Commercial Radio and Audio (CRA) has denied any conspiracy following the removal of over a decade of historical ratings data from its website .
The removal of the ratings data was first reported by Unmade over the weekend, and comes after CRA recently revamped its website. Unmade’s Tim Burrowes speculated that the removal may have been to avoid transparency on audience trends. He also conceded it may have been accidental.
A CRA spokesperson confirmed the removal was deliberate, but said it came about because of the website data’s unpopularity.
A 7.30 Report from 1986 on the rise of FM radio in Australia. It’s quite similar to a report on Channel 9’s Sunday of the same year that was previously posted. It does make me miss breakfast radio like that created by Doug Mulray, where the host was not forced to yell, scream and constantly laugh at their own jokes. Such a calming and more enjoyable way to start the day.
KIIS Sydney/Melbourne played an 80s track - Dead or Alive’s You Spin Me Round (Like A Record). Unfortunately though, it only lasted for about a minute, it was part of a KIIS Mix.
No worries CRA and your dinosaur, protectionist mindset; we’ll recover the data via archive websites and our many fantastic members who save much of the information personally. TV Expert and Huff.
What a load of BS. I can understand the mindset of removing the older more ancient data (maybe data from 10+ years ago isn’t particularly relevant anymore), but to only go back one year is far too recent.
Where does the popularity of data come into it? It’s all about relevance. If only a small number of people need/use the data, that might make it unpopular, but it’s still very relevant.
My guess is that since the new site was a complete refresh, they didn’t want to pay for someone to transfer all the old data across.
Also, perhaps maybe AM music stations should be banned in metropolitan areas if they cannot compete decades later. It is nearly impossible to hear any 90s, 2000s or 2010s music on AM nowadays
But you’ll still find that on 4WK in the Darling Downs on 963 AM starting next week. Currently those hits are on 4AK on 1242 AM but 4WK and 4AK are swapping formats, 4WK is adopting the Hot AC format (as heard on 4AK), while 4AK is adopting News, Talk and Sport (as heard on 4WK).
They’re not only giving music in Stereo AM a 2nd chance, but they’re also doing this to capitalise on their FM repeaters in Toowoomba, Dalby and Stanthorpe, while also attempting to take on Southern Cross Austereo’s Hit Network which is also servicing the Darling Downs on the FM band.
Triple M Darling Downs, though, seems to be stuck in the past, still broadcasting on 864 kHz on the AM band, with no FM translators or repeaters in the area.
I guess it just has the good fortune to be located on the fringe of a major regional radio licence area (Toowoomba) which already gives it 4 stations as well as being included in the Remote East one, which gives it 4BRZ/4RBL… And that all 6 stations have elected to broadcast there, all in proper FM stereo! (four of them also use RDS text).
Other towns like Gloucester NSW are also included in 2 areas (Taree and Remote East), but this only gives them 4 eligible stations, and Rebel still doesn’t broadcast there as yet.
Plus it has a good community radio station (2TEN FM) and 4 of the 5 ABCs transmit from the major nearby Southern Downs site (Passchendaele). The only station they don’t really have is ABC News Radio.
Blackall Range towns/Sunshine Coast hinterland are the best radio towns.
With a yagi or a good portable, on a south facing slope: all GC and Bris DAB+, all Brisbane stations AM and FM, Sunshine & Cooloola Coast FMs.
The professional community FM, 104.9 Sunshine, all the local drive shows on Hot, Sea & Mix. Good selectivity will tune 101.3 Noosa with 101.5 Caboolture and many more.
Also in driving distance to shout @Rob2144 a meal or drink for his fantastic SDR at Buderim.
The likes of Montville, Maleny et al are still too low to provide anything more than a slightly sanitised version of the horrible Brisbane climate. Add to that an extreme exposure to torrential rain and catastrophic storms and it’s not a place I’d live. When the weather is kind (i.e. in winter) it’s lovely, though.
Stanthorpe at least gets plenty of frost and the very occasional snowfall, and is far inland enough to escape flooding rain. The odd tennis ball sized hailstorm of course, but then again we’ve had two tennis ball hail events near Bungendore this summer (thankfully, not in the town).
Queensland is great for radio but absolutely does not suit my climate tastes. Thank goodness for streaming eh?
Ah, to each their own but I love the SEQ climate, at least for 8 or 9 months of the year it’s perfection. The other 3 months you live in air conditioning, but the humidity doesn’t stop me from doing anything, including cycling. You’ve just gotta sweat
TV Expert and Huff.
