Some HD AM radios can also decode AM stereo. Not that there’d be any in Oz. Unless you happened to have one you bought in the US. Like me!
Only issue is that those AM HD radios are not wideband. So you lost a lot of the advantage of better sounding audio.
I know Brandon had mentioned he was working to get 4AK back in stereo but figured it had just fallen by the wayside. Glad to hear it might still be a thing - being one of the few CHR stations on the AM band it’s surely logical to get that in stereo
The 1620 service being in stereo is interesting too, presumably it’s a product of the newer TXs having stereo option inbuilt? The onyl problem there will be the older tuners (like my ST-JX220A) only go to 1602, but there would be some like the old analog dial ones that you could wind up that far
Yeah we have been trying our best to get 4AK back into C-QUAM but with the few techs we have and the amount of stations we have to look after we never seem to get time to do it and sadly it keeps getting put on the back burner…
Might be my EX station for now but I am still giving them remote support from NZ and have plans to go back after all this Covid-19 winds down at this stage, unless magically I end up in NZ Radio which I doubt lol 
It has been interesting to see how many people have messaged or called 4WK to say that they are listening in AM Stereo, far more C-QUAM receivers still out in thew wild then expected.
Could be interesting, I know he was running a music loop for a little while on 1620 after he took over the license.
It also also caught my attention aswell that most existing AM Stereo receivers only really went to 1602khz and not up to 1620, so not sure how many listeners he will get in Stereo
I am told that some Jeeps that have the HD capable radios in them are been able to decode C-QUAM… 4WK has a listener this way, as his Jeep gets 963 in Stereo
bear in mind that most HD radios tune in 10khz steps, so listening to some 9khz channels is impossible & whilst you could still receive 4WK tuned to 960khz, it may not decode stereo
Luckily my portable AM HD radio has switchable steps. Apparently the Phillipines does HD AM and is 9kHz based of course.
Mind you there are hardly any AM HD portable radios for sale in the US. You certainly won’t find them in any chain store. Even Best Buy.
And most car radios there are only capable of HD on FM.
Yes I’m very reliably informed 1620 in Toowoomba will be Breeze and will be AM stereo. In fact test transmissions have begun. It’s certainly a great development. Toowoomba has some great listening options.
Absolute long shot but has anyone got some old Newcastle radio recordings from the early 2000’s?
n either further long shot looking for a Maitland Toyota commercial from that time too.
Imagine if SCA were successful in getting that other licence from the TAB.
Potentially could have been Triple M Launceston (Or Heart 90.1 back then), just a mirror of the Hobart Station, and LAFM, utilizing the log as 7AD/7BU.
whilst I have a DX recording of KO-FM from 2001, it didn’t feature any commercials. Interestingly they played the song “Little Jeanie - Elton John” - a rarity!
I think a Hit 90.1 would have been more likely.
If that were the case, then LAFM’s music format would more like 7HO’s rather than that of 7AD/BU.
You wouldn’t hear “Little Jeanie” on any commercial FM station in Australia these days, except maybe on Breeze or XLFM.
There is/was an extended aircheck recording of 2GO from June 1996 that played the song as well.
Maybe not now, but that song’s been on many a playlist over the years in Newcastle, probably one of the most played Elton John songs around here.
Interesting hearing the different audio quality for radio presenters currently hosting from home.
The codec that SEN use seems to require a reboot or re-connection every hour or so. Gerard Whateley has just gone to an ad break because his audio has deteriorated. The same happened during Dwayne Russell’s show last week. Still audible but light static and low-fi sound.
anyone else sick of radio stations not supplying a complete program guide on there website?
a few examples:
97.3 - shows NOTHING for saturdays, and only the IHeartRadio countdown on sundays.
4KQ is marginally better - at least they have something on a saturday
Triple M Brisbane has no program guide, just shows listed, as does it’s stablemate B105
nova is a little better but once again nothing on weekends.
probally the best in supplying programming info is vision - see https://vision.org.au/radioguides/ for there pdf guides which are pretty comprehensive.
surely it’s not that hard to have a good program guide on a website
Yeah absolutely.
SCA is the worst, they often have overlapping timeslots in their shows, particularly in the regional stations. hit Gippsland claims that Maddy is on 10am-3pm, & that Aaron is on 9am-12pm. A lot of their stations also have a heap of random programs that were one off programs a year ago that have just been left on there. Looks really messy and is practically useless.
None of the networks seem to want to tell you what jocks are on across the weekend either? Most stations have the same presenter on at the same time each week, so why not just put it on their website? It would take like 30 seconds.
Community radio in general is much better on this. I suppose due to the variety of programs they have, they need to be (or highly advisable) 
.
Yeah, it’s also the fact that because presenters on community radio are volunteers the station doesn’t want its volunteers to feel left out.
Indeed, and putting on my marketers hat (which was my minor in my first degree) why don’t we have Bios of the DJ’s on the websites?
when you have multiple stations playing essentially the same playlist (say for example Nova & B105) your point of difference is the DJ. Leverage this. put bios out there. The DJ should be like a friend getting you though your work shift (or night or whatever).
doesn;t need to be long - 3 paragahs is more than enough.
the station i stream in the office whilst working has a good one - https://www.air1.com/djs/ashton not to long but enough that you get to know the DJ
this is proablly the same reason Visions is so good - so many segments and programes though the day
I’d say this is precisely it. Most community radio stations are built around block programs - what may appeal to once listener at 9am may lead into a very different program at 10am, for instance. For SCA’s stations, does it matter who the jock listed is?
(For what it’s worth, I think it is; it’s sloppy otherwise. But I can see why it isn’t a priority for them)
I’d have to agree entirely on that one. Schedules are a great tool for any block programming. Especially with community stations that may air programs in different languages.
But I do think it matters for SCA, mostly down to the sloppy careless image it gives out as soon as you visit their website, and also the fact that programs are still quite different on SCA’s stations. I understand that all their jocks sound the same when music-based, but they used to have jocks overlapping their syndicated personality-driven programming. Particularly when the regional M’s in VIC used to play the rush hour 3-4pm, then 6-7pm.