AM continues to be switched off worldwide, as FM gets a reprieve in Switzerland

This is Radioland, my radio trends newsletter.

I’ve written a lot about the issues with AM. talkSPORT removing a set of AM transmitters in the UK; the Americans frothing at the mouth about the removal of AM from cars, after the slow dawning of realism in that country about AM’s future; and, of course, Absolute Radio’s switchoff in January 2023 (along with plenty of local stations).

Once more, things are afoot.

In Spain, Radio Nacional de España (RNE) is switching off its AM network on Dec 30 at 03:00. You can continue to listen on FM, as well as online and via DAB+. The company says that AM has “become obsolete” (and, in any case, FM signals for RNE covers most of the country).

And, here in Australia, the ACMA has allowed the ABC to switch ABC Radio Perth, and Perth’s ABC Radio National transmissions to FM. The ABC says that the switchover date will be announced in the New Year. ABC News Radio also gets an FM transmitter - but let’s come back to that one.

I made a submission to ACMA which you can read here, supporting the decision. The main reason, I submitted, is that the ABC is funded for emergency broadcasting - and emergency broadcasting is pointless if few people own a radio that picks up the emergency broadcasts. We already know that AM radio listening is very low in this country - only 1-in-5 Australians listen in a given week, and trends are that the number of people who listen to AM will have halved in the last decade. We also know that the ABC agrees with that view, simulcasting ABC Radio Brisbane onto FM during Cyclone Alfred in order that it reached the largest number of people.

An additional reason I gave was value for money for the taxpayer. The ABC could save more than a million dollars by turning off the power-hungry AM transmitters. That money should go into its radio output.

My submission recommended that the same exercise happens in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Canberra and Hobart - at least, that the ACMA should find an FM frequency for the flagship ABC Local Radio service. (As I’ve said here before, if there are really no frequencies available, the ABC should remove ABC Classic from its FM frequency, and make it a digital-only service).

And my submission also asked for a change in a random, pointless law: of which, more after the break.

I’ll be on ABC Radio Canberra talking about AM radio switchoff - Monday at 1pm local time. Here’s hoping the politicians are listening!

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In Perth, ABC News Radio will be getting an FM frequency in 2026. But it won’t be switched off from AM, even though it’ll benefit from FM in the city.

An expensive transmitter will continue broadcasting ABC News Radio on 585kHz AM, because of a law made in 1946. So - here is your guide to the Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcasting Act 1946.

The law, passed by Labor PM Ben Chifley, requires the ABC to broadcast coverage of the federal parliament (either the lower or upper house) when they’re sitting. They don’t sit very often, it turns out - just 40 days a year, with ten more days for “estimates”, the rough equivalent of a special committee in the UK. Since 1994, on the other 310 days of the year, the ABC has run a news radio station on those AM frequencies.

Yes, the AM frequencies. And it must be an AM frequency. Because, in clause 4 (1) a, the Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcast Act 1946 requires that parliamentary coverage must be broadcast on “a medium-wave national broadcasting station”. Probably because there was no other radio platform at the time. The ABC can also televise it if they want, but they still have to broadcast it on AM.

And so, if you listen to ABC News Radio on AM, you’ll hear - 50 days of the year - federal parliament. (Or you can continue to hear the news on DAB+ or the ABC listen app).

And that’s why in Perth, ABC News Radio will continue on AM - requiring the entire AM transmitter facility to remain on-air, and the 180m-high transmitter tower to be maintained, even if nobody will probably be listening to it. I’m going to take a wild guess that the costs there are around three quarters of a million dollars a year, when you add up electricity, maintenance and access. All because of a law made in 1946. Madness.

Two thoughts leading from this:

First, ABC News Radio also broadcasts parliamentary proceedings on its FM frequencies as well as AM, despite no requirement to do so. Either they believe it’s an audience-winner, which I doubt; or they lack the switching capabilities to treat the FM transmitters separately; or nobody’s realised they don’t have to. I’d be fascinated to know which.

Second, the Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcast Act 1946 actually says nothing about the broadcast strength of the signal. If the ABC wanted to, there seems nothing against them running a 5W AM transmitter on 585kHz from the roof of ABC Radio Perth, which would be audible for about a mile. That would be entirely within the requirement of the law; and much cheaper - a new transmitter would cost $480, a wire antenna on the roof $160, and you could plug it into a mains socket! Rather cheaper than keeping a whole AM transmitter park going, next to a housing estate that doesn’t want it there.

• After all this talk of AM switchoff, The FM switchoff in Switzerland - due at the end of next year - has been cancelled; and FM will continue for at least another five years. Some reasons given are that the few Swiss people without DAB might listen to stations from other countries and that threatens Swiss security; and that the switchover might hurt some commercial stations. It went to a vote in the National Council; and the chamber made its decision by 21 votes to 18 with 5 abstentions. Public radio has already turned off; but apparently, they’re going to turn their FM signals back on again.

• Robin Ince has resigned from the popular podcast The Infinite Monkey Cage, and has recorded his last show. The show is one of the top 25 shows in the UK. He suggests “his opinions outside the BBC have been considered problematic for some time”. Increasingly, the benefit of doing a show for the BBC (a decent level of pay, a good level of job security) is being outweighed by the desire of the BBC to hamper your creative freedom in all other parts of your life. I suspect he won’t be the last to realise that he can probably have a perfectly successful career without the constraints of the BBC; and this talent drain will continue to damage the Corporation.

• Interesting to see WBGO, a public media station in Newark NJ, USA, add programmatic ads on its stream. The station has “added thousands in incremental sponsor revenue”; and apparently the audience doesn’t mind that much.

The image at the top of this page is the ABC Brisbane AM transmitter in July 2013, by Orderinchaos CC BY-SA 3.0. It’s similar to the one in Perth, which I couldn’t find a picture of.

Where I am speaking next

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• Radiodays Europe, Riga, Latvia, (Mar 22-24, 2026) The future of audio is people-powered: The way people consume media is changing. James Cridland, the radio futurologist, takes a look at global trends in radio and on-demand. How will we listen - on which devices? How can we make our output truly unique? How do we do it in a resource-efficient way? And what part does video play in the future of audio? In this wide-ranging session, bringing together data from North America, Asia, Australia and Europe, we’ll learn why the future is bright - as long as we understand why our audience comes to us in the first place.

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Selected bits from Radioland are in RadioInfo in Australia, and RAIN News in the US
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