@Tejas57 might be interested in this, particularly as I assume this leaves Vision without an AM frequency once more
yes the will lose the only brisbane wide coverage they have. iâve moved to streaming on the app and iâm actually honestly suprised that they are not buying DAB space
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They would only need 32kbps, wouldnât they? Nine is an obvious candidate to have space available for lease. 2GB was dudded a couple of times leasing out space to an Indian station and a sports station, iirc, but Vision would no doubt be a reliable customer.
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So racing on both 1008 and 1053 in Brisbane? Canât wait⌠
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Just so I can get my head around this⌠so all these narrowcast stations will be known only as SENTrack? And does this mean SEN+ is no more and that 1377AM Melbourne is now a racing station?
Itâd be good if they also shared some of their regular SEN programming on these stations too.
I hope they put a list of stations onto their website.
Lucky Brisbane & GC listeners have a decent frequency and station. Same canât be said about Sydney.
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I am a bit confused what they are doing, is there a market for two racing stations in some states? I would of thought they would be better just doing a SEN only station in Brisbane?
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Why are they branding the stations as
SENTrack and just not SEN featuring racing coverage? Surely all sports is going to attract more listeners than just racing?
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Maybe theyâre saving the SEN branding for any potential opportunity to have SEN come to Brisbane or other markets on a better signal.
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A mate just told me it might be because if itâs a racing format they can get more money out of betting ads.
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âŚor maybe sports radio clients are turned off the format following MSR (especially in Brisbane).
Itâd be nice if the NSW SENTrack stations all had a dedicated breakfast show. Do they?
Legally I donât think they can operate as a sports station. As I understand the Broadcasting Act allows a narrowcast licence holder to have a âracing radioâ station. Hence SEN Track. SENâs Melbourne licences are both commercial broadcast licences and not narrowcast licences, so they can do what they want. However there is nothing stopping them from adopting a âracing radioâ format on a broadcast licence. Hence 3MP is now SEN Track.
For more general coverage in Brisbane SEN would be better off trading licences with Radio TAB who hold a broadcast licence for 1008 (the old 4IP), whereas SEN holds a narrowcast licence for 1053.
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Is the Adelaide SEN station classed as narrowcast?
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I think it is, I was in Adelaide at the end of last year driving around town & the reception of SEN SA on 1629am was terrible, compared to other Adelaide stations on the AM band.
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To clarify some of the discussion in this thread:
Any station between 1605 and 1710 kHzâie. 1611 onwardsâis a narrowband area service (sometimes referred to as MF-NAS). These are generally limited in power, bandwidth (so as to space stations only 9kHz apart) and, in most circumstances, can only broadcast a narrowcast format. A racing radio station format can be considered narrowcast, as is country music, dance music, non-English programming etc.
SEN SA in Adelaide and Mount Gambier, both on 1629 kHz, are narrowband stations. But, if they broadcast sports including AFL theyâre not narrowcast stations, right? Correct, and itâs thanks to a provision known as s.40 commercial licences, which allow commercial radio stations to broadcast in the narrowband (between 1611 and 1710 kHz). Itâs what allowed the ill-fated Radio 2 to broadcast a very commercial format on the top end of the AM band. NQ Radio (4KZ), Resonate Broadcasting (4DB, 4EM) and Rebel FM all have these licences, allowing them to rebroadcast commercial signals in the narrowband.
Iâm led to believe, although I canât confirm this, that SEN acquired one of these licences from Gumnut Nominees (Rete Italia) in last yearâs acquisitions. I would also argue that even if they didnât, there would not be any action on this by ACMA unless another radio station were to complain, and given that SEN has relationships with their direct competitionâin this case, RadioTABâI doubt anyone would.
As I can gather, there are 4 SEN programming feeds at present
-
1116 SEN â 1116AM Melbourne
Programming is also available via the SEN WA web stream.
Programming is also available via SEN 3 on DAB+, with advertising compliant with NSW gambling laws -
SEN SA â 1629AM Adelaide, 1629AM Mount Gambier.
Mostly a simulcast of 1116 SEN, with local breakfast (6-8:30am) and drive (4-6pm).
Local advertising in Mount Gambier. -
SENTrack â 1377AM Melbourne, 657AM Perth
Racing content. Simulcasts the 8am hour of Garry & Tim and the 9-11am hours of Whateley from 1116 -
SENTrack â 1575AM Wollongong, 801AM Gosford, 99.1FM Atherton, 96.9FM Ingham
Racing content. Simulcasts the 9-11am hours of Whateley and airs Sportsday NSW in the 6-7pm hour.
I imagine the two FM stations in Queensland will split off to receive the QLD breakfast show once Brisbane and the Gold Coast launches.
RSN does this in regional Victoria with 3SR 1260 Shepparton and 3BT 1314 Ballarat. I believe RadioTab do the same in Queensland with 4FC 1161 Maryborough
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Which breakfast show does the NSW SEN stations take?
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No live breakfast in NSW or Qld (at present).
Based on the schedule online, on weekdays SENTrack only airs live racing between 11am and 4pm AEST. Between 4-6pm and 7pm-9am, the Racing Tales of the Turf series airs. The first live program of the day is Whateley from 9am (except in Vic and WA which take the last hour of Garry & Tim)
Schedule is available here. Itâs⌠not very well formatted to say the least:
https://www.sen.com.au/schedule/
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Wow that is a convoluted mess of different station feeds now.
Iâm curious from a technical point of view how they are distributing the feeds and where master control is for them. I would guess they are using IP codec audio links but some of the remote transmitters might be satellite fed via Nine Syndication maybe?
Are they all played out of Melbourne? Or is SEN SA for example played out from Crocmediaâs Adelaide office for example?
The name says it all⌠Croc(k)⌠media. 
and describes the boss!
What to talk about when there is no sportâŚ
Crocmedia has acquired Spirit 621AM in Bunbury. I presume theyâll will convert it into an SENTrack station
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