Time for ABC local radio to be on FM in the capital cities
Last week, as part of the ABC’s cyclone coverage in Brisbane, the ABC made a surprising, and welcome, admission.
The ABC thinks AM radio is not a suitable transmission network to reach the most people in Brisbane.
How else to describe the choice, by the ABC, to remove classical music station ABC Classic (which, weekdays, reaches just 67,000 people in Brisbane) in favour of a temporary simulcast of its flagship emergency service 612 ABC Radio Brisbane?
ABC Classic wasn’t removed from audiences. It remained available on DAB+ Digital Radio (receivers from $49.95 at JB Hi-Fi); it is on channel 27 on free-to-air television; it’s available on your smart speaker by asking to play ABC Classic, it’s on the ABC listen app, and many other places. But, while the cyclone coverage was on, it wasn’t on FM.
ABC Classic wasn’t on FM, because the ABC thinks AM radio isn’t a suitable transmission network to reach the most people in Brisbane. So they put the emergency coverage on FM as well.
Let that sink in for a second.
The ABC had programming that it was important that people could receive. So they put it on FM, where the audience is.
The ABC realise, and appreciate, that many people simply do not own AM receivers in their homes any more: but they do own FM receivers.
There’s really no other way of looking at this.
In my view, it’s clear - it’s time for ABC Radio Brisbane to simulcast onto 106.1 FM in Brisbane (and to do similar in other capital cities).
Why FM?
We could talk for some time about sound quality - but it’s a thing I truly believe that radio audiences really don’t care about anywhere near as much as we think they do. (After all, even languishing on AM, ABC Radio Brisbane has three times the audience of ABC Classic; and oldies station 4BH is regularly a top three station.) AM reception gets harder in the city, with competing noise from LED lights, powerlines, and modern life.
The main advantage of FM isn’t in audio quality, or anything to do with transmission. It’s in the device availability.
AM radio isn’t being installed in a growing number of cars (since Europe, which dictates the in-car specification that Australia gets, has all but abandoned AM).
More to the point, AM radio receivers aren’t really in most peoples’ homes. Take a walk around, and you’ll find plenty of devices capable of receiving FM - from Android phones to Bluetooth speakers and sound bars. AM radio isn’t in your home, though. (And in the concrete sprawl of inner-city Brisbane, it’s not available, either, with AM radio reception being almost impossible in reinforced concrete units with sun-protected windows.)
There’s an FM radio in your car, your phone, and a surprising amount of stuff you already own.
And if you listen to FM radio currently in your car or in other places, anyone will tell you that if you skip around for a choice of other things to listen, you only ever skip around on FM. It’s too much to expect people to also switch waveband. It’s why people don’t do it.
And in any case - the ABC has already reached this conclusion - by simulcasting ABC Radio Brisbane on FM during the cyclone. The ABC knows that AM isn’t a suitable transmission network to reach the most people in Brisbane. This isn’t an argument now, it’s a simple fact.
Simulcast, to reach the most people
Yes, simulcast. Brett Debritz writes that it’s time for the ABC to switch frequencies. But he overlooks one important thing - coverage.
The ABC’s broadcast coverage website is broken to a surprising degree, but after poking round the code, I’ve managed to pull out the below coverage maps.
Above, here’s the coverage of 612 AM: a signal that stretches far and wide, including (in the amber zone) Toowoomba to the west, Sunrise Beach in the north, and Tweed Heads in the south.
Here’s the coverage of 106.1 FM. Much smaller, from Caboolture to Beaudesert.
DAB coverage is great in Brisbane - from Redcliffe to Logan City - but not so great elsewhere. It has similar coverage to FM (and my experience of these graphs is that they’re overly pessimistic for DAB).
A simulcast on 612 and 106.1 - as the ABC has already felt was vital - is the most sensible for ABC Radio Brisbane. It ensures that it reaches the most amount of people in Brisbane.
It’s why the ABC is funded
One of the reasons that the ABC has such good emergency broadcasting is that it’s funded for it. But that shouldn’t mean that ABC local radio is neglected when things are going OK. ABC local radio - with its human connection and shared experience - is the very foundation of the future of radio. It deserves to be listened to; and it is funded by Australian taxpayers to be listened to.
Right now, 106.1 FM is being used to serve a minority of audiences with a classical music service beamed in from the southern states. It is a good service that is difficult to serve commercially.
On the first two pages of ABC Classic’s “lunchtime concerts” website, there are concerts from Melbourne, Sydney x3, Adelaide x2, Berlin, Edinburgh, Antwerp, Ljubljana, Manchester, Stockholm and Munich; yet nothing from Brisbane. Brisbane’s community radio station 4MBS Classic FM is arguably doing more for classical music in the city - running regular concerts across the Brisbane area, which it broadcasts on-air.
But, all this is immaterial - the ABC has already made the decision that its FM frequency is less important than carrying emergency information. And the withdrawl of 106.1 FM from ABC Classic won’t mean the station goes away. It would continue, on DAB+, online, on TV, and on smart speakers. Chairman Kim Williams should relax - audiences will still have ABC Classic should they want it, and the service from 4MBS as well.
It’s no surprise that, as the ABC told audiences that it was coming off 106.1, listeners asked for the station to be on FM permanently.
The ABC will get best value from the investment it puts into ABC Radio Brisbane if it’s able to be heard by as many people as possible in Brisbane. And that means - as the ABC has already admitted - that it deserves to be simulcast on 106.1 FM in the city.
The cries of “defund the ABC” are more potent if the flagship station from the ABC languishes on a low audience number - and the ABC already agrees that, in order to reach the most audiences, it should be simulcast onto FM in the city.
So, when will that happen? And what can we do to ensure it does?