Random Radio

Love it.

One great thing about B-Rock is they have always been consistent. Nothing but rock for Bathurst.

They have never been anything they shouldn’t or couldn’t be.

I just wish they’d stop taking Fitzy & Wippa though. It sticks out.

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Yes completely agree. B Rock has always been reliable in terms of consistency. We are really lucky to have a metro like station here in the region, great music, programs and local presenters. I do agree with your comment on Fitzy and Wippa, they stick out like a sore thumb!

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The music on B-Rock is good but they play a heck of a lot of ads. Two, three songs at most and then a long block of commercials. I know this is a sacrifice they make to underwrite their local programming but it still turns me off listening.

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It means they don’t manage their ad inventory correctly.

Too low a price, too many ads. Raise the price, fewer ads, fewer client is the fear however, this can be balanced gradually but isn’t.

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They can’t go too low, as there is a limit on advertising minutes per hour.

Being a solus market? Did we check the legislation so me time ago on Mediaspy to find that has disappeared?

I think so - when Talking Lifestyle launches maybe. I recall that there is no restriction on advertising for commercial radio, but the limits are still in place for TV.

The only metro commercial FM network that is truly local from breakfast to drive (and locally automated in evenings) is the Pure Gold stations, WS in Sydney & Gold in Melbourne, both of which happened to be rating at or very close to the top of the ratings in their respective markets.

Even some of the regional commercial stations, particularly those on the fringe of metro markets (eg Campbelltown, Wollongong, Gosford, Geelong, Ipswich), are more local than most metro commercial stations.

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Looking at the fm station the sound in Wellington I was just wondering how the broadcast on 97.3 fm at Kaukau and Hayward. The transmitters are only 21 km apart. Wouldnt it get messy? Never been to Wellington before.

Wikipedia can be wrong though.

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There is also the Towai transmitter at around Lower Hutt, in which The Hits & ZM broadcast on the same frequencies as those transmitted out of Kaukau. Both transmitters are only 12km apart & are within line-of-sight of each other.

Like you, I’ve never been to Wellington (didn’t go to that part of NZ whilst over there).

Synchronous transmission. I think it’s similar to how SFN’s on DTV work here. Another example is the ABC Local Radio service on 855 from Pialba and Eidsvold in Qld. They are about 200km apart. AM translators here used to operate like that too.

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The Sound is also on 93.8 in Auckland and Hamilton. Driving between both cities you can’t even tell the stations have changed.

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In that case you have the Bombay Hills as a fairly effective buffer. Admittedly Wellington has got even harsher terrain which probably explains why they get away with it.

2EC used AM synchros on 765 kHz (Moruya and Bega). The Moruya station converted to FM 105.9 in 1992. Did any other AM commercial stations use it? 2EC stuffed it up initially, projecting the ‘mush zone’ to occur between Narooma and Tathra but instead it fell over Narooma itself. This is why they have the 1584 repeater- but that arguably hasn’t been needed since 1992.

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They’re the only two (what are effectively) AM SFNs that I can think of (2EC 765 and 4QB/4QO 855).

This probably doesn’t count but I think the ABC also has some low power AM stations on 567 in Central WA, 6TP Tom Price, 6PN Pannawonica and 6PU Paraburdoo. But they are probably far enough apart (200 kms or so?) to not cause overlap.

Before the introduction of 9 kHz spacing this pair produced a very audible ‘whistle’ that was impossible to remove. After the change, it was gone, and even was mentioned on air when they made the switch to 855.

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Could ws fm get rid of 99.1 and 88.3? And repeat on 101.7?

New CRA Chair & re-elected Board

A new Chair of the Board of Directors has been appointed at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of industry body Commercial Radio Australia CRA.

Grant Blackley, chief executive officer and managing director of Southern Cross Austereo was elected as Chair of CRA. Adam Lang, chief executive officer, Macquarie Media Limited stepped down after four years. Lang has been on the board since 2012 and will remain on the board and retain his role as Chair of the CRA Research Committee.

Just the first part is necessary.

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I agree, WS don’t serve Western Sydney any more than the other commercial FMs.

At night here in Melbourne I can hear these stations on top of the local community radio station 3CR (on the same frequency) at times, even when driving outside their Smith Street Collingwood studios!

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