Wow…What a great result for News radio 
There’s been a few of these surveys where News Radio has rated a big fat zilch.
Bill Caralis would be greatly comforted by such a result - one that he can’t do any worse than, surely not? But he’ll probably find a way! 
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Yeah I just can’t believe ABC can’t wake up and put something on air in place of News Radio and Classic FM that people actually want to listen to - e.g. Double J or even ABC Country. Surely it’s a no brainer. Double J in particular would go well in regional areas that often lack an adult music alternative, or have a Triple M talk 'n sport station.
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The low national ABC shares are a result of the survey methodology. None are perfect, this is a case of being more imperfect than the other methods, eg. Metro.
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Port Macquarie has their radio ratings released this morning, which was previously surveyed last year: http://www.radioitsalovething.com.au/RIALT/media/RIALT/PDF/PORT-MACQUARIE-XTRA-INSIGHTS-PUBLIC-SURVEY-RESULT.PDF
Triple M (formerly 2MC) has increased its lead, scoring a 34.6% share, up 6.2% from last year, whilst Hit (formerly Star) fell 2% to 24.6%. Further down the list, ABC Mid North Coast was 3rd with 11.1%, followed by JJJ with 8.9% & Radio 531/93.5 with 4.7% (up 0.7% from last year).
In the demographics, Hit is #1 in the under-40s, whilst Triple M is #1 in the 40+. In mornings, Ray Hadley on Triple M scored a 40.6% share, whilst John Laws on Radio 531/93.5 scored a 7.4% share.
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I think an adult station, a mixture of Double J and BBC Radio 2 would be good instead of Classic FM. News Radio should be left alone as a public service.
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Interesting idea to combine the licenses. In doing so you would need to expand the coverage of all 4 stations.
Therefore TR would need a transmitter in Warragul (99.1 FM??) to go along with it’s Sale (99.5FM) and Bairnsdale (99.9FM) transmitters.
Hit 94.3 (formerly Star) would need a transmitter in Bairnsdale. The Traralgon relay (97.9FM) could be moved to Mt Tassie and increased in power.
The AM stations would be more difficult. Both are currently 5kW I think and to relocate their sites would be difficult.
This even got a mention in today’s Daily Telegraph!
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Knowing how Hadley likes to brag about his ratings, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he mentioned it on-air.
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Spending a bit of time in South Gippy (near Wilsons Prom), I can confirm the reception is average - 7BU and 3GG are the best on AM, ABC Gippsland and 3LO alternate are fairly similary strengths. FM is good for ABC Gippsland and Triple J with patchy at best reception of Star/Hit. TR FM and Gold1242 are non-existent with Melbourne FM commercial stations doing better. I think the solution (at least FM wise) would be a transmitter around Foster as it is the other side of the Great Dividing Range from the Traralgon transmitters.
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Wow, you’ve dug up an old post there!
Yes, it would be a challenge for the AM stations. I’m not 100% sure of how far west 1242 gets - but im pretty sure I’ve heard it in the car west of warragul (not sure what indoor reception would be like). A merger of the 2 would ideally cut the Melbourne fringe out of the licence area anyway, so the signal wouldn’t have to travel as far west.
Getting 3GG east would be more of a challenge - it would probably be solved by having a second frequency transmit from somewhere between Traralgon and Sale.
FM could also be interesting. Having full power in Traralgon and Warragul would probably be necessary to get the coverage using the existing sites, but that would also create significant overlap in the middle. Even just broadcasting at a higher power from Traralgon may solve that problem give how far west TRFM reaches now - it would be preferable for them to only have 2 frequencies instead of 3.
Either way it wouldn’t be simple to merge the 2 licenses from an engineering angle - but given the overlap they have, it’s very similar to the Rockhampton/Gladstone situation - both broadcasters would be keen to get a larger area and it would also create better diversity of programming for the region as a whole.
Foster is well outside of the Sale licence area, so TR and Gold shouldn’t reach that far.
I understand that - the point I was trying to make was about the topography and transmitter locations. I used to drive a bit from South Gippy via Meniyan and Mirboo North through to Morwell and Traralgon. The top spot for reception was Mirboo North, which being on the Grand Ridge had the best reception (along with a semi-decent boutique brewery - cue radio pun, the home of Gippsland Gold…) and therefore a transmitter south of the Great Dividing Range would be necessary for a Gippsland wide licence - I was thinking Foster would be a mid-point for a South Gippsland transmitter covering essentially San Remo through to Bairnsdale, but maybe a better question for the techies…
The Mackay ratings have been released: http://www.radioitsalovething.com.au/RIALT/media/RIALT/PDF/MACKAY-XTRA-INSIGHTS-PUBLIC-SURVEY-RESULT.PDF
Hit (formerly Hot FM) maintained its #1 position with a 24.9% share, despite going down 1.3% from last year, whilst Triple M (formerly Sea FM) had quite a significant jump in the ratings, going up 3.2% to 22.1%. ABC Tropical North remains in 3rd place with 16.8%, whilst Star 101.9 fell from 12% last year to just under 10% this year at 9.9% share. Classic Hits AM station 4MK had a rise from 5.9% last year to 6.8% this year.
In the demographics, Hit is #1 in the under-40s, whilst Triple M is #1 in the 40-54s. ABC Tropical North is #1 in the 55+, whilst 4MK is #1 commercial in the 65+.
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Looks like the Triple M brand is working well up there… Well done guys 
Not so much for the Star brand. It would of been interesting to see how Zinc would of went.
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I’m pleased to see 4MK holding their ground. Not bad against three FM competitors.
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It’s Cairns’ turn to see how the ratings are doing since last year: http://radioitsalovething.com.au/RIALT/media/RIALT/PDF/CAIRNS-XTRA-INSIGHTS-PUBLIC-SURVEY-RESULT.PDF
Hit (formerly Hot FM) maintained its #1 spot, but with a 4.9% drop to finish at 22.2%. Triple M (formerly Sea FM) went up 2.1% to 16.9%, whilst rival Star 102.7 fell 2.2% to 14.4%. ABC Far North wasn’t far behind at 14.1%, and neither was JJJ at 13.2% (up 2.7%). AM classic hits station 4CA went up 0.4% to finish at 8.2%.
In the demographics, Hit is #1 in the under-40s, Triple M tops the 40-54s & ABC Far North leads in the 55+.
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Today, it’s Albury’s turn, which is their first survey in 3 years: http://www.radioitsalovething.com.au/RIALT/media/RIALT/PDF/ALBURY-XTRA-INSIGHTS-PUBLIC-SURVEY-RESULT.PDF
Triple M (formerly The River) has taken the top spot from Hit (formerly Star FM), scoring a 22.9% share, whilst Hit scored a 21.7% share. ABC Goulburn Murray was 3rd with 14.4%, whilst 2AY fell to 11.4%, which is down 5.2% from 2014.
In the demographics, Hit is #1 in the under-40s, Triple M tops the 40-54s & ABC Goulburn Murray leads in the 55+.
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Just wondering if anyone knows where the Albury listeners are going to, given that the surveyed stations dropped from 89.0% to 84.5% overall - that’s a reasonable leakage to other licence areas and community stations.
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Does that allow for “other devices” or something? Like Spotify or even CD’s?