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Firstly, Hot FM Charters Towers? No talent there – never has been, probably never will be. It’s nothing more than a sales office.
SCA simply don’t make any effort to broadcast locally from their inland Hot FM stations in Queensland. Instead, they all take generically produced breakfast and morning programming from jocks in Townsville.
Opportunities for young jocks at these Hot FM stations are non-existent. For Craig Bruce not to acknowledge that speaks volumes.
Secondly, I believe opportunities for on air talent in SCA’s regional network are actually decreasing. For instance, Sea FM in Rockhampton which up until recent years enjoyed a strong ‘live and local’ branding, now only has one local non-breakfast shift. (9am – 12pm).
The 1pm – 5pm shift could easily be filled locally with a young up and comer, as it has been in the past. But instead, it’s now lazily voice tracked in Townsville by a veteran announcer who’s been in radio for many years.
Weekends also now mainly consist of the generic ‘Greatest Hits’ network feed from the Gold Coast.
Instead of sustaining opportunities for young jocks to cut their teeth on local stations, it's becoming more evident to me that SCA are taking the inexcusable ‘can’t be bothered’ approach at the regional stations, and are actually taking away opportunities in regional areas.