Yes, back when DMG owned the Star/Hot brands (in competition to the RG Capital Sea stations), DMG had established 3 hubs for the networked shifts operating from May 2000. They were
Northern (QLD) - Townsville
Southern (NSW, VIC and SA) - Albury
Western (WA) - Bunbury
My favourite network announcer on Star FM back in the DMG days was Bilko from Albury.
Ty Frost wasnât bad either. The quality of the presenters wasnât the issue, it was the content and networking errors eg Townsville presenters complaining about tropical rain to drought ravaged Roma listeners, Roma ads being heard in Cairns, and chunks of silence.
Yes Ty Frost was good as well, I reckon the network presenters from Albury were better than the Gold Coast presenters like Big K & JKâs Workday. Back during the 2000âs, 96.1 Star FM used to have periods of on air silence when networking from Albury on a fairly regular basis & at least twice a month we used to get 99.7 Star FM Griffith weather reports!
Yes I remember Gold Coast being a hub for those stations too.
Remember that too 
So where are the remaining SCA Triple M & Hit FM network programming hubs located now across Australia and where are the remaining technical/engineering support locations now across regional Australia? Iâm guessing consolidation there too in recent timesâŚ?
More or less the same. DMG and RG did a pretty good job at minimising the roles required.
Hit regional is done from Townsville. I believe that makes sense since SCA have a dedicated host for Mt Isa breakfast based in Townsville, so basing all content for the network from there allows that jock to be part of the network roster.
Triple M regional is mainly based from Gold Coast such as Al Shield on what was the Greatest Hits feed.
The feed for the Triple M classic hits/AM stations is done from Albury - thatâs Guy Mylecharaneâs shift.
Engineering is still scattered around at strategic locations. I believe Townsville, Maryborough, Gold Coast, Coffs, Newcastle, Albury, Bendigo and Mount Gambier have engineers. Toowoomba used to, but not sure if that position was replaced after Andrew Chapman moved to Resonate. There may be a couple of others that Iâve missed.
For WA, Bunbury is still the hub, although some of that is now in Perth since the takeover of the Redwave stations.
For TV, the engineering hubs are Townsville, Coffs and Bendigo.
For Triple M GC and TSV look after weekdays and weekends respectively. Newcastle sends program from 6pm to midnight on weekdays and from 8pm Sundays. Stations go back to local music from midnight now Bona does Tuesday to Friday, but can go on network feed if they wish.
Melbourne sends from 4-6 weekdays for Kennedy Molloy but regionals take it off a different satellite channel.
Are Townsville and Coffs still in their original buildings with studios, like Bendigo? Since Traralgon was demolished and Win demolished its old Ballarat and Shepparton buildings, there are no other TV studios in regional Vic apart from Bendigo.
@TheMoreYouKnow the BTV site has not been demolished yet, least not on the latest Nearmap flyover. Will check other sites later.
Coffs is still in the old NRTV building. The old
main TV studio is still there but not used anymore except for the occasional TV commercial.
Itâs funny that SCA had to hold onto the TV complex for radio, because SCA TV doesnât exist in Northern NSW anymore, itâs WIN TV now.
Consolidation is all good, until things go wrong & you have to diverge parts of the company, SCA wouldâve said the Coffs TV Complex wasnât part of the sale, but what if that was the deal breaker for WIN (or anyone else who was interested), it wouldâve left SCA paying rent (at whatever cost to the new owners mercy) to stay, or left without any radio studios.
Donât know if itâs been mentioned in here (delete if it has), but some local residents, along with a grant from the Wagga Wagga council, are restoring the old 2WG neon sign that sits on the top of the original studios building, because itâs historical & has meaning to the locals.
This is great & something that corporate SCA just doesnât get, radio station callsigns at the heritage stations do matter & mean something to locals regionally, but no letâs just throw that heritage away & rebrand everything to Triple M or Hit.
They mightnât lose many/any listeners, but they lose that connection (life long in a lot of cases) with the local community.
You might know differently but with Hit breakfast moving to Perth Iâm lead to believe all network shifts are broadcast from there. Presumably the Geraldton and Bunbury local shifts remain based locally
From what I can tell itâs a bit of a mix still, however the coronavirus may have slowed down some plans as travel between Perth and Bunbury wasnât possible for a while.
Youâre correct, most of Hitâs networked connect is coming out of Perth now, from hit92.9âs second studio. For breakfast, Michelle is still in Bunbury at least some of the time.
Triple M is still mainly from Bunbury - most of those announcers are long term Bunbury residents so are less likely to want to move. However breakfast for remote WA (branded as Triple M North West) hosted by Ray Love is coming from Perth.
SCA only have 4 on air studios in Perth, and previously workdays and breakfast would use different studios to allow the breakfast team to use the studios after their show for pre-recording content as required, so Iâd imagine itâs pretty crowded in there at the moment.
Having a listen to Triple M Central Coast today, and thereâs basically no pop or newer music.
Itâs also very male dominated playlist, Iâve heard maybe only 1 or 2 songs in the last 90 mins with female vocals⌠one being the Eurythmics (Would I Lie To You). A bit more Baby Animals, Alanis Morrissette - female rock artists would be good etc.
Itâs definitely preferable to the previous format, but perhaps that is maybe TOO narrow a music format for a provincial area? (fine for a metro area).
Does anyone know if there will be a Central Coast survey this year.
If so I wonder what impact the new Triple M will have on the ratings.
Star 104.5 does not seem too concerned sticking to their existing format.
Probably not. I think over the last few years, Central Coast surveys have been done during August & September? Not sure if thatâll be possible this year.
I doubt the rebranded Triple M Central Coast will have much impact on the ratings, especially since SCA have gutted most other elements that made 2GO great in recent years.
I Thought the Central Coast surveys were done by telephone not by diary, so they should still be able to take place.
According to this post, itâs scheduled to be released on 13th October, indicating that it would take place during September. Whether itâs going ahead or not is another question, due to COVID-19.
Does Triple M Central Coast still air Kennedy/Molloy on delay since theyâve gone full Triple M?