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In response to Mark Day in the Oz talking about Foxtel's sneaky introduction of 30+ channels of digital audio - and I assume it's via the pay TV service - can I offer this? In New Zealand, the major cable/satellite operator, Sky Television has had 12 such digital "radio" channels operating for well over a year, and it does not appear to have impacted on commercial radio a jot.
I do not have the exact uptake figures obviously, but believe me, the 12 channels of alleged subscription radio on offer are appalling. Sure, no voices, (no companionship of information either) no commercials, but the music is woeful. The classic, rock and gold channels feature heaps of poor covers, and the so called contemporary music channels offer largely what New Zealand's utterly saturated radio market already offers. Why would anyone pay to have covers coming out their TV? The only thing Sky offers that may have some appeal in the "yeeee hah" part of the country is a country music channel. But try putting your 29" ni-cam stereo TV up into the Kenworth!! And even on a $500 digital receiver - it's still going to woeful.
Judging by NZ's digital audio offering via the tube - I don't think Australian commercial or "free to air" operators have much to worry about.
Alan Wheatley
Otaki, NZ
Re: Warren Koglin's Question.
It is ikely the introduction of DAB will have nowhere near the effect as the introduction of FM as there is not the same difference in quality. AM to FM was a big jump, twice the frequency response AND in stereo. Even the most tone deaf listener could pick the difference
FM to digital is nowhere near the same jump, If it is *true* CD quality you will only really notice the difference on your home Hi Fi, Your average Boom Box or cheap "kids room" stereo is usually just good enough to handle FM properly and your average clock radio/kitchen radio can barely do AM justice. There is no reason to believe that their digital equivalents will sound any better, they are, afterall,a low cost item made to a price.
My prediction - The penetration of digital receivers will be very slow, It will be driven mainly by the replacement market in the low to midrange home stereo/portable stereo area as digital tuners are gradually integrated into these systems.
Even with a reasonable penetration of receivers, DAB will still find itself in fierce competion with the FM'ers as to the average listener with an average system, particularly, if as Paul said, the stations only use a 192kb/s stream, a bit rate which is often described as "FM quality". This means that DAB is likely to become just become another way of delivering the S.O.S.
Unless the operators can prove to listeners that DAB is a significant advance in their entertainment (in the same way as video recorders and DVD's). The only way DAB will have any great effect is if it is made compulsory in the same way as DTV. - Eric Brodrick
Re the new commercial licence opening for Sydney on 95.3 MHz...
Would it be worth their while for 2CH or 2UE to go to FM? 2CH aside from 2SM are the last commercial music station on the AM band, reflecting the often-worded "FM Music, AM Talk" comment.
However, if 2UE were the ones to go FM, would this be the start of a new 24 hour talkback station for the FM band, going against "FM Music, AM Talk"?
Frank Iuston
Hey Grant - lighten up - chill out!
The only people who'll make money out of this harmless little prank will be the lawyers!
Blackers
Any bets on when Southern Cross Broadcasting will pull the plug on supplying their news service to SEN?
Three years ago, when 3AK was looking only half as menacing as SEN,
SCB did exactly that, which really put DCL under the fiscal pump, forcing them to spend precious bucks setting up their own news service.
This time around however SCB have 21,949,964 vested interests (the number of DCL shares they own) in ensuring SEN (and by proxy) DCL do well over the next few months.
So will we see SBC giving SEN the softly, softly treatment until they start to rate a bit better, DCL resume trading and their share price start to rise?
Or is this a classic case of fattening the lamb for the slaughter?
The SCB is one of the weaker points of SEN. I believe they would be better with just news headlines.
It may be an old cry but where is the missing 10.8% from the Sydney survey as one of the community stations in Sydney we would love the chance to put it up against 2SM as you quote can they be lower.
Memo Gavin Casburn: I'll put 2SM up against any community station in a one on one survey and put up my own money to back it. For those who dont know 2SM takes no part in the Nielsen ratings. For that reason the book that goes out to the listeners does not contain a 2SM box to fill in , the figure that is produced is not representative of our true audience. Grant Goldman 2SM, breakfast.
hey grant now that a bit of networking to the supernetwork is coming from tamworth and i am not sure if leon delaney is in sydney. does it mean 2sm is on the market or will it become a true sydney station?
to john blackman .I agree with you about dcl .southern cross will fatten it up. however macquarie might of found a loop hole and buy a stake in sen .
RE : Nielsen Ratings
I was not aware that there is no box for 2SM in the AC Nielsen radio ratings diary.
When there was a box, 2SM's ratings were about 0.8%.
Here's one out of left field for you-what really is the go with US politics?? First somehow janet jackson's nipplegate somehow caused the dropping of Howard Stern from the Clear Light (ie anally well functioning) Chanel, and now American censors want to regulate cable TV more. This means refreshing clever shows like Queer As Folk may be deemed too naughty. Just imagine George Bush sitting down to watch even one episode of this. It would off the air quicker than you can say Doug Mulry and the donkey incident.
Now America seems to be run by the Far Right, I wonder if our own politicians would follow suit to try to drag us all back through to the dark ages. There would be nothing worse than nothing on TV but Lord of the Flies type Reality TV shows with no squabbling, no exciting chase scenes, and no rescue from the elements. The Beastie (ie the censorship boards) would be trying to rule us all on fear of the unknown. Don't go there it's dangerous.
Maybe we would all be encouraged to watch Sesame Street again, but in South Africa the AIDS muppet would have to go. Reality TV doesn't involve real people you know, just the blending of the bland. So let the creative forces remain to write the good scripts, the funny scripts and even the naughty with a context script, and let's not let the censors ruin fun for adults on TV or radio where it is starkly needed most.
Cheers Ruth Woodhams (nee Stumer)
kick am was good but it was when Chris m Murphy owned it. Maybe Caralis might go down that track with CMR. Something needs to be done for 2SM. As for Nova, I am hoping we get it here in Brisbane one day. The austereo stations are sounding a bit bland here .
just noticed 2sm has done up its web site not bad. it also has a daily sports show
Had to laugh at the comments on radioinfo and in the Newcastle Herald recently that STAR104.5 has "just announced its lineup" - The Music Network published it 2 weeks ago
Re: The Media Watch story.
It seems to me the only people complaining about Laws and Jones are the ABC and the do-gooders who for some reason have come to the conclusion that advertising is a sin. The commercial media selling advertising in any form is no different than a prostitute selling her wares or Mc Donalds selling hamburgers. There are by far better causes for the ABC and the do-gooders to follow. Putting all this effort into an "easy" story is really a cop out. The ABC don't like to be called ambulance chasers or sensationalists but for my part their petty badgering of the commercial media is just that. (do we as Australians pay our 8 cents a day for this)
Hugh Jorgan
Doug Mulray had some very interesting things to say in your article. Especially the bit about the marketing towards youth and the ignorance towards over 35's who have wads of money to spend. Along with Doug....I can't understand why you would want to target a demographic that changes it's mind more times than they change their underwear. It will be interesting to see how far he'll bid for a licence although one gets the feeling DMG will produce their "open chequebook" again. I'd really like to see RG Capital get some cap city licenses, it would give the markets a new major player which is good.
Apologies in advance but I just couldn't go past the play on words about Mark at The Edge. He said he wants to spend more time with his wife, fair enough, but then to put "long and hard" in the same sentence gave me a much needed giggle to an otherwise screwy day. Onya Mark, nice stuff over that 7 years too.
Sport 927
Whilst i have no opinion one way or another about Sport's legal challenge, I can clearly see where they're coming from. The simple fact is that many (not all) survey diaries appear to be hijacked by teenagers, which is why the kiddy stations rate as highly as they do. Bring on the people meters, and set the truth afloat.
IMHO - Artie
So Virgin-Macquarie think there is room for yet another under 40s FM station in Sydney. That would make 5, 6 if you count Mix (Sydney's BEST Mix?)plus other community types. One would surely think Macqurie would be better off focusing on 2GB/2CH however it is hard to imagine that Singleton would pay the price particularly when they expected to pick up 3AK for next to nothing.
Doug Mulray is absolutely right that the over 40s music market is almost ignored and we desperately need something between the Mix and 2CH format. Hopefully do away with talking head duos, particularly at breakfast that rarely have anything sensible to say. Bring back the likes of Trevor Sinclair, Rick Wayde, Gareth Macrea and yes I could even force myself to listen to Doug.
Another idea would be for Southern Cross to buy 2SM, merge their studios into the new Darling Harbour location and let Caralis continue to network out of Newcastle or the Gold Coast. 2SM could run a somewhat automated music station for the over 40s and the payoff to Caralis is that he would receive 2UE programmes, features and news for his AM network throughout NSW and Queensland. What would happen to the 2SM existing staff, mmmm.
Meanwhile I continue to work at nights listening to the EasyMix on 2KY. Ross Waugh
Memo Ross Waugh - Ross, you and so many others seem to think that Bill Caralis is a small player. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's my observation that the Super Network is not only here to stay, but is getting bigger all the time. With 2SM as its key hub. please dont make assumptions and guesses from gossip and innuendo. Grant Goldman, 2SM Breakfast.
i have this feeling were dmg could do jv;s with virgin [vra] and in doing so complete it;s nova network in brisbane. as well as been involed in another well known brand for sydney and later melbourne
Memo Grant Goldman - don't you think you could be just a *tad* more friendly? I've seen you in here recently and you've always got a bee in your bonnet about something. Relax!!
Good comment Jamie. Similar situation happened in Goulburn. The station manager was also the deputy mayor. Once, there was a development in a certain part of town approved by council, but opposed by residents. The local newsreader ran a story and interviews covering both sides. Fair enough for a journo you would think. Result: Newsreader was sacked!!!!! Other readers over time were constantly pressured over including "pro council" stories. (You never heard anything bad about the council) No point approaching the ABA...they said it was "out of their jurisdiction". I'm sure they wouldn't think the same view if John Laws or Alan Jones were deputy mayor of Sydney, rather than some unknown in a country town.
Been to the employment page lately. Because of the foolish way some networks have been run in the last few years there just aint enough experienced announcers to go around. Guess what? station owners, programmers and managers are going to have to start paying big salaries to get people back into the industry. The accountants have been running regional radio for too long and mistakenly believed that announcers did it for the ego boost. Too many managers have been doing it for the share price. How wrong you were! Now you have a problem. How are you going to fill the holes. You can always tell when the job pays lousy.... the ad for the posi is sexed up to the max. Let's just use some common sense.... People don't work for geography, or to better their career. They work to feed their families, buy houses and generally live. Someone fire the accountants and get radio happening.
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. - Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
Could VRA be waiting for austereo to be a good price? We all know Village would love to sell a stake in it to gain some extra cash. Virgin seems to be the only one sniffing around.
could richard branson and singo lease out the virgin fm brand to another radio group. that way singo would keep his 2 stations in sydney. whoever got the virgin brand such as austereo or arn could replace one of their older brands such as triple m or mix. just a thought
Just in regards to the councillor/radio announcer discussion, found on 2bs.com.au that Janice McGilchrist has also just been elected onto the Bathurst Council.
Would like to see radioinfo keep a tally on radio people/councillors on the page just for interest sake! :)
In response to Peter Holden - The constant rejection post job interview several of my uni-grad acquientances and I have received is "if you had more experience" and "get more practical experience, then call us in a year" leads me to wonder where this miraculous experience can come from, if no one is willing to give you a start, and teach you what they refer to as "getting some practical experience". Of those uni-grad acquaintances that have made it in, they have known someone personally within a station to get to where they are... It pays to know the right people it would seem....
I find it incredible that in sydney ARN is allowed to own 2ws and mix106.5 which are both sydney-wide stations, and also allowd to own the edge - broadcasting to sydney's western suburbs (and all operating from the same building!), whereas in brisbane DMG can only own 1 fm station and a sunshine coast station (hence, selling their 50% stake in new97.3)?? Please Explain.
Also in regards to a few comments made about the number of youth oriented stations, well i have to say that if you look at it this way, b105 is the ONLY brisbane FM station playing music the 'youth' really listen to. I don't think 97.3 is top40, more so adult contemparay, sure they play a variety of pop songs, but that is because the market is underserved. I think when Nova starts in Brisbane, they will play more classic hits and disco (which is already starting to happen) therefore gaining a more older audience as the competition between b105 and nova will be too much for 97.3 to compete in. 4MMM plays a fair bit of classic rock, and you have some community stations playing older music too, so it's not all doom and gloom i don't think for the over 50s.
There is a huge amount of new music available that doesn't get played on the radio because there isn't a station that will satisfy this demand, many varieities of music including dance, r&b, and even rock, (however tripleJ does a great job with alternative) are not being fully available because the existing stations will only play a small selection of 'mainstream' stuff. This will all change for the better in a years time!
i can,t work out how dmg now have 2 fm licences in sydney and can still own 1 in gosford . gosford is not to far out of sydney.so why do they have to sell out of brisbane since the sunshine coast is about the same as gosford recption wise.
The reason DMG program to the under 40's is because they know they would have a problem catering for over 40's. The network lacks expertise in that area. When their golden haired boys took over the regionals they concentrated on the younger stations.
At first I thought it was a strategy they had developed but soon it became quite evident that these young guys could not relate to over 40's. They predicted all sorts of outcomes that were really wide of the mark. An old boss of mine once told me you can't relate to an older market if you have not experienced their life experiences. There is an interesting article in The Australian (check their website under media)about where the money will soon be coming from.... Its the oldies.... the Baby Boomer hitting 50+ There is a bucket load of money for a station that caters for the baby boomer.
With so much of the programming of Aussie Radio being "self referenced" lets hope we get some older people in there to grab these dollars.
In response to Hugh Jorgan i think DMG doesn't just program to under 40's in areas where they own 2 stations. Sure Hot FM/ Nova are youth oriented, but DMG also operates a stream of FM classic hits stations such as 4to in Townsville, 4ca Cairns, 4mk Mackay.
A main reason why in some markets there is ONLY a nova or hotfm is because of the limited licences available to own. If DMG had it their way i reckon they would have a classic hits and youth station in EVERY market they could. And good on them. I'm sure sydney listeners will be in for a new over 40s station shortly.
I was in Adelaide for the 91.9 Auction and listened to SA FM and it did not sound top40 to me! It sounded like Soft adult contemporary, mix and tripleM sounded classic hits/ classic rock. When a new competitor enters a radio market everything is shaken up, hence a change of formats for a few stations, and repositioning. It is just a natural occurence as they are fighting for ratings and a greater share of the market. Jarrad, I think T%riple M is trying to make things very difficult for Nova in Adelaide, and as Nova is a youth branded station already successful in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth DMG will continue to target that audience and give advertisers an option of 4 markets through national advertising. Soon to be 5 of course. It's just business (which can be a bad thing... Austereo is a great example of this!).
And it's a safe bet Nova won't go classic hits or disco in Brisbane as this is what 97.3 fm is there for (as i mentioned previously), as they cater for the 25-54 market.
The only way we will have more 'Classic Hits' stations is if the government makes more licences available, but the chances of that happening are very slim!
However i do agree that radioinfo is great and i also think this forum is excellent by giving people freedom of opinion. Cheers.
by the way in my previous post (27/4) i was meant to say 97.3 will play more disco and classic hits, not nova! Does anyone know what the story is with DMG having to offload their 50% of 97.3fm?
Can someone explain to me how it is that Bill Caralis still has his radio stations 2HD and NEW FM in the Newcastle ratings, but does not believe in the sydney ratings system for 2SM.
I see DMG has just discovered "the next big thing" - the over 40's. Bloody hell, blind Freddy could tell them about the vast amount of commercial opportunity in the baby boomer generation. Too busy listening to Yank "consultants"
It is interesting to note re: John Laws/Alan Jones stoush..
that if this were happening in the US the FCC would probably fine them both. if only..
drex
GO LAWSIE- loved the claim "So who's lying here... Alan Jones or John Howard?" FREE SPEECH RULES!! Stick with your convictions and you'll find the majority silently behind you cheering.
Thanks Jarrad. In response to the government issuing more licences, it looks as though it won't happen for another 5 years as the ABA has said it will close the door on FM radio. There was a big debate on this forum about a year ago on this topic, and the conclusion was the big companies did a good job in persuading the ABA to not issue any more competition at the start of the licence rollout (1980), therefore the whole industry being crippled in protectionism from the word go. Even the introduction of FM radio took longer than it should of as AM operators complained it would seriously damage their profits. However some FM operators continue to make massive profits desptite these innaccurate claims! Thanks also Brian for the information regarding the overlapping in Sydney and Brisbane/sunny coast.
listened to river949 on sunday a bit of 80,s music is creeping in blondie, flock of seagulls to name a few someone is getting ready for nova
Really Brian? I noticed over the weekend they had the 500 best songs of all time too..very unusual! I wonder if they will adopt a classic-hits format soon.
Heard the 2SM rummor is going around again, now that Southern Cross missed out on the FM licence. Didn't Grant Goldman a while back say he was all for stations to share backroom operations, when the failed Macquarie, 2UE merger was anounced? Could that happen, as Ross Waugh has said, to 2SM & 2UE? Lets face it, it would save costs for Caralis and Southern Cross.
re mark days comments. live advertising works, why do you think advertisers continue to pay a premium? particularly when it is results driven.hows this for a great idea, bend over backwards to ensure the clients success.bottom line improves for the station,clients happy, and returns for more.by the way budding radio sales people, to make it work its live advertising not live reads,there is a difference. you know what? ill go further here, i am really tired of radio stations hiding the commercial content in the name of programming. advertising should stand out.i have been
observing some stations over the years(including nova recently) promoting ad free hours, less commercials, only 2 ads an hour etc.
i have long believed this actually trains listeners to hate commercials.( there is no doubting novas success, but id like to see the clients story)lets make 2004 the year of the advertiser, and come up with some more creative work, recorded and live. mark day should stick to newspapers, which by the way are full of in your face ads . when i was in management at 2ue in 1987 mark day was on air there and in my humble opinion couldnt read an ad to save his life,grant goldman
Well said Grant!
The wankers who think the only way to programme a station is to "advertise the fact that they don't advertise" should hang their head in shame and find employment somewhere else. Radio has gone through patches where some bright spark has come up with "easy outs" instead of attacking the problems head on. Most of us receive, through our email, copies of overseas ads and we actually look forward to receiving them... Why? They are entertaining. Advertising in the hands of a professional is entertaining and not offensive. It pays the bills.... it is the reason we are here. The clowns who look at research and make stupid decisions from it like hide the ads are doing the industry damage. Lets go back to Radio 101.
Lesson 1. Without the show there is no business.
Lesson 2. With out the business there is no show.
If you can't program a station with advertising go to the ABC.
Congrats to Alan Jones and John Laws. These guys are such good broadcasters they are getting FREE advertising across Australia and on the ABC.
Another Brisbane Radio Listener with a comment to make!. It's interesting to note the recent comments made by both Brian Chew and Michael Quinn about changes to River949. Whilst I had previously listened to the station at varying times, I have been listening more so recently. I think its a great new format.
One point I find interesting is that I live in Brisbane's inner south which is not part of the Ipswich licence area for the station (but I get a strong signal) and I have noticed that even in my local area, sometimes the fruit shop and bakery and always one of the local petrol stations have the station on. I also know a few other people who live in Brisbane (not Ipswich) who also listen at varying times - as obviously do some of the other people who have commented in this forum. I'm aware that River 949 is not formally included in the official ratings for Brisbane (as it is licenced for Ipswich) and that probably more than half of the Brisbane population get a strong fortuitous signal from this station. I wonder if it was formally included what the true position would be for this station ratings wise?
Warren Tonks you have great taste. Besides the fact my son Jay Goldman does the night program there, I too think its agreat format. I cant help thinking that history repeats itself, back in the 70s the Brisbane radio market regarded Frank Moore's 4ip as no threat, it found itself in the ratings book (yes out of Ipswich) it remains the most exiting part of my career as we blew the market away.
Some of our programs had 31% of the market. And another blast from the past, the new general manager of river949 is David Greenwood the very popular breakfast announcer on 4ip at that time. Good luck to him, the only worry for David hes got another Goldman to work with. Maybe he could get my son Michael off Big Brother and put him on breakfast. grant goldman
I respect your opinions gentlemen however one should realise that in the 70's 4IP dropped Ipswich like an ugly girlfriend and headed off to the big smoke. (Something a lot of Ipswich people are dissapointed about). It was AM and transmitting from St. Helena Island so it's signal was covering the whole of Brisbane. River 949 is an Ipswich station, started by Ipswich people and should remain that way. It is the boom area of South East Queensland and needs it's own station. Previous management have stuffed the station by thinking they had bought a cheap Brisbane liscense and wasted time and resources trying to crack brisbane with half a signal. If you want to be on a Brisbane Station work at a Brisbane Station not at an Ipswich station. The new management at River seem to have the right intentions, only time will tell.
Re Brian's comments: I think that the issue you raised about the two markets only being 30km apart (and not really two markets) is very valid as is the competition issue your raised. I believe that the Ipswich station itself used similar arguments when recommending the amalgamation of the two markets (at the time comments on the Brisbane draft licence plan were sought by the ABA). In any event the their were strong objections to the proposed amalgamation (especially from the Brisbane stations) and it never eventuated.
I think too that it is good for Ipswich to have its own local radio station as it is a fairly large provincial city and every other provincial city would have its own station.
Again though I think its proximity to Brisbane does create issues. As Hugh mentioned, Ipswich didnt take too kindly to the relocation of 4IP.
But the reality was that long before its change of transmission site to St Helena Island it had adopted a similar programming style to 2SM in Sydney and 3XY in Melbourne and it had taken the Brisbane Market by storm (even with a second rate signal)and as such its focus was already on Brisbane as well as Ipswich. This probably wouldnt have happened had the markets not been so close. As I recall, the real issue of the change of transmitter site to St Helena Island by 4IP (4KQ also relocated there) was that Brisbane and the Gold Coast then got first rate signals with the signal in Ipswich being inferior to their previous local signal. This understandibly would have left Ipswich residents unimpressed. Because of history, I dont think a formal amalgamation would ever happen but I also dont think they will ever be what you would call two seperate markets.
In the beginning Marconi did his radio experiments "live". The first announcer did it "live", even early music performances were done "live". Then as we got clever, the commercial message was broadcast in either a "recorded" or "live" script format. Not content with that, we then developed technology which allowed either "local live", "live assist", "recorded local live", "live via satellite", voice tracked "simulated live", "live Infomercials", "live endorsements" and now "live streaming" via the Net.
As sure as Night turns into Day Mark, if you ban "live" on the radio, Marconi's gift to humanity will sound somewhat"dead".In any case we have an ABA industry to support and Media Watch on the ABC to feed.....both "live" and "recorded" !
Maybe 2UE could do something not heard on AM radio in Sydney at breakfast . a double header breakfast show so we could hear people talk about various subjects and not have just one person telling you what is right or wrong. It has worked for Southen Cross at its other talk stations. Southern Cross needs to be heard more - news wise, Macquarie has 2 outlets...it needs that 2nd radio station badly.
How will Nova go in Brisbane? Why bother at all? The second station for that group in Sydney may be an over 40 format - at long last!! I would skip Nova in Brisbane and go straight to the over 40 format, before someone at Triple M wakes up and they go for that demographic! Another thought outside the square - as Triple J also goes for the under 40 market along with all the commercial fm's in Brisbane as the national broadcaster why do this? Surely they should be providing a music alternative? Listen to daytime BBC Radio 2 - it is the number one station in the UK. Given that fact how come no radio station here has a similar format? I am a listener by the way, I don't work in radio - so what would I know!!!!
The recent announcement for the inaugural "Radio Think Tank" trotted out two of my favourite chesnuts used to explain the lack of creativity in radio advertising. You know the ones I mean 1)"Agency writers aren't interested in writing for Radio" and 2)"Agency writers don't know how to write for Radio". (Of course the gentlemen being gathered for this think tank are living proof that at least SOME agency writers ARE interested AND extremely capable of writing for Radio. There's a certain irony there, don't you think?)
Were I one of the distinguished gentlemen attending this event, I would respectfully suggest that the industry get its own house in order. In other words, if the industry is serious about raising creative standards it must examine the commercials it creates "in-house". After all, on many stations the in-house ads represent the bulk of the commercial airtime.
GGGEEEEZZZZZ, Peter Holden, the industry is already run by beancounters and how are new talents expected to do anything when its the 'dinosaurs' who are called on all the time. Funny how John Laws had to start in radio when he was barely more than a whippersnapper and now you think yep yes uh huh, let's rely on the old world view. Haven't you heard of TRY Something New.
Now you think 'The Name' will sell when sometimes 'the name' has given up in frustration because its the bean counters telling him or her what do do. How come the best service to the listener has to be bargain basement anyway? We are all listeners and Ive heard radio in Australia pumping out the worst automated services at THE LOWEST POSSIBLE COST. Yip Yah, no wonder people are enjoying internet radio, even if it's shows that are a day or 2 old.
What is going to happen when one day the Old School announcers retire. Then we will have fumbling youngsters who have been given no country experience to iron out problems telling the world what it is all about. Remember Rove when he first got on TV? He looked and sounded terrified. Now he's slick and winning awards because he stuck at it and maybe got some training from those more experienced. Now what if those more experienced people decided oh it is too hard to train anyone else when I could do it myself....
Hearing about scandals created by middle aged men (and women) making lots of money in media and politics just makes the country yawn as well. Yes it is an aging population, but did you know there were more people born in 1971 than any other year in Australia. Where is the talent from THAT era- (Is Barry Keohane still PD of QLD DMG???) We need to inspire new talent and not network all the time.
One country area may be totally different from another country area anyway. This is Australia-home of wide open spaces and cultural diversity. Just imagine what would happen if every station including the ABC had to have a minimum of local content, and also announcers got a pay rise. You would see talent everywhere.
That is another issue. Why do announcers get paid such a paltry sum even if working on weekends. If the average wage is 49,000 per year in Australia you can bet your bottom dollar people like John Laws
automatically raise the bar so it looks like announcers are getting great pay.
Anyway I've vented my spleen and say thanks to all the stations I've worked at where networking was an exception not a standard,
Cheers Ruth Stumer (Woodhams)
I agree with Brian. jackFM is superb. Robin Farrell has already said hello to us all in Australia listening on-air today. MMM surely has to bite the bullet and copy it.
Re 2DAY-FM's latest listener invitation thingy...with making a point of asking to bring along a female friend between 35 and 44, could we see returning to the 2DAY of old instead of when they saw Hitz/Wild-FM as a threat to switch to more dance music? Hope so! I was a regular 2DAY-FM listener in the early 90's when people like Rob McCasker, Keith Williams and George Moore were the staples. But when they switched to dance music, that was the end of it for me.
Re: Jack FM. Hey Guys and Girls are we not a little more creative than this? What does it say for us that we just want to copy a format from the states? Since the days of Rod Muir in the 70's consultants have been going stateside and giving us cheap copies of states formats. Do you all realise the two most popular formats in the states are talk and country? Let's try a little harder and build something.
Just down the road nestled between the Gold Coast and Grafton is 2ZZZ which I program the music for and have been for about 3 years. We play a mix of Top 40, 80s 90s and some bloody good stuff which hasn't yet been made huge (eg Scissor Sisters). We don't play anything heavier than Silverchair or ACDC or Franz Ferdinand and don't play anything much 'lighter' than Baby Bash or All 4 One. We play Madness, Spandau Ballet, and Duran Duran. A blend of INXS and Spiderbait, a juxtaposition of The Cat Empire and The Vapors. In a university town where we are the only FM commercial radio station we try to be progressive without being alienating to everyone else. We get bands up here playing in Byron Bay and Splendour in the Grass is home to where we call home. I program plenty of Australian music like Eskimo Joe and Pete Murray and go for good songs before they get the awards, like The John Butler Trio. Of course we play Kylie, Jamelia and Britney here, but certainly not to the point of scaring everyone. The record companies are a great help too even tho we don't have access to Musicpoint and know that I enjoy breaking new artists like Snow Patrol AND Fur Patrol. I think listeners can get very bored with top 40 songs heard 3 times a day so we might program them twice a day leaving room for Red Hot and Hot songs to be the up and comers too. If Ipswich is sounding good, can this format work with other stations to get them the ratings too or at least keep the advertising dollar AND the listeners. I would hope so, tho I can see how more stations in an area would maybe see the need for more segmentation.
I'd like to hear from other MDs just to see where YOU are coming from too in music programming.
Cheers Ruth Stumer
I was at Fingal Beach in Northern NSW a couple of weeks ago and was listening to Triple Z. I really liked the format - it was great to hear something a bit different. Another Caralis station which I consider has a good format is Heat FM at Noosa. Its operating in the very competetive Sunshine Coast Market but still dares to be a bit different. The River 949 format out of Ipswich is fantastic and definately makes a refreshing change from the standard Brisbane (capital city) FM formats. Ive just returned from Melbourne and listening to commercial FM is that City made me feel like I was still at home listening to Brisbane FM (with the exception that Melbourne already has a Nova).
The latest think tank has been to raise the standards of creativity in radio advertising, but I suspect the most effective method to increase radio's national ad spend is to heavily promote radio as 'an essential ingredient' to any advertising campaign, regardless of whether radio offers the best medium for a creative execution or not.
So if you run a TV ad to 'create' a message, you still run a radio campaign to 'reinforce that message'. Radio has too much reach, frequency and targeting not to be able to offer a 'reinforcement' solution to any ad campaign (Radio can remind people of a campaign or alert people to a campaign).
You base the 'radio is the essential ingredient' message on very simple psychology - estimates that as much as 80% of short-term memory never makes it to long-term memory storage*. Also, that short-term memory tends to be more auditory than visual, therefore relies on the spoken word*.
In an age of huge communication clutter, it's so easy for the message to lose it's way. Radio has the reach, frequency and targeting to be a dependable traffic manager of any campaign message - an essential ingredient.
Media buyers get flooded with number crunching responsibilities because of an overload of data that needs to be sought through. So giving them 'common sense' reminders about the fundamentals of cutting through communication clutter might be very much appreciated. With many marketers wanting media agencies and creative agencies to 'rebundle' (reported in Ad News, 21 May, page 6) much of that common sense would hopefully flow through to the creative department.
With marketers expressing concern about the structure of ad agencies, it also wouldn't hurt to take the message about radio direct to their door.
*Read Jack Trout's 'The New Positioning' (published by McGraw Hill) for more detail.
Nothing revolutionary to report from youstruly, only to say it was great for a bloke of 50 to see on the Radioinfo site some old mates photographed at the recent AWA reunion in Sydney. From Rogerson junior (David) to Rogerson senior (Bruce) plus the likes of Chris Joscelyn, Bob Leonard, John Grimm, Paul McCarthy and Peter Verhoeven (promoted on-air many moons ago as "Groovin' With Verhoovin'!")it was a buzz to see so many radio buddies from my time as Manager/Programme Manager of 2EC Bega-Batemans Bay, now they were the good days 1981-1992.
All the very best to you all. IAN WRIGHT, General Sales Manager, 5DN Adelaide....the city of PIE FLOATERS !
Howdy! Does anyone know what the deal was with Stan Zemanek on 2UE friday night the 4th of June? He appeared to say something along the lines of it was his saddest day in radio for 36 years, played a few songs like My Way and also heard Pam Mackay may have been filing her last report for him. Can anyone shed some light on this at all? Thanks in advance!
In answer to Frank about Stan Zemanek...not sure about last friday although it's fairly well known he's going to 2GB....(or is that the de-facto 2UE?) As for RG capital......things will continue to prosper for them regardless of change. Name wise.....maybe "Macquarie Capital". Shouldn't be any rule about the Macquarie name..after all, for a number of years there has been an "RG Capital Radio" network and a "Capital Radio" network based in Canberra. I've worked for both.
Jason - thanks for the info, appreciate it! Interesting news about RG capital I must say. Ta mate.
I just wanted to say congrats to Willy getting the NOVA106 PD gig, i did work experience at NXFM when i was 15 and he was doing the hot30 there, nice guy, good luck mate.....cheers
Maybe Virgin radio will go down a different track here by buying Singos Macquarie radio stations and as well DCL just for now. Caralis could get a offer he could not refuse by Macquarie bank. WAN could do a deal with Rural Press. As for dmg the parent company dmgt has brought in a partner in cvc in its bid for the Daily Tele in the UK. So it might not have to sell any oz assets.
Here is my 2nd part of what I think is ahead. Village will sell down stake in Austereo for now. Southern Cross has US media group Taft as one of its major shareholders since getting Southern Star. The Camerons could strike more deals with private radio owners like the Handburys Ace Radio Group.
As a pretty darn good Austereo programmer has always told me, if the networked program is good enough, then it will work anywhere. Even Brisvegas
Interesting speculation about what the future lies with Nova106 but I can say one thing, B105 will make life very difficult for the newcomer when it goes on air most likely March next year.
I think they will continue to 'sound different' as they already have much less ads and are playing more music and I think they will soon start to play an even wider variety and start adding compressors to their technical equipment to sound 'better'. At the moment its still plastic radio, compared with Hot 91 and Hot Tomato 102.9. In the long term i can't see b105 being toppled from evidence of Perth and Melbourne, but at the end of the day the markets are all different and the listener's of Brisbane will be the winners, with a more diverse radio dial and more choice of formats.
I couldn't agree more with Brian Triple M is sounding like a Gatorade tasting drink in a Powerade bottle, at odds with each other. I think the ratings next week will show that the listeners are still not overly impressed, and it will only get worse when Nova enters the market. In terms of Adelaide, DMG is building its new hub which will take a while to complete and so an October launch looks likely. They are probably just running the playlist from a computer in Fivaa studios direct to their FM transmitter.
If you have a radio that covers the off band section of AM, have a listen to Radio 2 (1620)- I think it has a good sound, and a good variety of music, and if anyone at BIRG Inc. is reading this when will i1197 be back on air with its usual line up? We have been waiting for ages.
Michael
For Michael's benefit - Radio 2 is also on the Foxtel and Austar Digital network - gets a hearing frequently in my household
Well, well. After the discussion here about Brisbane and their "dislike" of programming from the southern States, B105 announces K&J will be networked from 28th June, moving Deano to arvos and possibly making some changes to MMM as well. Will be interesting to see what the market does think of a darn-good drive program. Now come on Jeff, make NXFM take it and Molloy as well, I want to hear them!
Re earlier comments about networked shows: I am guessing that Kyle and Jackie O will be successful in their new time slot here in Brisbane on B105. Its interesting to note that regardless of whether people like networked programmes or not, the ones presently being aired in Brisbane on both MMM and B105 appear to all be successful in their timeslots.
If you compare the ratings for MMM pre the daytime network shows and the ratings now for the timeslots where shows are networked, their is no significant differences. The networked nightly show on B105 has always rated through the roof.
On another issue, I note that MMM Brisbane is looking to make changes pre Nova. Whilst, no doubt some changes are necessary in the face of new competition, MMM (previously F104) has always had a fairly solid rock format and has very loyal listeners and consistent ratings. When the format was changed temporarily back in the 90's, it was a disaster and if the plan is to change its format to something like MMM in Adelaide I think that (once again) there will be an existing listener revolt. Whenever a new FM station has come to Brisbane (ie 4BK to B105 and 97.3) they have always been heavily sampled and this has affected the ratings of the existing stations (even temporarily) . When Nova comes it will be no different - regardless of what changes are made to the existing stations.
If MMM Brisbane "hurts" its loyal audience too much, it may pay a heavy price. Brisbane may be the last to get Nova but lots of us have heard the Nova format when interstate or been told or read about it (and also about MMM being relaunched in Adelaide as a Nova clone). MMM Brisbane copying a Nova would be recognised as just that - a copy with little credibility!
I reckon the cage will be herd in brisbane at breakfast very soon on triple m daily
The ABC Board is composed of a number of representatives of sectional and political interests. They are appointed at the discretion of the government of the day (or the one before) and do not broadly, consistently and effectively represent the interests of shareholders (taxpayers), consumers (current audience) or prospects (potential audience).
The current "battle" regarding the staff representative, reflects the preponderance of current interests on the board who are militating against the real benefits of participatory management - an idea with currency in many effective businesses and the vigorous pursuit of which must surely improve the ABC's responsiveness to market forces.
There should not only be a staff representative on the Board but, there must be a more effective representation of taxpayers as shareholders through a selection process for the Board which protects the organisation against the destructive outcomes of partisan appointment, including regular and expensive restructures designed to settle scores and find jobs for the faithful.
Only then will the ABC brand be oriented toward improved and consistently successful services for listeners, viewers and shareholders with a greater common experience of positive community engagement, rather than media reports on the attempts of the usual suspects to have their way with our ABC.
I just wanted to give a shoutout to Brian Carlton who filled in for 2GB's Brian Wilshire the last couple of weeks. Brian again did a terrific job filling in for the guy and I for one wouldn't mind seeing him get another permanent gig somewhere instead of just public holidays and fill-in's. It's just a shame he's not on-air more often. Thanks for the entertainment Brian, really top stuff as usual.
if singo does end up getting his virgin jv of the ground by getting austereo.what will happen to 2gb & 2ch.will southern cross get 2gb after all. with singo getting under 15% of scb. has anyone heard anymore about the dmg regional & mac bank deal
It's hard to imagine Singo doing anything too radical with 2gb and 2ch particularly when they are doing so well and have such a wealth of talent in waiting.I still feel if Southern Cross can get their hands on 2sm they could give 2ch a good run for their money and possibly get a bit of a head-start on DMG. Further if Southern Cross can get their hands on some regionals in the offering they can plough some of their own programming into them.Well, perhaps all I want is another music station I can feel comfortable with, the sooner the better am or fm it doesn't really matter
i agree with ross if southern cross got a 2nd radio station like 2sm it would affect 2ch.possibly as well 2gb as it would give southern cross a bigger profile news brand wise.it would be harder for southern cross to gain regionals as they own a regional tv network in most states
I think there will be some sell-offs this year but I suspect Bill Caralis won't be selling anything.. especially 2SM.
The increase in professionalism in community radio perhaps arises as a result of:
1. Our natural desire to excel at what we do,
2. The need for community stations to hire admin, programme or support staff to provide continuity and therefore a functional and reliable service,
3. The demise of 'alternative' as a satisfying activity, and
4. Most importantly, the reluctance of time strapped people to volunteer - resulting in more professionals taking to the air.
Radiowise. Making available an audio clip of the sadly departed Christophy Reeve is a nice touch giving radio an opportunity to broadcast a tribute should they choose to, but I really question the relevance of an interview recorded in 1978. I'm guessing the majority of radio audiences would relate much more to his heroism post 1995, his eternal optimism and regular campaining for stem cell research in recent years, than to his brief career as an heroic actor. Surely he would have spoken publically a great deal more since 1995, than he ever did as an actor. Again, nice idea, but I think more recent audio would have been more appropiate.