Random Radio

I think they’re heard on 4BC and other AM talkback stations also

Central Coast TV is the king of ads for older Australians, full of ads for retirement villages, RV caravans and adjustable beds! (for the rest of your life)

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Usually on commercial FM stations you hear ads for universities/TAFE colleges and gyms or fitness

Up here on the Mid North Coast, we get ads for funeral directors on TV. They’ve definitely got the market cornered up here, lol.

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bay93.9 Geelong has ads for aged care centres, retirement villages and funeral directors too, despite the station playing the new stuff at times. Their playlist is generally 70s to Now, with a heavy focus on 80s music.

There’s also ads for retirement villages and funeral directors appearing on Perth TV too.

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bay93.9 really need to be what smoothfm used to be. Your easy place to relax.

Leave K-Rock to be similar to Triple M Perth.

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As a Gen Z myself, it’s slightly alarming that some of my favourite eras of music (60s and 70s) are, according to advertisers, predominantly enjoyed by those who need mobility aids and aged care homes :rofl:

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80s music will probably be in that category before long too! Though it’s still holding up well as far as FM commercial radio goes (on Smooth, Gold and Triple M at least).

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One for the true broadcast geeks in here…paging, in particular, @RFBurns and @Mechsta

I know Mr. Burns listens to WION for the true AM Stereo (via webstream) and I do occasionally as well.

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Because Australia has an aging population and people move stations as they get older.

20 years ago 2GB was #1 in Sydney and it’s still #1 now - but it’s not just the same group of listeners. It’s not as if 2GB had a target demo back then of 18-24 and has been hanging on to those people as they got older. As people age they often get more interested in news, talk, culture, politics - and turn to stations like ABC local, RN, Newsradio, 2GB…

Few 2DAY FM listeners from 2005 would still be listening today (and in all likelihood will make up the 2UE/2GB listeners of tomorrow).

Probably the more appropriate question to ask is: if fewer and fewer people are listening to JJJ (down another 38k in the last survey) how will they survive in 20 years from now when young people no longer listen to them and all their older listeners have moved to AM?

I love having an odd listen to WION online, there stream is fed from there AM Off-Air monitor (Full AM Stereo) It sounds great, and I wish there was more local stations like it in Australia

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I agree with the analysis, but I don’t think JJJ listeners will move to AM down the line. It’ll be digital or online. That’s why it’s imperative that ABC create somewhere for them to go, and IMO they’ve failed miserably with Double J. It basically sounds identical to Triple J and is far, far too obscure and random sounding. Listening to the original rebroadcasts of 2JJ’s first weekend in air in the 70s , this is the sound they should be aiming for, only with 80s, 90s and early 00s.

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I notice that 4BH play many of the same 80s songs that 97.3 used to play about 10-15 years ago,before they became KIIS(stupid name)I doubt they would play 80s anymore and not much 90s either.

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Maybe one of the talkback-majority community FMs in Melbourne swaps with 3KND, finally putting the mostly music-based station on FM to compete with Fox and Light in the adult contemporary genre.
Also, talkback needs to be more than just news and current affairs.

Should HD Radio be introduced to Australia on the AM band to combat interference and sound quality?

nope. if anything it should be DRM

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Huge no, HD Radio causes more interference problems than it solves, many of the USA stations that used HD Radio on AM have turned it back off, on FM it’s not too bad but AM definitely no.

If you’re going to digitise the AM band here it should be DRM.

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@RFBurns
Completely agree with your comment

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I’m glad we didn’t go for IBOC on MW/FM; it would have been severely detrimental to DXing and would have made it near impossible in the east coast metros. DXing is pretty much impossible in the major metro areas of the US. In NYC and LA for example, you have 400 kHz spacing on FM, so the signals+ digital hash would wipe out the whole 400 kHz.

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Agree 100%