Not only is AM becoming unlistenable in parts the availability of AM receivers outside of the car is becoming an issue. For example I just bought a Philips clock radio for use as a clock and it does not feature an AM radio only FM.
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i think most people (even those who have digital) probably just call it radio now. I tihnk we are beyond a point where DAB is a selling point and it’s rather something a radio they buy (whether stand alone or in a car) comes with
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Its a bit like cricket have too many forms of cricket 
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Just a bit of a segue on this topic, I don’t really see the point of having the DAB & Streaming only ratings. It ambiguous if it should be DAB or streaming. Or those DAB only radio stations if you listen to you can tick the box and it could be either by streaming or DAB. Where it is confusing let us say I listen to Listnr Yacht Rock, which box I pick? It isn’t captured. Maybe someone who got a rating’s survey may have an answer. Back on topic I believe the “ratings” process needs to change to adapt to the future of streaming/radio. So the data would be more meaningful. It is “all” radio at the end of the day.
Maybe they can publish “ratings” around the apps being used like Listnr/iheartradio etc. They could probably get that from the app’s metrics anyway.
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it has the option for AM/FM / Streaming / Digital in the diary i filled out last year as a check box
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As Laoma suggests, it would be interesting to know what the different audience numbers are for streaming vs DAB+ on stations, rather than lumping them together. Also via TV in ABC’s case. Presumably the stations themselves get a more granular view.
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I managed to find the URL for ABC’s Shoutcast streaming server once(2 years ago- MediaHub ran it) and it displayed the listener numbers for each stream - I was surprised how low some of the ABC streams were. They have since firewalled it out so you can’t get to it.
Similarly, I also located Macquarie Radio’s Shoutcast server and again some of its stream listener numbers were lower than I was expecting - 2GB and 3AW were unsurprisingly the best performers. Again this Shoutcast server has disappeared and now Nine own it they appear to be using a different streaming provider. Macquarie also had their News distribution for affiliates on this server if you wanted to listen at the appointed time it streamed.
My take away is broadcasters don’t like you being able to get to the Shoutcast view pages.
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Last week, I spoke to Nova Entertainment’s Paul Jackson, ARN’s Duncan Campbell and Nine Radio’s Greg Byrnes. By and large, they all agreed that people tended to move to more personality driven stations as they matured, becoming less interested in discovering new music and more interested in discussions about family, lifestyle and finance.
However, if those younger demographics, say 10-24’s, aren’t listening to radio in the first place, then how will they discover radio when they’re older?
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Like with young people discovering vinyl, hopefully at some point, they will tire of streaming and podcasts at some point and discover the magic of live and local radio.
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There is a joy in the serendipity of radio- but that may be mostly lost on the average listener. The real issue is that most people only have a set amount of time to consume media, and streaming and podcasts deliver tailored content more efficiently than radio. You want to make the most of the limited time you have with the media.
Most people want hyper customised content- now that it’s available to them at the click of a psuedo-mouse.
That said, for live and local coverage, especially in emergencies- nothing beats radio. Only us geeks appreciate stuff like playlist crafting, song segues and announcer ‘flow’. The average Jill and Joe don’t give a stuff and mainly want the DJ to ‘shut up and play the music’.
I do think the average user of a music streaming service would actually consume a narrower variety of songs than if they listened to a community radio station (maybe not WS FM…) I use Spotify to store tracks that I have heard elsewhere, as well as to mine playlists for stuff I don’t know about. But the average user probably doesn’t use Spotify in this manner, content with the autogenerated ‘discovery’ content. The Spotify curated playlists are pretty safe from what I have seen, similar to commercial radio.
I’ll be using the tagline ‘playing stuff the algorithms don’t’ more often on my radio shows.
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Expanding the FM Band to 85 MHz is a Start.
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A pretty damming article on the diminishing future of DRM on RadioWorld via James Cridland’s Twitter feed.
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It’s an area Australia could step in on. Work with NZ and restart Radio Australia broadcasts in DRM shortwave, and then just do a big bulk order of receivers to distribute in the region.
Labor in their election stuff have talked about the importance of the ABC in the pacific, and while TV is part of that, so is regular radio, and ideally something better than scratchy AM shortwave.
It certainly is bad for DRM that we seem to be in this cycle of expensive receivers - I think a lot of that blame goes to India over-specifying the requirements for their rollout, rather than a basic receiver, trying to get all sorts of things like a colour display for slideshows and extensive text services, when people just want to listen to radio, not have it be slow scan TV.
That led to just never building that absolute basic $30 receiver that should have happened. The chipsets are there, there’s no reason for DRM to be as expensive as it is at retail right now.
Honestly though, is the better option just helping deploy something similar to Starlink, get the region online with uncensored internet - especially when the concern is China operated mobile networks in some pacific island nations, leading to stuff like stepping in to get Telstra to buy Digicel’s pacific operations.
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For as long as various communication ministers are bought out by vested interests (CRA), DRM is dead in the water. Four page letter to the minister was answered back by a boiler plate “no” letter.
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New Future, New communications minister, and new government.
Keep sending it where it’s got to go… 
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Saw this video of modern inventions that are no longer used, and guess what, they included radios!
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Is a transistor radio different to the radios we use now?
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Depending on what you mean by transistor radio - it became a term used for any small portable battery operated radio.
Any radio now is most likely to use integrated circuits that contain transistors.
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The old slide rule or rotary dial ones that only have AM are pretty much obsolete.
Nearly every radio made today has FM.
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