Interestingly, all radio licences in Australia including Commercial radio licences are issued only for their particular licence term (i.e. 5 years), there is no guarantee that ACMA will renew such licences. However in practice, it would be highly unlikely that ACMA didnt renew a commercial radio licence.
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8DN (AM commercial radio station) in Darwin was not renewed due to its licensee owning too many stations in one market. In a way this suited its owners as it reduced competition.
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is that still a thing? I thought they had abolished licence renewals?
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It is, but itâs more an administrative process then anything - no hearings like the old days
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For all intents and purposes, licence renewal is automatic for commercial broadcasting services. Itâs far from automatic for community broadcasting services. And therein lies a double standard.
Money talks, common sense walks.
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Agree, particularly in country areas where there is only one commercial operatorâŚ
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I would argue in this day and age that hearings are needed much more than they were back in the day, especially with the lack of localism and diversity seen from a lot of commercial radio networks.
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You went far further than most would. Hopefully change ahead or following a return visit.
Surely @captaincupcake that youâre not surprised? Weâve read chapter and verse of examples here.
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Easy to guess who, blatant non compliance out there from one licensee at many of their sites.
Yet the cost would have long been amortised by now, even the Nova/Smooth round of licences are long enough ago.
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Recently, ive been checking out what Sydney has to offer in the way of Narrowband Area Service (NAS) radio services, particularly those operating in the VHF band 151-152 mhz and 173 mhz. To my surprise, there are many services still operating in this way (around 20 or so that i could receive), all non english content. Even in the age of smart phones, diverse communities across Sydney appear to be still engaging in traditional analog radio (off band).
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Why not? Remains easier to tune than set up a connection and log in to a web stream.
Many moons ago I used to listen to the BBC World Service in Sydney on the VHF NAS band with my Radio Shack scanner; I think it was 152.025 MHz from memory. This was well before DAB and on the go streaming, though.
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ACMA finds One Central West FM88 breached political tagging rules
New South Wales-based radio station One Central West FM88 has been found to have breached broadcasting rules by failing to include the required authorisation tags for an announcement from a federal member of parliament.
An Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) investigation found that One Central West FM88 broadcast the announcement on multiple occasions between October and December 2022 and that the announcement breached the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.
Broadcasters must announce on air the details of the entity or individual that has requested the broadcast of any political matter. These rules apply to all broadcasters, including narrowcasting services.
ACMA Chair Nerida OâLoughlin said broadcasters are expected to be clear with their audience about the source of any political messages.
âPeople have a right to know who has authorised the political messages they hear. For audiences to be fully informed, they must be able to identify the source of these announcements,â Ms OâLoughlin said.
âCorrectly tagging political announcements ensures transparency and accountability and promotes an informed Australian public.â
Following the ACMAâs breach finding, One Central West FM88 will train relevant staff about the rules around broadcasting political matter.
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Thereâs a FM LPON located in Brisbaneâs suburb of Redcliffe on 88.0MHz calling itself âTower FMâ with stereo pilot carrier. Oldies format. Is this new? I couldnât find a website or FM page.
Perhaps operated by Leonard Morton, re ACMA search.
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Long running. Suffers from CCI by the supposedly godly behaved Christian LPONs.
He also has one on air in Oakey and some web presence.
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Happy Clappers playing by the rules??? Bullshit I wouldnât believe it 
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Exactly @gordo92, never happens. Such hypocrisy for what they supposedly preach.
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Iâve managed to receive this at very poor quality among all the mash on that frequency. Iâd say it is news as I havenât previously noticed it.
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@crankymedia says:
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