Random Radio

Former 96fm breakfast host Fizti is on mix 94.5 on the jam for 2 weeks filling in for Sam.longley

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I believe 96five in Brisbane relays the audio from the standard Seven SD channel from a standard digital TV tuner.

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It’s pretty much on the mark, delay is minimal. Anyway, the simulcast is intended for those away from the TV.

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Here is a interesting read. I am glad I am not the only one who thinks this :smirk:

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Yes I remember this from a couple of years ago.

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I agree. It seems that in this day & age, most commercial FM stations in Australia, both metro & regional, are ‘afraid’ of playing anything earlier than 1980. Notable exceptions are Breeze & Triple M in some regional areas (ie. those that carry the “Classic Hits” format).

I was recently in NZ for a holiday & there are a few commercial FM stations across the country that still plays plenty of 60s & 70s music, even the nationally networked ones, such as Coast, Magic & The Sound. Although Magic is on AM in the bigger cities of Auckland, Wellington & Christchurch.

Radio in NZ is generally so much better than in Australia, at least in the music playlists department, with a wide variety of formats to choose from, even in some of the lower-populated areas. They even have a dedicated 80s station in XS80s on the FM band in some parts of the South Island, such as Christchurch, Dunedin & Wanaka (where I was based during my stay). :slight_smile:

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I’d suggest the audience probably isn’t there. Those that might listen to such music are probably already caught up in AM talkback. I’m not sure that you’d realistically gain much audience traction from playing earlier tracks.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t NZ radio networked all from one building (more or less)?
Easier to provide a bunch of options if everything’s coming from one spot.

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Yes, that is the case.

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Radio in NZ is indeed much better and provides much more distinct music formats. Mainly due to two things IMO.

  1. There are simply more commercial stations on FM - they haven’t clogged up their dial with high powered community stations.

  2. They don’t have the 2 station rule so a single operator can really diversify their music formats.

The two station rule here just means each operator has 1 older and 1 newer station and all the “newer” and “older” stations sound the same.

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So the audience “isn’t there” in Australia but is in NZ? Doubt it.

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There is a loss of local radio within that however, which Australian rules proof against.

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Only in regional areas. There is no requirement for local content in metro areas. Even in regional areas the quota is pretty low. And some stations avoid it altogether - like 4FC Maryborough QLD. Zero local content.
I’d rather have better music formats and I don’t care where it comes from.

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As mentioned by OnAir above, the only negative I can think of about commercial radio in NZ is that they’re generally not really local to a specified region. The only things that are local on the nationally-networked stations are the local ads, weather reports & some locally-specific IDs. Rebel & Breeze in QLD/Northern NSW is a little bit similar on that regard, now that I think about it.

NZ has two major commercial radio companies: NZME & Mediaworks

In Auckland (the biggest radio market in NZ), NZME owns 8 commercial radio stations, whilst Mediaworks own 10 commercial radio stations, most of them on the FM band. In total, Auckland has 18 commercial radio stations.

In Queenstown, they have 11 commercial radio stations (3 x NZME; 8 x Mediaworks), whilst nearby Wanaka also has 11 commercial radio stations (4 x NZME; 6 x Mediaworks; 2 x Radio Wanaka (Radio Wanaka & Roy FM)).

I agree with you, as long as the music they play is good to my liking, eg. Triple M’s “Classic Hits” & DAB+ stations, Smooth or Capital Radio Network’s “Forever Classic” stations.

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Does NZ have DAB+? If so, with so many FM stations, is the market penetration a lot less than Oz?

Only in Auckland & Wellington, and even then, only on a Trial basis. Not any of the commercial radio stations, with the exception of Mai FM & George FM, is currently transmitting on DAB+.

More info about DAB+ in NZ: http://www.digitalradio.co.nz/

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And that’s why the restricted number of commercial stations here is a joke. 6 FM stations in cities the size of Sydney and Melbourne, with no prospect of any more FM licenses ever being issued, is laughable.

Time ACMA did a reshuffle of frequencies to free up more high power channels. Start with the low power community stations that are supposed to only cover particular areas, but are protected from interference by having spacing between them that allows them full metro area protection. You could easily place two low power community stations which are at opposite ends of the cities on the same frequency using highly directional transmit antennas. Those who had fortuitous reception from outside the licensed service area might just have to miss out. The FM receiver’s capture effect would work to ignore the much weaker signal.

This works perfectly well in other countries. ACMA would probably have to do years of trials etc to prove that it would be the same here. Then have years of consultations. Then have public inquiries. Then do nothing anyway. Just like they’ve done in the past!

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That would be 11 - Radio Wanaka run the announcer-free Roy FM on the low powered 104.2 FM frequency, which I can only describe as triple j but more eclectic. Roy used to be on 94.6 FM, which while operated by Radio Wanaka now carries programming from NZME’s Coast brand.

Agree 100%. Look at Brisbane. A city of 2.5M and only 4 commercial FM stations. What a complete joke! 18 stations in Auckland which is about half the size. ACMA run a protection racket.

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Yesterday I was driving back to Melbourne along the Monash around 5.30pm and the traffic had crawllen to less than 10km… So i ditched the iPod and tried 3AW, thinking it was most likely to have a traffic report. Instead I got a 5 minute gig guide from Billy Pinnell (ex EON/3MMM) with Grubby and Dee Dee hosting. It made me wonder:

  • what portion of the 3AW listener base would go to gigs?
  • do other stations still do a decent gig guide (apart from public stations like 3RRR) - and mentioning overseas artists’ concert tours don’t count!
  • how did I manage to miss the disappearance of gig guides - its used to be a mainstay of Triple M, Fox and 3XY
  • where can I get a traffic report on a Sunday arvo?
  • am I just getting old…
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Sharon from the western suburbs of Melbourne and perhaps Chris of the North?

I don’t think there would be much.

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