ARN Regional (formerly Grant Broadcasters)

I wouldn’t expect them to split up the floor - the Cameron’s style would be to cram everyone into the smallest space possible so that they can rent out the most space possible.

1 Like

Not Grants but I think Nova and FiveAA are on seperate floors in Adelaide, so it wouldn’t be a first

Bit different for metro stations though because they have heaps of staff and are largely run separately.
SCA’s stations are also on different floors in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

Last shifts for Krock and I presume Bay FM in the old studios today. Moving downstairs from tomorrow.

Meanwhile, trees fall in the forest and are barely heard. More people listen to stations like AW and 774 than what’s being served up on Bay and Krock, a change of studios will not improve this.

Grant Broadcasters are not adept at operating ‘at or near the top’ in competitive markets.

Listened to a bit of Bay FM yesterday and they were in the old studio due to technical issues with the new one

I rarely listen to KRock and Bay and I live in Geelong, mostly listen to Melbourne stations. Even work has Gold 104.3 on out the back

2 Likes

I sometimes listen to Bay even tho i’m receiving it in Melbourne and find that it doesn’t have that cheap feel that Fox and the like have.

A Grant Broadcasters station that doesn’t sound cheap? I’ll have to tune in.

4 Likes

Best thing about them is their local Geelong news on air and online without a paywall

1 Like

Bay went off the rails a bit in recent years, Krock did too but I think their new breakfast team is pretty good. It’s the cost cutting and only a few regular jocks that sucks the life out of it, especially Bay which has gone super old sounding with their jocks in recent years.

New Geelong studios, running only the best in broadcast quality software… Audacity.

3 Likes

Janet: Sandles, we need to keep watching our pennies, is there any way we can tighten our budget?

Sandles: Mrs Cameron, we’re already using freeware for our computers.

2 Likes

Actually if you saw the ridiculous user-based pricing that Adobe has gone for with Audition - it’s not really affordable anymore. It’s basically about $400 per user per year. When you have a station with a bunch of users, it adds up pretty quickly.

You’ll probably see Audition disappear from a lot of radio stations in the next 12 months, replaced with offerings like Ocen Audio or Audacity.

2 Likes

I think that’s more a reflection of the ruthless desire/need for companies to cut costs with little regard for the impact it has. It might sound a lot on it’s own, but it’s really a drop in the ocean when you consider that those users are being paid tens of thousands of dollars a year, and other software they use has price tags not too far behind.
While the cheaper/free alternatives may be sufficient for casual users who just need to record and slightly edit a short grab for playback later, it won’t be a good day once professional level tools such as Audition start disappearing from production studios.

I think you’ll find the majority of the work being done on Audition in an on air studio is quick edits of interviews and the like. A couple of guys might use it for jingles and stuff, but that would be the exception not the rule.

When you consider we used to be able to own a copy of Audition for $500 per studio, and we now have to pay in some locations several thousand dollars a year for the same product, I’d say it’s more a cash grab from Adobe rather than broadcasters trying to cut costs.

1 Like

http://www.abc.net.au/reception/

Test Transmissions in Maryborough, Victoria

The ABC has been advised by Grant Broadcasters that GOLD Central Victoria (98.3 FM) will be conducting test transmissions using changed technical operating specifications from Tuesday 3 April through Wednesday 11 April 2018. Maryborough residents are asked to please contact the ABC Reception Advice Line on 1300 13 9994 if you experience any degraded reception when listening to ABC Radio (107.9 FM), ABC Classic FM (105.5) or triple j (107.1 FM) during the test period.

So, how did this go for Gold?

Improved coverage in the vicinity of the FM 98.3 translator?

Where’s the ACMA documents on this or is it not needed?

And I don’t get why Grant would be advising the ABC of this… Are they anticipating impacts to ABC radio reception? I can’t think what to though.

if you change specs, you have to advise all others of the change. It’s part of the ACMA guidelines to manage interference.

1 Like

I meant that I thought the ACMA would be the ones responsible for advising other broadcasters.

That way other stations know that the change in specs are ACMA approved.