Nine Entertainment has brought experienced radio COO and consultant Rick Lenarcic (pictured) over to Perth and 6PR to assist the station with operational and staffing changes up until the end of the survey year.
6PR have gone through significant upheaval with afternoons presenter Julie-anne Sprague and night host Tod Johnston being made redundant in October, a movie Julie-anne described on Instagram as being like a nasty swooping magpie:
Tony McManus took over WA nights from 9pm,alongside starting at midnight on Melbourne’s 3AW. Content Manager Emily White decided to leave alongside Julie-anne and Tod, after 14 years with the station and then a week later morning host Gary Adshead was announced to be leaving for a role at the ABC.
Everyone has picked up extra hours on air with the 6PR breakfast duo Millsy & Karl (Steve Mills and Karl Langdon) currently doing 5am to 10am – five hours of talk radio live Monday to Friday.
There is a real opportunity here for 6PR to continue to provide a live radio options across the day to West Australians with Triple M Perth networking in JB and Billy on Drive from next year. Lenarcic’s background with SCA, Grant Broadcasters and ARN will hopefully give 6PR guidance towards the revenue boost they need while retaining live and local programming.
Struggling radio stations can save a lot of money and greenhouse gas production.
60 % of the Australian population has had DAB+ digital simulcasting of existing AM/FM stations for 15 years. These people live in all capital cities, Gold Coast & Mandurah.
Norway networked broadcasters switched off AM/FM in 2017 leaving DAB+ only. Despite the nay sayers the listenership returned to previous levels within a year. Switzerland is switching off all but DAB+ at the end of this year. We switched off non-digital TV in 2013 without complaint.
In Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane there are only 3 transmitters per site and the other locations 2 transmitters. This allows 83 AM and 125 FM main transmitters to be decommissioned and their licence fees to be cancelled.
A large number of vehicles have DAB+ installed in manufacture, because the EU made this compulsory in 2020. A total switch off in these areas will stimulate receiver sales to drop prices. I bought an DAB+/FM/AM receiver in a chain store yesterday for $60.
DAB+ is unsuitable for country areas because of its small coverage area. Digital Radio Mondiale can cover from a region to the whole country from a single high power transmitter. This allows regional commercial stations to transmit both their programs in 'FM stereo' quality sound. DRM is installed in 6 million Indian cars and now there is an inexpensive DRM receiver module for portable receivers.