RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

Peter Gerdes,

University of New South Wales

RADIO IN AUSTRALIA, 1988.

"Are you over 30? Want to wln cash? Listen to 2CH and tell us what you thinK of our music play list now . Stereo 1170 2CH.” "There is a new lite and easy . Lite & Easy 1269." "2UW , the best mix of oid anđ new!" This is now Sydney's commercial radio stations advertise on busses and bitlboards . It is war out there in the world of radio in Australia . The fight for the listener and the dollar is real. 1 ) To conclude that the listener is the victim in the battle for prof its would , however , be too simplistic. Af ter all, Sydney (pop , 3.2 mio) has eight commerciai radio stations (six AM , two FM) , the Austraiian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) with two AM anđ two FM stations (one of which a youth/rock station) , one ethnic and twelve public broadcasting stations . Australia , one of the most urbanized societies in the world (pop . 16.2 mio, QOV. of which live in cities ciustered along the Eastern seaboarđ) has a national network , 139 commerciai radio stations anđ 6 4 public broadcasting stations. There does exist a real choice for those who bother to run up and down the điai, Still, it is striking that in a country like Austraiia where the battle for the ownership of media has taken on gigantic đimensions 2 ) , there is very iittle talk about radio. Most radio stations are just appenđices to the more glamorous television and newspaper empires , in spite of the fact that commercial radio is a regular money-spinner . Of the 138 commercial radio stations operating during the financial уеаг 1985-86 (the latest for which exact figures are available) , 93 made an operating profit , 45 a loss . But of the metropolitan stations in Sydney , Melbourne , Brisbane , Adelaide , Perth and Hobart (36 jn all) , 22 made a profit and only 14 made a loss . For those 36 radio stations , the advertising revenue alone was $24.1 mio . 3 ) Radio in Australia is relatively little researched . Most texts

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