Radio Stations

[David Votoupal]

When I was growing up I was one of those who could never turn off the radio, whether it was in the car or in the lounge room. At that time we had a considerable variety of great stations and the music was far more listenable than the trash shoved down our throats today.

Back then the music stations in Sydney I flicked between were 2Day FM, Triple M, 2UW, 2SM, plus two stations serving Sydney's west (my area) in 2WS and 2KA.

I'll focus on the latter two, because while these stations technically still exist in some form (as WS FM and The Edge 96.1 respectively), as far as I'm concerned they're lost to me and to many other listeners out west ever since ARN (which, quelle surprise, is part-owned by the US radio giant Clear Channel) took them over and eventually moved them out of the west.

Both stations had a great variety of music (whether it was 2WS's "Hits and Memories" format or 2KA/One FM's "Hot Hits and Favourites"), and had informative and entertaining announcers, but most significantly they were truly local stations, which served our community and we could really relate to.

Little wonder then that with the loss of those stations from the west, and the general downhill slide of the rest in terms of quality, that it's been hard for me to keep the radio on for too long. Though Triple M can still be a good listen, and the station down in Campbelltown that started a few years back (C91.3) does a great job of serving their local community + playing a great variety of music, reminiscent of what 2KA/One FM did.

So other than that, commercial radio has become lost to me, and I'm sure many will feel the same.

 

[Tim56]

Originally posted by David Votoupal
the music was far more listenable than the trash shoved down our throats today.

I don't know about the rest, but I agree with that.

 

[Mr X]

Originally posted by David Votoupal
At that time we had a considerable variety of great stations and the music was far more listenable than the trash shoved down our throats today.

Part of this may have something to do with you getting older. People tend to not listen to and accept new music as much the older they get. I know this has happened to me.

 

[Mog]

Re: Re: Radio Stations

Originally posted by Mr X
Part of this may have something to do with you getting older. People tend to not listen to and accept new music as much the older they get. I know this has happened to me.

Since radio stations are all linked together in national networks these days, maybe the fact that a playlist and programming is decided on in one town doesn't help.

But while I don't really enjoy "modern" music that much for the most part, I find I am really getting into new music a lot. Far more than I did when I was a teenager, when if it wasn't hair metal, NWA style gangsta rap or Faith No More I just wasn't interested.

 

[David Votoupal]

Re: Re: Re: Radio Stations

Originally posted by Mog
Since radio stations are all linked together in national networks these days, maybe the fact that a playlist and programming is decided on in one town doesn't help.

Well yeah, the advent of networking also means that a lot stations really don't serve their local area anymore, though some networks aren't as bad as others as far as local content goes, and there are some companies (most notably Grant Broadcasters) which don't do any networking. There are few independent commercial stations out there (there's a handful in NSW at least), while WIN Television owns I98 (Wollongong) and C91.3

When 2KA/One FM was based out in Penrith, it was tied to the Mike Hayden cinemas (also gone), and one of their best features as a station was the Hot Hits Saturday which later became (when they switched to FM) "96 in a row" every Saturday night where they would just spin out the hits almost without interruption.

You can see in emergencies such as bushfires why it is so important that stations serve their local communities first- some stations around here got sizzled for that (while the ones with the most local commitment were the ones which got the most praise).

What C91.3 has done to their area (though they don't serve my area I still pick them up, along with 94.9 Power FM down the coast as that station can reach a lot of NSW) is bring back a lot of the things I've missed in radio- the musc variety, local orientation, the intimacy once associated with local radio. Just like the 2KA/One FM of old- no surprise as the initial PD was Dave Archer, who was PD of 2KA/One FM at the time I was listening to them.

Of course, one might imagine what it would be like when your local station after years of covering your local team's games decides to drop those broadcasts in favour of skanky teenybopper pop crap

 

[Mog]

Clear Channel in the US has received a bit of flak over the last few weeks for it's generic broadcasting after a train crash spilled caustic chemicals in a small town, and the local authorities had to try and find out where they could contact someone to broadcast it over the radio to let people know of the danger. Took them several hours, since the local station wasn't manned and just played stuff out of Chicago or somewhere like that.

 

[RadioShark]

Our way of Radio...StarFM...

Let's cut to the chase...So I can give you the nuts & bolts of the StarFM state of mind...

Okay, firstly we are all owned by the Daily Mail Group, Based in London, DMG...

Whe I say we, that includes every Nova, Star and Hot station plus their sister affilaites such as 2AY, 2RG, 2WG...

Take a look at this site:

Official DMG Radio Site

Now our radio day per se; is Local breakfast show broadcast (((LIVE))) from your local station/building.

Then we all log into our central hub; For StarFM it's out of Albury, HotFM it's out of Townsville, Where the announcer through info we feed them digests it all and pre-records local breaks for each of their broadcast markets...This is until 6pm.

Then we switch to the Hot 30 with Age from Townsville, he eventually throws the switch at his end of shift to the respective hubs and it's driven by our computer system Maestro from the hub to local markets Maestro systems overnight until the local announcer logs in for the breakfast shift again...

So; the nuts & bolts are that I am the only locally based Griffith StarFM announcer, I log off my MAESTRO screen at precisely 9:56:00 to time up to a 10:00:00 break met by our hub announcer, and NOBODY unless emergency requires it should be in my studio...

That said; We can break hub programming for emergencies, live broadcasts and the like...

A similar system is used in Sydney whereby for example Lars Petersen on WSFM can be heard on WSFM Sydney and MixFM Melbourne SIMILTANEOUSLY by using these pre-recorded voice breaks between markets...Amazing!


Any questions...?