My understanding is that it’s not a license condition, but rather a covenant. This is similar to placing a covenant on a piece of land when you sell it. It’s not common, but it does happen from time to time.
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Yes it was a condition of sale when the Council of Churches disposed of 2CH back in 1994. I would have thought the covenant applied to that change of ownership only so it is indeed strange how it still exists after a subsequent change in ownership.
2CH exists in callsign only these days so any vestige of prior ecclesiastical ownership has been whittled down to nothing at this point.
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Yeah agree. I’m surprised it still exists after the initial sale. Surely the subsequent owners can now have it removed.
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Technically the owner of the licence hasn’t changed. The licence is owned by Radio 2CH Pty Ltd which is the same company the NSW Council of Churches operated the licence under. Even though the parent company has changed many times, the contract/covenant/agreement is between the Council of Churches and Radio 2CH. I suspect it would include other provisions that make it more difficult such as restrictions on changing the licencee.
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As usual, @webguy digs a bit deeper and comes up with the goods. I still think the covenant is a bit antiquated though and no longer really fit for purpose…then again, we still have the requirement to broadcast parliament on MW as good law.
There’s a mystery station on air in Melbourne on 99.7 FM. Foreign language most of the time, with a religious tinge to it when it’s in English.
Anyone have an idea?
Voice of Islam - on a special event licence for Ramadan.
TX is in Somerton:
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Thanks @AustralianAerial
I just heard a sweeper on Star 104.5
“From the noughties to the best of today, Star 104.5”
That’s the first time I’ve heard a Hot AC station trying to distance themselves from 90s music. It was only a few years ago they stopped playing 80s music.
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This is a moment Sydney radio has been waiting for. Now that K&J have cleared the decks (for now), who do we think will become the new #1 FM breakfast show?
Apart from Bogart at smooth95.3, will we see 2Day finally gain back some audience? Or is it Nova’s time to return to the top brekkie spot?
If you were a KJ listener, where would you go to now? Me? Probably Nova96.9 over 2Day, given the similarity in product.
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Isn’t this the biggest free kick Nova have been given - you’ve just taken the risk of shuffling your lineup and swapping in a ‘new’ breakfast show, then your biggest competition disappears almost overnight and invites a bunch of rusted on listeners to go switching around. How lucky is that timing!
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I’ve said it before and will say again, it’s whoever KIIS picks.
Because it will attract just as many as alienate. Remember a lot of listeners specifically cite K&JO as the reason to not listen to the station, either brekky or in general.
And then there’s a mess the competition is making.
I reckon this will probably help SCA - both the MMMs and 2Day.
2Day for the similarity in product and MMMs in the bogan, brash way it is.
Sadly some might go to podcasts / streaming instead of another FM station.
But yes, Bogart / Smooth or even CoC / Gold are probably the most likely candidates for #1 FM breakfast and overall now.
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But CoC/Gold is also new and untested.
It will be interesting what the first survey of the year will look like in Sydney and then what a difference we will see in the following surveys.
Since last year we’ve seen new shows at Breakfast on Nova, Gold and soon KIIS. But there have also been line-up changes at 2Day and 2MMM early last year.
It’s been a massive change really.
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Gold by 2%.
Smooth are at their ceiling, Gold now have a better breakfast show than they had before.