The finalists in the 28th annual Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRAs) were announced today with the hotly contested Best On Air Team FM (Metro) finalists including five-time winners Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson, (The Kyle and Jackie O Show, KIIS 1065, Sydney) up against three-time winners Hamish Blake and Andy Lee (The Hamish & Andy Show, SCA Hit Network).
Also competing for the title are Jonesy and Amanda (Brendan Jones and Amanda Keller, WSFM, Sydney) (winners in 2012 and 2014); Kate, Tim & Marty (Kate Ritchie, Tim Blackwell & Marty Sheargold, Nova Network, Sydney); Fifi & Dave (Fifi Box & Dave Thornton, Fox FM, Melbourne); and Chrissie, Sam & Browny (Chrissie Swan, Sam Pang & Jonathan Brown, Nova 100, Melbourne).
Radio does seem like it is dieing in Hong Kong. Most retailers dont stock radios. Back when I came here in the early 00, there were so many varieties of radios. Not saying you cannot find a radio but we have more variety in Australia but I do remember browsing all the different types of radios. In the history museum radio was a big part of HK. My uncle, my grandma brought back wonderful radios from HK. This would of been in the late 70s and 80s
Now I am in causeaway bay and the FM reception is terrible. I admit lots of high rises. Dab reception is gettable though, buts it is not so easy to buy a dab radio. I could not find a pocket dab radio.
I got myself a Sony srf-m97 AM/FM radio as a souvenir. Might be the last time can buy this type of radio in HK. Now I am getting all sentimental.
4TAB still have their 3223 number listed in phone books but 3360 1008 on their website.
The Sunny Coast numbers still work for those calling outside the area code. There are 8 digit local numbers for SCA’s Gold Coast stations too, published when they moved to Broadbeach.
Well, kinda defeats the purpose of having the 13 number then. I guess in your case it didn’t work because Redcliffe is outside the licence area, would that be right?
Given that phone calls are so cheap nowadays, with many people having unlimited/untimed “national” calls on their landlines and mobiles, I think they should revert back to a local phone number for local shifts.
A good sign for me yesterday was that 2GO were telling listeners to ring 4324 4444 to identify the music “theme train”, which was also being played on KOFM (with their own DJs). I bet all network stations get told that they have to wait 5 or 6 songs before they can reveal the answer, even if a local listener gets it right early, so someone can’t get the answer off another station on the network.
That is one of the benefits of regional commercial radio. Due to the fewer number of stations available compared to the metropolitan markets, the chances of sticking to just 1 or 2 stations is far greater in regional markets. For example, when in the Shoalhaven & Southern Highlands regions, I tend to stick to 2ST whilst there, which plays mainly classic hits, many of which is not played on WS or Smooth. Sister station 94.9 Power FM, plays mainly today’s music (Top 40), but does also play plenty of 90s/00s. Across the 2 stations, both 2ST & Power has got everyone covered in their market.
One of the negatives about regional commercial radio, apart from not having any real competition in many markets (that can arguably be a good thing in some cases, particularly in non-BOG markets), is that the adult-targeted music stations tend to take NRL/AFL on weekend afternoons during the footy season, as well as networked talkback from 2GB/3AW on various times, particularly on weeknights. Therefore, you would be stuck with just having a Top 40 station as the only commercial station in a regional market to be playing music during those times.
IMO, some of the best regional commerical music stations are mainly on the AM band, particularly the “Forever Classic” group of stations, which consists of 2CA, 2GN, 2XL, 3GG & 6iX (yes, I know that one is in a metro market). They are probably among one of the best classic hits stations in all of Australia, plus they all stream online too (most of which have been switched back on just last week) if you want to check them out.
6pr have a new TV commercial out and afternoon announcer Peter Bell is featured in the add,unfortunately Peter left 6pr last week to take up new role as breakfast host on the abc . whoops!!!
Geoblocking seems the same as usual at the moment. AFAIK iHeart stations have never been geoblocked and Tune in has some stations that are not geoblocked.
Listening to Magic 1170 vs Magic Digital is the same feed? In my car radio during the networking hours, I think the AM might sound better than the Digital version. It is just lacking stereo. Could it be the same feed but processed better for am radio? I should give feedback to digital radio plus website that the ads claims areads misleading on better sound aspect .
I don’t think they make claims about BETTER sound, they just say “digital sound quality”, which I guess can be interpreted to mean static and interefernce free reception, but not necessarily BETTER sound quality.
You got me. Did not read the fine print. I swear they said it was CD quality in the old days .
Anyway , the sound quality has been dropping since the launch of digital radio (In Sydney). 2ue , 2ch used to sound great (consistently). I remembered Triple M classic rock use to sound better, most of the additional stations also have all gone backwards in sound quality.
I think Triple M and 2day FM, smooth / Nova about the. same, with JJJ and ABC classic the same too. If not slightly backwards . However, you may as well listen to them on FM. ABC grandstand horrible.
Probably the only station to improve is 2sm. It use to sound like a telephone line. Now its 64 bit mono..
I agree. In the early days of Digital TV, it was “DVD quality” pictures as the claim…the picture quality of many SD channels look like a compressed YouTube video these days.
Same deal with Digital Radio, although I don’t think it ever really had true CD sound quality. Maybe on par/better than FM sound quality at the very best.
An interesting article by Brad March on Radio Today about the differences between Sydney & Melbourne breakfast radio:
Perhaps the most interesting part of the article is this comment by Dave Cameron, SCA’s Head of National Content & Development:
It’s a broad sweeping statement, but having worked and witnessed successful shows over long periods of time in both cities I’d generalise Melbourne as having more of a comedic community centre of content, Sydney more of a strongly opinionated, sometimes outrageous, often noisy approach that can create controversy to cut through
This probably proves that Melbourne radio tends to have a relative more laid-back feel than Sydney radio.
Remember when Perths 6ix become The Eagle and the breakfast show was called the morning zoo with Jeff Warden and a couple other people can someone help with those names
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