Probably, but a remote broadcaster arguably has more incentive to stream than most, as its terrestrial transmitters can’t cover all of its licence area. There’s VAST of course (I’m assuming Flow is on VAST?) but streaming is more accessible on more devices.
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Doesn’t appear to be.
A Wix-built landing page with easy access to their employee time off in lieu form is definitely the sign of a professionally run outlet, yeah?
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I doubt mobile (4G) internet coverage would be all that flash out there, perhaps that could be the reason why they don’t stream eg. they didn’t want to deal with streaming complaints that were mobile coverage related?
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I was thinking more in terms of satellite internet on the remote agricultural stations, but of course they can stream anything they wish. Streaming on satellite phones would be prohibitively expensive of course.
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And if there is sufficient bandwidth, I imagine it would be more prone to buffering etc as well.
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Does anyone have a music log or know what music format they have?
I heard Flow FM is nowhere near as good as Rebel and Breeze FM.
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Adult contemporary with a country lean last time I listened - might see if I can get a decent enough signal from Healesville today and write up a log.
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I think they play some Christian music too?
I heard about 45 mins of it yesterday between Albury and Wagga Wagga, but I didn’t recognise half the songs they played though.
I heard “Love Is” by Alannah Myles.
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I think there’s some CCM in there and some spoken word Christian content. I’m not within cooee of a Flow signal so can’t be sure of the format these days (indeed, the closest is 88.7 Urana).
Flow FM can also be sometimes heard on 90.9 in the culture capital, provided 7JJJ Launceston isn’t bossing that frequency. 90.9 is from the Otway Ranges (Beech Forest). I believe 97.9 Apollo Bay has never made it to air.
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I think 106.3 from up around Healesville is permanent in much of Melbourne.
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It struggles in some areas from memory; I think it has a severe ERP restriction to the west so that it doesn’t spill into Melbourne’s suburbs too much. Contrast this with the approach taken by Rebel and Breeze in SEQ. In the CBD I think it’s non-existent on a portable radio. Once you get out of the Yarra Ranges and Yarra Valley, in-car reception is very patchy.
You would probably get it OK with an external antenna in most suburbs, though. I know it’s OK at Mount Waverley with such a setup…but that’s on the east side too.
Around Geelong you also have to contend with Mixx FM Colac and in the far NW suburbs, perhaps 106.3 KLFM Castlemaine. Yes, I count Geelong as pretty much part of the Melbourne radio coverage area, sue me.
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From my experience - 106.3 is listenable in Melbourne in the car but extremely patchy for the most part. LOS from Mt St Leonard is so good around the Port Phillip Basin that it bosses out Mixx Colac until you’re west of Geelong, but it’s never strong. 90.9 doesn’t really get to Melbourne but I did have good reception of it in the Brisbane Ranges (between Daylesford and Geelong) a while back, and certainly further west, but even in Geelong itself it’s really not present. I don’t recall hearing 97.9 Apollo Bay.
Music was a little nothing for mine - AC for the most part with country shows and yes the odd bit of Christian thrown in too. Solus licence in many remote areas so trying to be a jack of all trades?
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It surprises me that Flow seemingly didn’t try and get a 2nd licence like the other Remote licensees did (Rebel in the East and what used to be Red in the West).
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I think there’s just not any real population centres that Flow touches that could make that viable.
Red/Spirit in WA balanced it by cost sharing with the non-remote license, and Rebel/Breeze is both a larger market, and they have much better opportunities with fringe reception - even if Flow took their approach to trying to get good sites nearby big cities, there’s not really any places where it could work for Flow.
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Yeah, that was my thought on them too. The remote licence is an excellent idea but not having many (if any) major population centres to be based from is a real limit - what would even be their biggest city?
By contrast, Rebel/Breeze have the fortune of being able to broadcast into (and in effect, serve) the huge markets on the Gold Coast and parts of Brisbane, which must help serve as a base to then run the much less profitable services in the more remote parts.
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I was really excited when they were first launched in the North Central on 97.7 (now on 106.5) but their coverage was poor really struggled to get any signal. Again with the Northern Mallee signal on 95.3. Again poor signal and often co channelling with 3SR / Tripple M Gouburn Valley. I found Berriwillock to be the middle town where a weak signal of both towers could be received but where my parents live 15 minutes away get nothing. Signal fades quick on both stations once you get East of the Calder HWY
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Kangaroo Island maybe? ~4k residents and a lot of tourists. Roxby Downs as a mining town is close nominally - but it’s quite a competitive market, it’s an overlap area with 5AU/Magic broadcast as well, and there’s a community station Rox FM which seems to have a fairly broad appeal format, so can’t see Flow appealing.
Their highest power site is a 10kW transmitter for Minlaton, a town of 800 which is basically 90km west of Adelaide across the water - it’s on 98.9 if anyone in Adelaide can try and see if it reaches?
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It’s never been on air to my knowledge.
The 4kw 90.9 Flow FM from Maitland does make it into Adelaide but its not particularly strong from memory.
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I don’t think the 95.5 at Kangaroo Island is on air either. There are possibly some Scrooge McDucks in charge at 8SAT, keeping a close eye on the cash Flow and applying a rigorous cost-benefit analysis to every transmitter (and stream).
One would think Kanga Island would be one of the most profitable places though due to the tourist market as mentioned.
In NSW there are inactive licences at Bunnaloo (93.9) and Lake Cargelligo (101.5). Not sure if Bourke is on air? Bourke is lucky to get Rebel and Breeze as well, but 2WEB is very much king there.
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Whilst I’ve never met the bloke, the owner of Flow FM appears to be very conservative from the few snippets I’ve read/heard about him. It explains a lot of the programming choices too, such as the CCM on the playlist and The Alan Jones Show (which Flow FM syndicated when AJ was still a thing).
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