Anyone from Tasmania in here?
Yep 
Me!
Great discussion about Tasmanian Radio guys.
2 Likes
What do we want to talk about? Variety of stations, coverage or personalities etc. ?
The lack of independent LPONs is what struck me on my recent visit down there. On 87.6-88.0 MHz itās invariably Vision FM, Faith FM (SDA), or Tote Sport Radio. Pulse FM south of Hobart is one of the few (the only?) independent narrowcast operations in the temperate state.
Anything really. Stations, personalities, coverage etc 
Stoked that this is now a threadā¦ looking forward to the topics.
Yeah,
Pulse is the only independent lpon, other than the 88.0 tourist service in Port Arthur, which is just a MiniDisc (yeah, I knowā¦) loop. There used to be a country station just past Launceston and a tourism station in Devonport on 88.4, but both are now inactive, as far as I know.
Iām looking forward to the AM / FM conversion on the NW coast. Especially the additional frequencies that have been proposed for 7BU and 7AD.
ACMA would not have included this without interest from prospective operators.
7SD Scottsdale is part of the Cameronās submission to ACMA to convert to FM its AM Tasmanian stations.
In one of the more unique cases, AM 540 will remain on air to serve areas poorly served by the less than adequate FM site. Should have been co located on Mt Barrow as is done on Mt Dowe for Moree and Gunnedah stations.
Scottsdale was featured last night on ch2ās Back Roads program:
Look for Series 4, Episode 4.
Itās been in discussion for years
Which I really just donāt understand because the coverage is so poor anyway. Chilli FM in Scottsdale (Mt Horror) has far better coverage than 7SD.
1 Like
Thoughts on the move of all 3 ābiggerā FM stations moving towards mainly Networked programming? Canāt say Iāve listened to much Hobart radio for a while but didnāt realise just how much of it came from elsewhere.
Since Triple M & 7HO went to networked programming from 5pm weekdays as from the beginning of this year, this leaves only ABC Radio Hobart & the Community stations on having any local programming after that time.
The most interesting thing is that LAFM in Launceston & 7SD in the North East (which is pretty much a relay of LAFM), as well as 7AD/7BU in the North West, has local programming until 6pm weekdays. That means, combined with āTasmania Talksā, they have more hours of local programming than any of the Hobart commercial stations on a weekday, even if itās only 1 hour extra when compared with Triple M & 7HO (or 3 hours extra when compared with Hit 100.9).
Itās unfortunate 
At least with 7HO network shows they are played out of their studios and donāt rely on satellite feeds which reduces the chances of dead airā¦ and they have control over it rather than a network getting involved.
Must say Iām not a fan of the majority of the local ātalentā the big 3 use. So Networked stuff, whilst not localised at all, isnāt necessarily a bad thing.
When I was at Hobart in March last year, I gave 7HO & Triple M an equal amount of my listening time, and I do agree with you that Triple M is musically more preferrable over 7HO, despite the fact that Triple Mās log generates from the Gold Coast, whilst 7HOās is done locally. Then again, the AFL season hadnāt yet started when I was down there, which helps on being able to listen to Triple M during the weekend. 
It will be interesting to see how both stations perform in this yearās Hobart radio ratings later this year.
I didnāt listen to it much either. In case you didnāt know already, 7SD (which can be picked up in Victoria via AM) carries the same log as LAFM.
I didnāt get to listen to it much when I was in the West Coast, although I guess in hindsight, I shouldāve paid a bit more attention to it. Oh well, at least I can always stream them online.
1 Like