Chris Smith certainly has a boring name but he’s giving D. Hinch a run for his money in terms of being a human headline.
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Is that “talkback” in this case is news/politics talk? In Vietnam I hear 91fm and there’s a lot of talk but these are all about the presenters express their spontaneous feeling about life and calling with random listeners, reading letters to send some love to everyone… They also mix Forever Classic-like music between talks too.
To be honest because of the quite awkward switch between Hanoi and Saigon feed during the switch to national schedule period, this make me feel like switching from WSFM to a hybrid of 4KQ/3MP/Forever Classic format, @myfriend.
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I miss the days when radio stations were independently owned, rather than part of huge network. Radio was a lot more innovative and dynamic. In the 1980s you could only own one station in each market and most stations were not owned by public companies but through:
- Family ownership (the Lambs and 2UE or the Alberts and 2UW)
- A private company (AWA and 2CH)
- An individual (Rod Muir and 2MMM)
- An organisation (The Liberal Party and 3XY, Labor Party and 2KY or the Catholic Church and 2SM)
In those days if a station was not rating, the owners were able to bring in a new manager with the “do whatever it takes” to lift the ratings. Think 1981 when the Albert Family hired Ian Lane and 2UW jumped from a 7% share to a 15% share in one survey. The New 2UW was born as one talented individual was given the freedom to program.
Nowadays failing stations (2DayFM and 2MMM) are part of greater networks and need to fit in with the network’s logo, target market, music and pre existing networked shows.
I was reading this Mumbrella article:
2DayFM and 2MMM are the two lowest rating commercial FM stations in Sydney and have been for many, many years. SCA’s plan for these two lemons in 2023? Bring in Mick Molloy for the Triple M breakfast shift. That’s it. That’s the entire plan.
Decades ago a top radio professional would have been brought in with the instruction to “take us to the top - you’ve got six months”.
But in 2022 there is a malaise. When a station lifts from a 4.2% share to a 4.5% share, there is celebration. Expectations are low. Think Triple M in Perth. Think 2DayFM in Sydney. Think KIIS in Brisbane. Think Triple M in Sydney.
Generally speaking, life is so much better now than in 1985 or 1995. But radio in Australia is not better for the average punter who tunes from station to station. The “two station ownership in one market” rule and the ownership of most commercial radio stations by listed public companies has not led to greater variety in formats or better quality programming. It has certainly not led to more local broadcasting.
In 2022 there are a lot more music stations but they all sound very much the same. “More Feel Good Variety and the Fresh Hits You Love with Good Times and the Greatest Music And Throwbacks whilst you Relax with the Morning Bunch”
I guarantee that if ownership of Triple M in Sydney was transferred to the Muir family today, the station would sound totally different within weeks. Alas, the reality is that the 2MMM is owned by a hundred thousand shareholders (many through their superannuation) and its performance does not matter as much as if it had one owner or the shareholders only owned the one radio station.
Let’s go back to 1989. Rod Muir owns Triple M in Sydney. Charlie Fox is Program Director. Muir walks into Fox’s office and says “Music’s fucked - fix it”
Wow. Just wow.
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Completely agree. The thing with radio being owned by smaller entities and individuals is it meant they made real effort to fix poor ratings, fix the music, etc. And they weren’t afraid to be a bit adventurous to do so. Now it just seems that companies like SCA just try to swap out a breakfast show and think that’s going to solve the bigger problem which is the overall sound of the station - it doesn’t. When FM104 got taken over by Hoyts it was the same thing, they set in motion changes for the station to conform to the network which started an immediate decline, and they’ve never recovered.
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And swapping out breakfast shows is always the answer as it “will still allow the station to fit in the network”.
I reckon that if radio stations were not owned by publicly traded companies and you could only own one station in each market then the capital cities may have a:
- dance station
- rock station
- classic hits (with actual variety)
And more chances of one of those surprise stations that plays from grunge to the 60s to rock to dance.
We would still have the “feel good variety” stations but they would no longer be compulsory!
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i actually think the opposite - by having one station you need to maximise the revenue and audience. I feel like if the 2 stations per market is holding back formats. lets say you have 5 stations,
one is CHR
One is Classic Hits (gold type format)
One is a rock station
One is a talkback station
One is perhaps a gospel or all sports talkback.
it would happen because you won’t compete with yourself
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I can see both points. I think either way it would be better than the 2 station rule. Two per operator is just the wrong number to provide variety. I think with 1 station each you would get a better spread of older and younger focusing stations. In particular the older focused stations wouldn’t try to continually skew younger all the time. But I think with 4 or 5 with one operator you would get even more distinct formats as you point out.
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I think we are both thinking right. It’s just that the two station limit does not work.
I think if it was single ownership or all six FM stations in Sydney were owned by the one group - either way there would be more variety than with the current two station rule.
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1000% agree. As I just posted 2 is the wrong number and both 1 or many would give a better result.
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We posted the same comment at the same time.
Jinx!
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I thought the 2-station rule came in because there was competing duplication of formats. Like in Melbourne we had 4 commercial FM stations all playing variations of much the same thing. Allowing 2-station ownership took away some of that, at least initially. Maybe now as time has gone on that model has evolved again to just serve us duplicates of the same thing.
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I could be wrong but I don’t think that was why the 2 station rule came in. It was more just allowing an operator to have more than one station, likely due to pressure from the media companies who wanted to grow or merge etc.
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you could be right, my memory is very sketchy around that
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The situation at 91fm in Vietnam is actually unique than all of the possible cases that you said above @myfriend. As the network doesn’t have to be thinking too hard about the breakfast and drivetime shows (as its “positioner” as “information on every kilometers”), these slots are actually used to carry live, continuous traffic information updates mixed with other information. While 91fm could have better traffic information sources than some large radio stations in the West (it has information source deals with traffic centers, traffic police around the country, and a team of freelancers providing information at the place, plus listeners call to the studio to provide it too), it has been usually being criticized for excessive advertising, which led to information being delivered later than intended, which sometimes would render useless to the drivers.
While the traffic information part is a problem, their evening shows and music choice was very great in my opinion. (I don’t think we would ever hear a program that primarily deal with love letters sent from strangers into the studio). The presenters have 100% freedom over playlists, but on the ground that only when callers cannot choose a song, the presenter would take that responsibility. RCS system is a stranger to them, so presenters have to manually insert songs into the system, and at the next broadcast, they have to do it again (loads of time i think).
As they have strong freedom over songs played, often lesser-known songs are played on the network. Despite being the highest-rated radio network in Vietnam, they did play a Vietnamese song with only half a million views on Youtube, and struggled to be on Spotify. That’s the magic you can’t find anywhere else (on a “mainstream” network). The only thing bemused me is during the switch from regional programming to join national programming, where 91fm Saigon finished playing a song and switched to 91fm Hanoi which is playing song in progress, this is like when they switched from WSFM log to 4KQ/Forever Classic log.
I hope you understand this from Vietnamese perspective @myfriend.
I knew the Labor Party owned 2KY, 3KZ et al, but I had no idea the Liberal Party owned 3XY. All I can say is thank god political parties don’t own radio stations anymore.
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And thats the thing - they’ve chosen the wrong time to be content as well with slow rise in ratings too. Radio is now competing with streaming services, and even international markets too!
My eyes personally have been open to the other markets, like BBC Radio 2. It’s a format we do need in Australia, but SCA/ARN/Nova have made these cookie cutter network formats that stifle innovation.
We do need to go back to the days of innovation, and doing all it takes to be #1.
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I think the ownership rules are very interesting.
I think Launceston (and probably many other semi-metro areas) is a good example of where 1 organisation, with very little competition, apart from the ABC, really (in my opinion) doesn’t work and has resulted in safe middle of the road formats trying to appeal to everyone…
I challenge anyone to listen to LAFM and Chilli, and think it’s engaging radio. Now this is not a crack 1 bit at the announcers, but more the music, and promotions.
It’s soooo safe, middle of the road, even pedestrian.
It might be epically radical, but maybe the ACMA (if they can find a free freq) issue 1 new licence to SCA in Launceston, and an extra one in Hobart for ARN…to even up the score and introduce some sort of competition…
Maybe even rethink the whole licence areas in Tasmania as a whole. Maybe one licence area for the whole state, with the incumbents allowed to expand North and South, but they have to do the engineering work not the ACMA…
I think Tasmania, is an interesting case, as our 3G/4G/5G coverage isn’t as blanket as other states, so (I am guessing) streaming/apps isn’t as prolific here as maybe in other states…and radio listening (I suspect) is still very strong via FM/AM and DAB.
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Well, it was an itch that had to be scratched.
I bought a Scosche FM car transmitter and USB to 12V adaptor so I could use it indoors as I was keen to see what the reception, range and sound quality was like on my portable radio.
Impressions are mostly positive, I tuned it to 91.7 which is normally clear here in Newcastle, and I got full stereo reception throughout my apartment on my Tecsun peaking at 67db at about 3 metres from the transmiiter, it gets through walls no problems, so range is perfectly good.
Sound is OK, its stereo and is clear, but has an intermittent swoosh sound which is audible in quiet passages, This was when streaming from my phone to the Scosche transmitter. Havent tried the AUX input on it yet.
The volume is a little bit low though, just have to turn up the radio a bit higher to hear it. The other issue was that it creates some RF noise on other frequencies when using it.
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I agree entirely.
We really need a BBC R2 format and increasingly also a classic hits/oldies format. Classic hits/oldies have basically dissappeared from regional markets, even the bigger ones. And they are hanging by a thread in metro areas. Let’s not forget even Sydney was without this format for a time until Ace resurrected 2UE. Same in Melbourne for a while too.
Community radio can help but it’s patchy and inconsistent, and often amateurish sounding. Not always, but quite often.
In my opinion it’s up to the ABC to step in here and provide a service that the big commercial networks are failing at. ABC should be providing a BBC R2 service and also a classic hits/oldies format (60s, 70s focused).
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