realistic chance is if they decide to onsell the AM frequencies - someone buying them knowing how poor AM coverage is, as opposed to 6PR/6IX being in the situation where they were never able to convert due to the previous spectrum limitations, rather than knowingly choosing AM, especially now itâd be supplemented with DAB.
It would defeat the purpose a bit - but if thereâs a buyer out there, may as well sell it.
Canât see Nine wanting to be in music. Talk ties in to their other operations - with efficiencies between 6PR, Nine News Perth and to a small extent WAtoday.
Their east coast music stations are just a cheap fallback format - if they had the slightest bit of strategy to them 4BH would have a different music format to fill Brisbaneâs differing market gap.
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Nine should move 6GT to 882 and have 6PR on FM.
If the proposals go ahead, 882 will be switched off altogether.
882, 990, 1080 and 1206 all broadcast from the same site at Ascot. Surely it would be too expensive to keep just two AM stations on air (990 - 6RPH and 1206 - 6TAB ).
Would they allow for perhaps SEN to take over any of the spare main AM frequencies?
SEN Track on 657 and Full SEN on either 882 or 1080 would be ideal for Sports Entertainment to break further into the market.
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Agree @Bergoine , 6RPH and the racing HPON should be converted to FM.
CRA should support this as it will lop off another two openings for a new commercial licence.
Also, a quote of an earlier post in @Bergoineâs earlier post has changed, I wanted to read the thread of the post about WA racing HPON running bushfire updates in SW WA. Where do I read it?
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That is what I think will happen. What is interesting is what will happen to 6iX. All AM conversions to FM have resulted in a total change in format (except 6PM which remained basically the same with PMFM) and indeed:
Can Grant do the same with 6iX? That is, create what The Wave is doing now in Mandurah, what Mix94.5 used to do before it became a âHitâ station and what I get now with Smooth Perth on DAB+? I remember once when in Brisbane I could pick up this interesting FM station called River FM âŚ
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Given 6IX is already on 105.7 FM to the north and south of Perth, and that DAB is now in play (which wasnât the case when other FM conversions in SYD-MEL-BNE-ADL-PER occurred in the late 80s and early 90s), and with no new competition, hopefully that will increase the chances of 6IX keeping the current music log on a Perth wide FM frequency.
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They could, but they lack the vision and too tight on spending to do so. They will plough along with Kevâs tired old âgood time oldiesâ concept.
River 949, 4MIX Ipswich. Yes, we all remember it too here. Its memorable days are gone. Bland and suffering from more tightening of the miserly fist of the Scottish Camerons.
Got it in one @TV-Expert, the station is a shadow of its former self as look at the list of stations, four stations which wouldâve had their own MD, own log, own insight to market demands; now all scrapped with Covid as the excuse.
Remember the 105.7 coverage is quite limited, these arenât overpowered Caralis style translators that appear to cover pretty much the entire licence area like 104.3 2LM or 2GF on FM.
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Sadly as others have pointed out River 94.9 is not what it once was. Itâs now bland and predictable and doesnât fill the nicheit once did.
In terms of Perth I agree you canât rule out a format change for 6iX or 6PR if they convert although I suspect it wouldnât be radical. 6iX should go soft AC like the old Smooth but I wonder if theyâre smart enough. Should be a no brainer.
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Yes, a Smooth like format would be a ratings-winner for 6IX on FM. However, even if they donât change formats, they will still be on a level playing field to the other commercial FMs in terms of FM coverage, so this should help them with increased listeners and advertisers.
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if Perth goes down that option of migrating commercial AMs to FM, how long then before the commercial AMs in every other city demand to do the same. Stations like Magic and 3MP would love to go to FM Iâm sure. It could be argued that both suffer from poor reception in parts of Melbourne.
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Looking at the Perth FM discussion paper Figure 2. It shows the proposed 100kW high-powered NAT FM service at 102.5 MHz producing an IF beat at 91.7 MHz which is the The Wave from Mandurah. Do modern FM radios still use an IF for demodulation? I would think West Coast Radio would none too happy with this.
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Thinking about the options proposed for Perth I somehow think theyâll end up converting all AM stations to FM.
However, I guess this doesnât mean theyâd have to offer the same all or nothing approach if they ever looked at the east coast capitals.
For example if they could only find one or two viable FM frequencies in Brisbane they could do an old fashioned bidding process to convert one or two of the commercial AMs to FM and raise some revenue.
Or they could allocate 1 FM frequency to the ABC and auction the other FM to a new player (less likely) or a conversion of an existing commercial AM. This is similar to one of the Perth options listed where the ABC gets only one FM frequency rather than all three.
I think some of the options offered in the Perth discussion paper could be adapted and used in the more congested east coast metros.
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I donât think 6PR will change format. 6iX will probably swing younger like WSFM and Gold 104.3. Be interesting to see how Mix 94.5 and 96FM counteract this should IX move to the FM band, I suspect Mix will go younger like other metro hit stations.
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I hope 6IX will still be like 2GN/XL FM. In my view it would good to remain as what they are today. Although having said that I feel like 2CA is too safe these days when i tuned in over Easter.
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If Option 1 for Perth goes ahead, then all 3 ABC AM stations would move to full power on FM and I think the ABC would decide to use one of those frequencies for Double J, possibly replacing Radio National.
Double J would have a far bigger audience than RN on FM and would be a better use of spectrum in my opinion. Listeners of RN could still tune in on DAB+, ABC TV as well as the various streaming options.