I’ve heard Blue/Eiffel 65 on DAB radio a couple of times recently. I can’t recall if it was on The 90s or Oldskool thought.
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How old does a song have to be before it’s classified as a ‘Classic Hit’?just wondering.one day on 4KQ I heard songs from 1988(a great year for music)as their ‘Classic 9 at 9’
Well some radio stations play music up to and past 2000 as classics. If you consider the terms ‘old school’ and ‘throwback’ to be equivalent of ‘classic’ then music from just a couple of years ago could be included. Nova played Riptide by Vance Joy from 2013 today and described it as a throwback.
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It is. It’s a throwback to an era when Riptide was played ad nauseum by Nova 
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The Edge 96.1 did mention the current temperature at Katoomba in the 7am news but not the maximum temperature for today.
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Because this descended into rambling about my car - I’m taking my reply to this over here:
I end up listening to AM music stations mostly because I’ve got a bunch of flawed options in the car. My stereo’s just new enough to have a CD player, but not new enough to do anything fancy like MP3 CDs or have an AUX input or steering wheel controls.
I’ve got an FM transmitter for my iPod - but that gives me nothing to skip songs easily, so I mostly just use it for listening to podcasts.
I can burn CDs - but I’m limited to the 80 minutes, and the hassle of needing to change discs or make new ones all the time to minimise repetition.
Then there’s FM radio - I’d usually listen to Triple M - but they are so often doing talk, and spend half of the year with sport replacing the weekends. I like CHR stations in limited doses, so occasionally will skip between Nova, KIIS and Fox - then eventually I’ll skip through all three and still not find something I can listen to.
So at that point I usually hit the AM button and bounce between my presets there - which are 7SD, 7BU, 7AD, 3MP and 3GG. That followed by just turning off the radio and having silence.
If I drove more I might consider getting a DAB+ headunit installed, but my commute is by train, so I’m not listening to radio enough to care.
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What is your data plan on your mobile like?
Could you use internet radio on that, and hook your phone up to your FM transmitter?
And/or put your music on your phone and use OK Google/Siri to change songs via voice on your phone? (probably need a hands free mount for that too).
This is what I constantly do now when I’m in the car, except I have 2Day.
I have a Bluetooth transmitter in my 2004 Honda and I use Spotify as it is uncapped on Optus (if you activate the option online first). Otherwise I will listen to Nova especially during drive.
@Moe
Get a new car with DAB, that’s my advice.
Plenty of them around now - Mitsubishi Lancer, Ford Focus, new Holden Astra, Mazda 3 (Maxx and above). The list goes on - time to update, you won’t regret it.
yeah just go out and buy a new car if the radio isn’t right! and especially one with DAB even if it doesn’t suit.
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I’m happy with my '09 Toyota Yaris now that I’ve had the aerial repaired and I can listen to The Breeze and 99.7FM from Redcliffe while driving.It doesn’t have DAB or Bluetooth but does have steering wheel controls for CD and radio and an aux input for my IPhone,that’s all I need.
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Depends how old the car is. If it’s much more than 10 years old it might just be time anyway! And any of the cars I listed would be a suitable replacement in that segment.
My point is that DAB is becoming standard in many new cars so I think it’s unlikely you’d have to settle for one that isn’t “suitable”, especially if you’re replacing an old car.
Once you’ve had DAB in the car you won’t be without it.
The ACMA have released consultation papers for a number of AM-FM conversions, including:
- 2BH at Broken Hill, NSW
- Red FM (6FMS) at Exmouth, WA
- Spirit 1260 (6KA) at Karratha, WA
- Spirit 1026 (6NW) at Port Hedland, WA
- Spirit Remote WA (6SAT) at Paraburdoo, WA, and
- Spirit Remote WA (6SAT) at Tom Price, WA
The ACMA also plans to allocate spectrum to ABC NewsRadio (Parliamentary & News Network) in:
- Broome, WA
- Carnarvon, WA
- Karratha, WA, and
- Port Hedland, WA
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101 FM in Brisbane played “Blue” by Eiffel 65 yesterday!
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Gee those AM-FM conversions are not in overly populated areas. But I guess they have to start somewhere. They’re going to have to look at the other regional markets too, even ones that have competitors in them. Unless they think the DAB rollout will cover those areas in the medium term. AM has to go eventually. It’s pretty hard to find an AM clock radio these days for example, and new electric cars like the BMW and Tesla can’t even play AM radio due to the electricity interference. It’s a case of regulators lagging the real world IMO.
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Personally, I think that AM radio will eventually become part of history at some point.
But even though the thought is rather appealing, it’s rather hard to see further AM to FM conversions in major metropolitan markets anytime in the foreseeable future unless there was an extension of the FM band or something.
How sad in this new age of DAB+ the Australian radio industry is still putting its focus and energy on FM conversions.
… refer back to the 1980s …
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Thank you for posting this.
The Toowoomba FM infill for 4WK looks like a very willing claim. 0.6 from River on 94.9 and if they receive an FM ‘conversion’ in Toowoomba, then why not for 4GR and likewise for the both of them in Warwick?
What of 4AK also? Why is there no FM infill in Warwick for them either?
ACMA also confuse what state the market is in within their draft LAP.
More to write on this later. Might need a thread of its own, the AM/FM conversions. There are 33 markets in total.
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The only way to shutdown the Am band in the capital cities is to cancel all the licences of the suburban community stations and reallocate them as commercial / national licences.
In Sydney, Radio National, News Radio, 702, 2GB, 2UE, Sky Racing Radio, 2CH and 2SM would need to find frequencies on the Fm band and be transmitted from Gore Hill / Artarmon
An example of this would be-
88.1 - Radio National
88.9 - News Radio
90.5 - 702 Sydney
91.3 - C91.3
92.1- 2GB
92.9 -ABC Classic Fm
93.7- 2UE
94.5- 2FBI
95.3 - Smooth Fm
96.1 - The Edge
96.9 Nova
97.7 - SBS
98.5 - Sky Racing Radio
99.3 - 2CH
100.1- 2SM
100.9 -2RPH
101.7-WS
102.5 - Fine Music
103.2 - Hope (change freq to 103.3mhz)
104.1- 2day
104.9- Triple M
105.7 Triple J
106.5-KIIS
107.3- 2SER
Obviously a high powered fm in Sydney on 99.3 would cause problems for Brock in their licence area and the Lithgow Communites e.g 90.5 so each of these would need new frequencies to avoid co-channel interference.
The local Communites that were kicked off the fm band for the AM conversions could be given the option to broadcast on Dab+ as Sydney wide services.