Yes that can be deduced from the argument above. It would be funny if the requirement did extend to the ‘capitals’ of the territories as well, such as Jervis Bay Village 
It would also mandate MW outlets on the more exotic isles such as Christmas Island, creating more DX opportunities.
I wonder if they will take up our nerdery and significantly reduce the power of 585 kHz…
They must had forgot the part about 6WF being on 1250m Long Wave during their early days before it moved to 690 on the MW Band and Eventually 720
Pretty sure there is a spare frequency there for the hypothetical Jervis Bay Village Service that was vacated by 2ST 5 years ago when they converted to FM. Just move the old 5kw 999 transmitter there and it may also be the Newsradio Service for the Shoalhaven Area. (Although we all know that the de facto Newsradio service for the Jervis Bay Territory is 90.9 Knights Hill)
I’d like to see that
They could do a swap, the SBS FM frequencies be used for ABC local radio and SBS Radio 1 move to the AM frequency.
I’m not 100% sure but I believe it’s the 6 state capitals plus Newcastle.
sorry, yes you are right, it did specify Newcastle as well.
I guess Newcastle was by far the biggest regional centre when that legislation was drafted. Of course if they were trying to honour the intention of it now they would need to include the Gold Coast with an AM transmission too, as it’s overtaken Newcastle to be the 6th biggest city in the country. So one could argue there’s now a kind of precedent for it to be ok just on FM
In this day and age, I’d go the other way and mandate FM over AM given many radios now don’t do AM, particularly in EVs.
Absolutely. And not just cars, many homes don’t have an AM radio either.
For anyone following along at home, here’s the legislation: Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcasting Act 1946
The act is a pretty quick read, but here’s the relevant bit:
4 Broadcasting of parliamentary proceedings
(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation shall broadcast the proceedings of the Senate, the House of Representatives or a joint sitting from:
(a) a medium‑wave national broadcasting station in the capital city in each State and in the city of Newcastle in the State of New South Wales; and
(b) such other national broadcasting stations (including shortwave national broadcasting stations) as are prescribed; upon such days and during such periods as the Committee determines.
Just change the word ‘and’ to ‘or’ and Bob’s your uncle. They could designate the PNN FM services to satisfy limb (b).
If it only needs to be available in capitals, and considering the niche nature of the content a good shakeup of parliamentary broadcasts could be to throw it on the ABC’s DAB mux at a tiny bitrate (think 16k or lower) and scrap the analogue requirements all together.
I don’t know about anyone else, but if I’m flicking between radio presets and hear a backbencher asking a Dorothy Dixer on NewsRadio, I keep looking for something else to listen to. It really breaks the flow of an otherwise decent fallback station.
Probably serves too much of a purpose to get rid of it entirely though.
It’s important for parliamentary broadcasts to be widely available in the interest of transparent democracy (even if unappealing to the majority). However, they should be on the medium that’s most widely available to the public. In 1946 that was obviously AM radio; 80 years later FM has assumed this position.
They are also available on the internet.
Another possible option is to put the parliament broadcasts on ABC TV as one of the radio channel. While I doubt that many people listen to radio over TV (it’s only a few % of radio listeners in the UK) lots of people have TVs and such a move would make parliament available nationwide wherever ABC TV could be received.
I don’t know how many people actually listen to Parliament on AM but I’m glad it’s there. In practice, personally I think one of the best things NewsRadio does is make BBC World Service available on the analogue airwaves without internet. This is when I listen the most
No way that there could be a conversion without reducing the spacing between major stations on FM from 800kHz down to 600 or even 400kHz.
Isn’t ABC NewsRadio already on Digital TV across Australia?
Yes - News Radio is channel 204 on DTV
Mainly after hours and on weekends, but yes it’s a good listen when you want a break from the trivialities of Australian news.
Unfortunately we don’t get SBS Radio 3 in Canberra on DAB; that used to be virtually a 24 hour BBCWS relay. The only FM relay I get is 88.2 Fiji, and that’s about once every couple of years via Es
And needs to be restored as a 24-hour BBC WS relay.