This is an interesting market, where SCA & SRN own 2 stations each, including having a huge “Other Stations” figure.
Hot FM, owned by SCA, is the #1 station by far with a 31% share. Coming in a distant 2nd is ABC Southern Queensland with a 14.3% share, followed by “Classic Hits” 4GR with 9.2% & JJJ with 8.2%. SRN-owned 4WK could only manage a 3.4% share, whilst sister station 4AK scored a paltry 1.2% share.
According to my calculations, the “Other Stations” scored a whopping 28.7% share, most of which would be towards River 94.9 from Ipswich, which I understand gets into Toowoomba very well & is almost treated like a local station there.
In the demos, Hot FM wins the under-55s, whilst ABC Southern QLD tops the 55+.
Looking at the demographic breakdowns in the Toowoomba ratings more closely, the “Other Stations” attracted 36.2% of the 40-54s & 33.2% of the 55-64s, ahead of Hot FM (30.8% - #1 in 40-54s) & ABC Southern QLD (24.3% - #1 in 55-64s) in its respective demographics.
Playing the same sort of music at Hot FM and River 94.9 (but I’m guessing less curated and more erratic) on AM I’m surprised they got what they did get.
Sad because 4AK were onto something a few years back when they were sounding similar to the old Mix106.5. It would’ve been a better result for them had they stuck with the format.
It’s a strange market with 4 commercial, only one FM so that fringe station River with a licence area overlap in the north grabs a big audience. Also unusual that ABC RN is on FM but not Local Radio in the northern half of the survey area. Spectrum shortage seems to be the problem with not allocating any more commercial licences to Toowoomba.
A truly awful result for 4WK and 4AK. I fondly remember 4AK in the late 80s with their Rock in Stereo format similar to Brisbane’s FM104.
The River 94.9 coverage in Toowoomba is more than ‘overspill’. It’s local station strength in the city of Toowoomba - which is the vast majority of the population of the survey area. It’s even good in the car past Oakey. So if most of the respondents to the survey were in Toowoomba itself I’m not surprised by the huge “other” figure - it would be nearly all 94.9.
It is an odd market with 3 AM and 1 FM commercial. Until Hot FM went to air (as CFM) the 3 AM stations had been broadcasting for a very long time. It surely was the only regional city in Australia apart from Newcastle that had 3 commercial stations in the market for decades? I can’t think of another regional city that had 3 stations prior to the 80s? Even Townsville only had 4TO and 4AY. Maybe Newcastle? 2NX, 2HD and 2KO was the only other one.
[quote=“Brianc68, post:129, topic:111”]
It surely was the only regional city in Australia apart from Newcastle that had 3 commercial stations in the market for decades?
[/quote]Although all part of the now “TOOWOOMBA/WARWICK RA1” license area, the stations were historically the different areas: 4AK for Oakey, 4GR for Toowoomba and 4WK for Warwick, and are still listed as such in the ACMA database.
Spot on. My guess is that former stereo powerhouse 4AK suffers a real disadvantage as predominantly a hit music station, given coverage (for reasons below) is primarily on AM with no on-line streaming at present. Could the commencement of DAB+ regionally provide more equity in such instances?
Agreed.
The AM signal on 1242 from 4AK is great into Brisbane, but anecdotally I have never met anyone under thirty from Toowoomba who didn’t listen to the FMs - suggesting River 94.9 & CFM 100.7 (now Hot FM Darling Downs) likely dominate simply because they are music stations on FM! Agree with those arguing that it’s a complicated market, potentially one of those scenarios where it is inappropriate to look at the ratings alone.
Finally, looking at these license areas from a purely from a fortuitous coverage perspective… Of the 100 watt FM translators broadcasting at Stanthorpe, 97.1 Rebel FM & 98.7 Ten FM (repeater for Tenterfield’s very sophisticated community station) get out the best to the north (Toowoomba & Gatton) & the north-east (Ipswich & Esk).
But Stanthorpe’s 97.9 Hot & 99.5 4AK share channels with Mt Moombil (Coffs Harbour) ABC powerhouses! 91.5 4WK shares the channel with SCA’s the Range Toowoomba! In Dalby, 95.9 4WK shares the channel with the Esk community station.
Also in Dalby, 97.5 Hot is another unaffected by co-channelling. Prior to 97 3 FM taking its spot on the dial this got out extremely well.
That automated format served up heaps of eighties classics for a predominantly 40+ demo, hence was ideally suited to its unfavourable AM fidelity. This distinctive programming lasted maybe a year or two? Perhaps it was a costly experiment that failed, but I hope they reconsider this path once again.
4AK now: Local breakfast until 10 am only & everything else is from Newcastle. Low cost, low ratings. (Please refer to 4BC for guidance).
On the bright side, 4AK now offer Kyle & Jackie-O now whilst Hot FM does not anymore. My guess is Kyle & Jackie-O might be accessible in highly elevated Toowoomba via the Brisbane FM stations (97 3 FM) anyway.
4AK simply does not write revenue of a worthy amount. Never has since sold to Bill.
There was no computer at 4AK capable of local automation until the local format experiment began. It was mostly voicetracked, so costs were low. Staff moved on, so the format unwound.
Brisbane FMs are great for in car coverage in Toowoomba. Yes, best in the range suburbs on top of the ridge but in building coverage is patchy at best. Lots of 80’s VHF antenna installations still have ye olde ‘hi-fi’ coax connection from the high gain TV antennas towards Mt Coot-tha. DAB+ is also an easy get via the same method.
Coverage suffers if in the East or West Creek valleys and on a slope facing away from Mt Coot-tha. Even River suffers along Ruthven St in building, north of Margaret St.
The co-channelled translators operate as intended, to cover town areas and are protected to the 66 dB contour only. No licensee has made a public submission to ACMA for the translators to be re-allocated.
Sea FM is the #1 station with 34.8%, followed by sister station Mix FM with 23.8% & ABC Wide Bay with 15.5%. The “Other Stations” account for 26.1% of its audience, most of which would be towards Zinc from Gympie & Rebel from Childers.
Yes most of the overspill for Maryborough is Zinc and Rebel. I recall when 96.1 Gympie first went to air as The Heat it was before Sea FM launched and a lot of Maryborough people tuned in. 4BU also gets in a little to Hervey Bay but not great. What they need is for Breeze FM to finally launch in Childers which will give those poor people something to listen to rather than Ray Hadley
In the old days before FM, the quasi second station for Maryborough was 4GY Gympie. As a teenager there in the mid-80’s 4GY was the station of choice for younger listeners, but the 558 AM signal doesn’t reach Maryborough like it used to - maybe they reduced the power. In those days though it was pretty strong during the day.
The Grant-owned Hitz FM is the #1 station with 23.3%, followed closely by SCA-owned rival Sea FM with 22%. ABC Wide Bay is 3rd with 17.4%, followed by Grant-owned commercial AM station 4BU with 14.8%.
Actually, Hobart was the first market where a Grant station beats not just 1 but 2 SCA stations when it was surveyed in late 2014. For the record, 936 ABC was the #1 station overall.
