…Communications Legislation Amendment (Prominence and Anti-siphoning) Bill 2023 to include radio prominence for smart speakers and in connected cars when they deliver their recommendations this week.
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What they are saying is fine & I somewhat agree, & smart speakers at home are a bit different to a “connected car”, but why aren’t they going down the same route as the USA & trying to mandate an actual radio, with AM/FM/DAB/DRM/HD/whatever, in cars?
It’s fine to make the audio device manufacturers have an app or similar that can stream local radio, but not all stations stream, & what happens when we go back down the route of the record companies/artists wanting more money from streaming music royalties revenue & the networks again go nup, not happening, we’re turning off our web streams?
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Yes I tend to agree.
The industry failed to promote DAB though which would have at least given them some protection, or at least a buffer between now and when most listening is online. Instead they actually pushed online listening though apps. They pushed their audience to a place where there are literally thousands of other options. It made no sense to me. Now they’re panicking.
The UK stations at least got to a point where DAB was/is widely used and rivals FM, with a lot of AM signals being switched off. It’s a much more orderly transition to digital and online by comparison. The Australian operators only have themselves to blame IMO.
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Everything that would prevent that is self inflicted - each station moving to a walled garden of streaming only through their own apps, requiring log ins to listen and more.
The Government didn’t make them do this, and the solution isn’t “make companies install all our apps”.
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It’s simple.
It’s called a transistor radio.
It has a switch for AM and for FM.
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Another US procedural with faux call letters and even frequencies on a FM-HD radio…
WXNG seems like a popular choice - a bit like the 555 phone prefix?
Previous post:
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I really like this site as it shows that top stations in many world cities, including Sydney, with their current position in the ratings and a link so you can listen online.
It’s websites like this that reduce my productivity when I work from home by about 83%. Sorry boss.
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Awesome find dude! (Probably showing the era I grew up in there but anyways) I’ve always been trying to find radio ratings from Europe and places other than Australia and US.
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Great find!
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This is very hypocritical, the poor commercial stations cant get easy access to listeners via smart speakers, my heart goes out to them… ok they can have access to smart speakers if ALL community stations can get access to DAB.
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For that to happen, a new mux would need to be built, as there’s not enough capacity for many more DAB stations in the metro capitals.
It may or may not happen. It would be great if it did, and suburban community stations got access in the metros. The question is, will the govt subsidise it, or will it be left to the industry to foot the bill? If the answer is the former , it might get done but if it’s the latter, it probably won’t happen anytime soon.
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I thought there was still some capacity on DAB, especially in Brisbane.
Any additional capacity should be offered to community stations and/or new commercial operators.
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I think with Nova leasing 64kbps from Nine’s spectrum, that was the last of it.
Vision leased 128kbps from SEN’s spectrum in Brisbane, so theoretically they could squeeze another 1 or 2 stations in there, but certainly not in Syd or Mel.
Possibly the community stations could squeeze an extra station or 2 if the others reduce their bandwidth, but it wouldn’t be enough for all the suburban stations in Brisbane (4) and Sydney (10+). For that to occur, a new mux would need to be built.
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There are 3 things that the ABC could do to increase listenership if it’s music stations:
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Adjust the triple J playlist to be more like BBC Radio 1, or at the very least play slightly more mainstream music in its playlist
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Add Triple J Hottest to DAB and the Radio App. Adding it to its DAB slate will instantly give it access to millions of people in their cars and at home / work listening on their DAB radios. Having it available on the Radio App will also make it easier for people to listen. Personally, I don’t want to download the ABC Listen App just to hear it as I already have the Radio App, BBC Sounds and Global Player which is enough for me.
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Convert all the current FM frequencies used for Radio National , to Double J. This will give Double J more reach, especially in regional areas, where Radio National probably has a minuscule audience, and FM is better suited to music. It will be cheaper than rolling out DAB to small towns, where it’s probably not viable to do so.
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If Triple J Hottest was a DAB station I would leave my car locked there basically all the time. I was so upset when they launched it as a streaming/online only.
I think the ABC should get in the Minister’s ear about removing the legislated requirement to broadcast parliament, get that shuffled off broadcast radio and onto online/streaming only. That would free up NewsRadio (with its large number of FM services across the country) which could then be relaunched as a totally different offering.
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ABC Sports would be good, with a music format when no sport on. Maybe if there is duplication of the sport that is on, they can go with the “local or online feed”. Might make it a bit harder to jungle. Some nights in Sydney, the AFL might be on news radio. Maybe the ABC Sports on DAB can be higher res and in stereo for the music. Although they probably would want ABC Parliament on DAB.
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