Holden doesn’t seem to have gotten the message…
It will take awhile for car makers to catch up.
Yes. Holden has finally jumped on the DAB+ bandwagon (better late than never, and not as late as some - VW!!!). So the loss of Pandora will be somewhat compensated for by the inclusion of DAB+, at least in the metro areas.
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From Mumbrella: “Podcast publishing platform Omny Studio has announced a partnership with Spotify to distribute Australian podcasts, the company has announced.”
Classic Hit radio stations should have some fun on their billboards. Forget gold paint being sprayed over their breakfast hosts. How about billboards with slogans such as:
“We should never have allowed the 80s to end” WSFM
“The 90s should have lasted for more than a decade” WSFM
"I wish I had grown up in the 80s: WSFM
“The 80s was the music decade” WSFM
“My best ever present was a mixed tape from 1995” WSFM
“When music was fun” WSFM
“When cassingle was a word” WSFM
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I had to listen to Hit 105 at work this week. I actually don’t mind most of the 'Old School ’ hits that they play,I’ve always liked daggy 90s and 00s dance tracks,Not a big fan of 'R and B Fridays ’ though.Next week 97.3👎 week after Triple J ,Triple M ,Nova
If I was in charge of the radio in a Brisbane workplace:
Monday: 99.7 Bridge FM
Tuesday: The Breeze
Wednesday: River 94.9 (WayBack Wednesday)
Thursday: 4KQ
Friday: The Rebel
Saturday+ Sunday: Listen to whatever you please, you poor sods.
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I can’t receive 99.7 Bridge FM ,Rebel or The Breeze on my radio at work,4KQ has crap AM reception.We really need to all bring digital radios to work,then 4KQ would sound so much better,and there’s other great stations on DAB radio also
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Views?
My view I feel SBS radio is a bit too big. One SBS radio station should be enough. On ABC, should there be JJJ and ABC Fine music be there? Maybe ABC local radio, news radio can stay. Radio National I am not sure.
Just for “fun”, assuming Abc Radio National / SBS 2 / JJJ & ABC Fine Music disappeared tomorrow. This is what I would do in the Sydney and adjoining markets. Basically News radio will swap with Radio National (if it makes sense ie better coverage).
Sydney
576 AM become "ABC News"
630 AM will become 2RPH
1224 AM - New Community Station maybe foreign language.
92.9 FM - New Western Sydney Commercial station transmitter in west. (Same licence as the old 2WS from Western Sydney)
97.7 FM - 2000 FM move there.
98.5 FM - Temporary frequency for easter radio etc.
105.7 FM - New commercial station.
Wollongong
98.9 FM New Commercial station
1035 AM - 2RPH repeater
1431 AM - ABC News Radio
Nowra
90.9 FM 2ST (same power as Power FM)
603 AM ABC News
999 AM 2RPH
Bowral
106.1 FM Power FM repeater (Consistent with 2ST).
Gosford
ABC News 96.3 FM (at low power) (no more 98.1 FM)
Coast FM 100.5 FM (less interference, ABC News can use 576 AM if there is)
Newcastle
2RPH - 1512 AM
102.1 FM - New commercial station.
Port Stephens
106.1 FM - New local commercial station
Long post incoming!
While I personally don’t listen to SBS Radio, I’m sure those stations serve a valuable purpose for listeners (and in such a multicultural city like Sydney, I’m sure there’s many) who speak a language other than English. I don’t think I’d be an advocate for removing the extra station, because 1107AM and 97.7FM do have different content.
As far as ABC Radio is concerned, personally I think the ABC should be allowed to have music stations for as long as they run genres that the commercial stations won’t cater for.
ABC Local Radio should definitely be kept along with ABC News (Radio) because those stations provide a valuable public service. I’m not really familiar enough with the content on RN to provide a qualified opinion on what should be done with the station.
In the unlikely scenario that major changes to the FM band like you’re proposing were to actually happen, I think Sydney’s larger AM stations (ABC Local & the commercial stations) would like to do some FM conversions.
Instead of saving a frequency for a new Western Sydney commercial station, I’d probably prefer it if ARN were forced to localise the programing on 88.3, 96.1 and 99.1. But I can’t see that happening anytime soon.
Rather than keeping an FM frequency spare for such purposes, wouldn’t it be more efficient to reserve some space on one of the DAB+ multiplexes (let’s say…64kbps) for pop-up stations like Show Radio and the Voice of Islam/2CR temporary broadcasts? Or am I missing something here?
I agree with the idea of Newcastle & Wollongong having a new commercial FM station though. No room for another Central Coast commercial station though?
Is there really a demand amongst Port Stephens area residents for a local commercial station of their own? More importantly, is the population of the area big enough for a standalone commercial FM station?
The last I checked, the Port Stephens area is fairly well served for radio with the Newcastle FM stations, local relays of that market’s AM stations and a couple of local Port Stephens community stations. Great Lakes FM and maybe even the wider Taree area stations would probably be possible in some parts as well.
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Some interesting ideas, there!
Realistically, I very much doubt that it will happen as it would be politically unpopular and the current government has little margin for error at the moment.
Re Power FM on 106.1 in the Highlands, the only real reason 2ST is there on 102.9 is due to the poorer coverage of 999 AM, which seems to have repeaters everywhere. 94.9 doesn’t have the same issue with coverage.
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Another reason why 2ST has an FM translator for the Southern Highlands is to provide separate local programming for the area. If or when 2ST converts to FM & transmit from Knights Hill, their FM translators in Huskisson & Ulladulla would get switched off, with 91.7 set to be the main FM frequency for the station, whilst the FM translator in the Highlands would remain in use.
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I always find power fm 94.9 to be a bit patchy in the highlands.
You might right on 106.1 fm in port stephens.
It could be given to coast fm on central coast. Do you think central coast needs another commercial station?
I forgot about 95.7 fm in Wollongong. Maybe they should have 4 commercial stations.
If Wollongong is worthy of four commercial radio stations (and personally, I do think it has the population to support four), then the Central Coast with a slightly higher population can also support four IMO.
Realistically though, I think it’ll probably take Digital Radio for both markets to get four commercial stations.
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I can’t see a proper local commercial radio being DAB only - at least not for another 15 years or so, maybe more.
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Wollongong deserves at least three good commercial FM stations. And PowerFM doesn’t count. That’s like including Newcastle stations for Central Coast.
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I agree. Having only 2 commercial radio stations that are both are competing with each other is clearly not enough, as it results in both stations (Wave & i98) pretty much targeting the same audience with their music formats being heavily skewed towards CHR. Wollongong would be a better market if both commercial stations were owned by the same company, as it would allow each station to target a different audience from one another.
By contrast, the Central Coast has better commercial radio stations, as they have 3, with the 2 of them owned by the same company (SCA with 2GO & Sea), whilst the 3rd station is owned by a different company (Nova Ent with Star 104.5).
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Personally I think the ABC/SBS is pretty much as it should be. The only change I’d make is put Classic FM on DAB/online only, and replace it on FM with either Double J or a BBC Radio 2 format. Perhaps in some regional areas they might consider putting ABC Country on FM instead of Classic FM.
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Sad news. Gary O’Callaghan has died at the age of 83. I had the pleasure of working with this man in the 1980s. He was hosting Sydney’s No.1 rating breakfast show at the time. Gary was down to earth and a nice guy. He was No.1 and had not a hint of arrogance about him.
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