Thanks for that. Very strange situation to have 2 x AM and 1 x FM commercial station in a regional market. Must be the only one?
Yes, besides the organic growth of the Toowoomba market, nothing like it.
The third commercial licence should not have been auctioned in Bunbury until the VHF Band 2 stations were cleared. Not much is served by it.
The Bunbury LAP is very big. The area includes Bunbury, Collie, Augusta, Busselton and Margaret River. RadioWest has about three relay transmitters while Spirit has just the one, so Spirit doesnât cover the entire surveyed area.
Is there much difference in coverage between 621 Spirit and 963 Radio West? They come off the same stick.
Radiowest Southwest (6TZ) is 963 in Bunbury, 1134 in Collie, 756 in Busselton and 900 in Bridgetown. Spirit (6EL) is just on 621.
The latest ACMA licence area plan for Bunbury in 2010 still shows three AM transmitters for Spirit. Do you know why they havenât ever put them to air?
Cost + look at the junk freqs theyâre on.
The licence area is a tough one, too big for one site. So you have a FM translator at Maggie River, thereâd be no coverage further south and likely difficult off the main TX further up the cape.
Now that TV has cleared the FM band is there any scope to move Spirit to FM?
CRA have only lobbied the Minister and the Minister has more importantly, only directed ACMA to work on conversion in solus markets.
Obviously, CRA members could not agree on conversion among themselves in competitive markets.
There have been wide scale FM conversions to my mind in some competitive markets:
Murwillumbah has 2MW with 2 FM translators across the north and south of the licence area, giving it an FM signal over the Gold Coast and Byron Shire/Tweed hinterland. Bill has not become competitive there.
Bendigo has had the 3CV with 1 FM translator in the population centre of Bendigo. The Camerons and past owners have not attempted to shift the station head on for competition.
Toowoomba is likely to see the same with 4WKâs AM translator in the main population base of Toowoomba converted to FM. Will Bill shift formats and take advantage? It seems not. I know the format hole Iâd plug there.
Perth has 6IX with 2 FM translators across the north and south of the licence area. 6IX still languishes towards the bottom of each survey.
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Yes if 4WK does get an FM translator surely they would go Classic Hits or AC. Theyâd have a big advantage over 4GR on AM, particularly with 4GR going all âTriple Mâ talk and sport soon.
theyâre not. Theyâre going Triple M âClassic Hitsâ and staying as they are.
Murwillumbah - Billâs problem is format - his talkback formats arenât really competitive anywhere in any market that has something similar eg. Ray Hadley.
Bendigo - the 98.3 translator is only a low power 1kw signal, and I donât think it gives 3CV the clout to make any major impact on 3BO or STAR
Toowoomba - Bill already has 4AK there too, so he already has both of his network formats represented. And I canât see him coming up with a 3rd standalone one just for Toowoomba.
Perth - 105.7 6IX only covers a fairly small part of metro Perth and similar to 98.3 Bendigo, it doesnât really position the station to take the metro commercial FMs head on.
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The Bendigo translator has been approved by ACMA for an increase in ERP to completely cover the population of the Bendigo built up area. Enough to make an impact.
Same with the Toowoomba proposal, it will cover the 80 - 90 000 within the urban suburbs of Toowoomba itself.
Of course Bill wouldnât change formats, but if you had an FM licence, itâs easy to do what should be done.
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Agree itâs a no-brainer but I somehow doubt theyâll do it. Rather they will waste the FM sound in Toowoomba with the usual talkback format. BTW Toowoomba is a bit bigger than that. The estimated urban Toowoomba population as of 2015 was 114,000. Biggest inland city in Australia after Canberra. At least the locals can access River 94.9 and do in droves.
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Itâs Bendigoâs turn today: http://radioitsalovething.com.au/RIALT/media/RIALT/PDF/BENDIGO-XTRA-INSIGHTS-PUBLIC-SURVEY-RESULT-WITH-CUME.PDF
Star is #1 with 24.3%, followed by 3BO with 21.9% & ABC Central Victoria with 11.7%. AM music station, Gold Central Victoria, can only manage a 6.5% share.
In the demographics, Star wins the under-40s, 3BO claims the 40-64s & ABC Central Victoria claims the 65+.
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Townsville has their radio ratings released today, which was previously surveyed last year: http://radioitsalovething.com.au/RIALT/media/RIALT/PDF/TOWNSVILLE-XTRA-INSIGHTS-PUBLIC-SURVEY-RESULT.PDF
4TO has maintained their #1 position with 21.7% (up 0.5% from last year), whilst sister station Hot FM wasnât very far behind at 21.1%, leaping up 1.6% from last year. ABC North Qld finished 3rd at 8.9%. Grant-owned Star 106.3 (formerly 106.3fm) fell from 13.3% last year to 8.7% this year, whilst sister station Power 100 (formerly Zinc) went up from 7.2% last year to 8.6% this year.
In the demographics, Hot dominates the under-40s, 4TO dominates the 40-64s & ABC North Qld tops the 65+. Power 100 outrates Hot in the 40+.
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Again shows the Camerons donât understand how to operate in a competitive market.
With the exception of markets such as Wollongong, Hobart, Ipswich and Murray Bridge where thereâs always been competition, this shows how hopeless they are.
Xtra Insights is set to have more than 30 regional ratings surveys this year: https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/advertisers-urged-take-fresh-look-regional-radio-2017
Ballarat, Mt Isa & Mandurah are among the markets to be surveyed for the first time, whilst Cairns, Darwin, Wollongong & the Sunshine Coast will be surveyed again this year.
Sunshine Coast will be interesting. When was the last time they were done?