RTV Theory and Practice - Special Issue

community , not as a public broadcast station but as a commercial station . Radio is booming fог several reasons ; 1 . Audiences prefer the lesser intrusion and greater mobility of radio to television . 2 . FM sound on radio is better than апу sound orr-TV . 3 . Radio advertisements аге less overwnelming, tfian TV ads . 4 . Radio provides a greater sense of companionship than TV . Recent figures show that in 1987, Australian had 26.2 mio radio sets (over 1.5 'per heađ of population) , 87X of' Australians listen for 2 2 hr. and 10 min . per weeK to commercial radios but only watch television for 17 hr . and 31 min. Radio advertising revenue rose by 12,5X from 1986 to 1987. All this , accordmg to the Federation of Australian Radio Broadcasters (FARB) , because commercial radio has a greater reach , a greater presence and is , above all, the ideal «housewives' medium». 24) Commercial broadcasting , radio as well as TV , is controlled by the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal (ABT) which handles and controls licences . (Neither the ABC nor the SBS falls under its control which is regarded as unfair by the commercial broadcasters . ) The Tribunal collects al) date on programmmg and advertising standards , Australian content , audience information and other information relevant to the handlmg of licences. If breaches of the Act occur, a l.cence сап be revoKed although this has not happened so When applications for new licences are considered , the ABT often comes under considerable pressure because , đependmg оп the location of the potential station, many - and sometimes very rich - interests will fight over this licence . > At present, commercial broadcasters are involved in a fight with the ABT over the rules governing Australian music content . From July of this уеаг all commercial radio stations will have to meet a 20X quota of Australian music from 6am to midnight , which must also involve a significant amount of new anđ independently recorded material. Until now, the 20Х guota applied throughout the 24 hour day which meant that ™> st stations burieđ Australian music some time after midmght . FA is contesting th,s ruling . The problem seems to be that commercial formats are so specific as far as musical styles go that only one type of music fits . Anđ often tn,s ty P e is not produced in Australia, for instance soft rocK/easy listenmg music . 27 ) There are all types of commercial radio stations to be found m Australia ; music only , music and talK . news only , rac ' ng comments only , stations that address themselves to particular

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