Canberra Radio Review
February 22nd, 2007 at 12:40am
In light of my recent look at 666 ABC Canberra, I have decided to launch a review of all of the radio stations in Canberra that are in the ratings race, namely:
- 666 ABC Canberra (666 AM)
- Radio National (846 AM)
- 2CA (1053 AM)
- 2CC (1206 AM)
- JJJ (101.5 FM)
- ABC Classic FM (102.3 FM)
- NewsRadio (103.9 FM)
- FM 104.7 Canberra (104.7 FM)
- Mix 106.3 (106.3 FM)
Each station will be reviewed twice (my previous look at ABC Local Radio doesn’t count), each review will last for one hour and will focus solely on the station under review. Reviews will be conducted on weekdays at some stage between 6am and 6pm. One station will be reviewed per day. Reviews will start today Thursday February 22 and will run until Monday March 19. This does, unfortunately, place the last review out of the ratings period.
Review dates and times will be chosen by a random number generator. It will provide the order of the first round of reviews, followed by the second round of reviews. It will then choose an hour for each review in order. These dates and times will not be published due to the possibility (no matter how small) of stations putting on better than usual performances during their review period, after all Nielsen don’t publish the details of their sample groups do they?
Review periods will be recorded and subsequently reviewed that evening, with the results of the review to appear the following morning at 6am.
Each review will contain a textual run-down of the events of the hour and my impressions of them (where appropriate), the review will also contain a section for a review of the news bulletin(s) including length and quality, a review of the standard of talk programming (non-news bulletin) in the hour, a review of the standard of music played in the hour, and the amount of advertising content in the hour.
I will also provide a star rating out of five for the quality of:
News
Talk
Music
Overall
At the half-way point of the reviews I will produce a leader board for each of those categories.
At the end of the series I will produce another leader board, which will use the average scores.
Depending on how well this series goes, I may decide to run another series in the next ratings period, and possibly even run a series outside of ratings periods.
Naturally the review, as it is run by me, will be based on my opinion. What I don’t like, somebody else probably will…that being said, I, along with the rest of you, may still be surprised by the results. I’m looking forward to this, it should be quite a lot of fun.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: Blog News
14 Comments
1. davky | February 22nd, 2007 at 8:07 am
I’m concerned that you are comparing apples and oranges, Sambo. Classic FM is mostly music, except between 10am-11am when Margeret Throsby presents an hour long interview – sometimes fascinating, sometimes dry.
Radio National presents topical programs during the day – I doubt many people would have their radios tuned to Radio Nat all day, everyday. Rather, they would tune in if/when something interesting is on.
106.3 from 7am-8am would be radically different to 104.7 at 1pm-2pm.
Perhaps you should compare similar programming – i.e. the breakfast shows of the FMs to each other. The Drive Shows of the AM talks to each other.
2. mick | February 22nd, 2007 at 9:23 am
I agree with davky about the Apple and Oranges, but hey, it’ll be interesting.
Just note that with Trple J, they have a current affairs half-hour from 5.30 till 6.00 in the afternoon that contains no music. It is also downloadable as a podcast each day.
From 5.00 till 5.30 you would get music, so 5.00 – 6.00 might be a good sample.
Alternatively they would have interviews and other segments (Dr. Karl from 11.00 to 12.00 on Thursdays) etc…
Bear in mind that JJJ has National News every hour, so it is not localised.
3. John B1_B5 | February 22nd, 2007 at 10:49 am
If I want to listen to music, I’ll tune in to a music station.
If I want to listen to talkback, I’ll tune in to a ‘talkback’ station, which
would be 2UE / 2CC, and that INCLUDES mornings ! (Even though
John Laws can be a pain in the rear end at times, I’d rather listen
to him than “Giggling Gertie” on 666 ABC).
Nobody even comes close to Laws’ style of presentation.
I’d put John Stanley in No.2 position . His presentation is different
to Laws, but in some ways it’s more ‘listener friendly’.
4. Mister_Stuttbutt | February 22nd, 2007 at 5:30 pm
I don’t like listening to gig gig giggling gerties . Mister Stuttbutt.
5. Samuel | February 22nd, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Agreed that it is an apples and oranges comparison, but I want to get an overall sample of sorts, and I don’t want to give any shift more focus than it deserves.
Each station will get two different time periods to impress me with!
6. John_Barnes | February 22nd, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Whilst on the topic of local radio, word around town is that
“Ken”, also known as “the man of many trades”, may have
joined the other two people on The Drive Show Banned List.
Seems “Ken” was calling Mike Welsh’s producer and complaining
about Mr.Welsh behind his back.
There was a ‘showdown’ between the two at about 5.50pm when Mike Welch invited “Ken” to put up or shut up.
It’s not definite whether he’s been banned, but that’s the
scuttlebutt doing the rounds at the moment.
Either way, I doubt whether “Ken” will be heard on The Drive
Show again.
7. John B1_B5 | February 23rd, 2007 at 9:22 am
I don’t know the full story of course, but I fail to see what the big
deal is about ‘Ken’ calling the producer of The Drive Show if he had a genuine grievance about the presenter.
Surely that would be the way to go rather than having a shouting
match on air.
Meanwhile – The Koala Club “keeps on keeping on” .
8. John_Barnes | February 24th, 2007 at 9:20 am
Just as a matter of interest – the ‘caller of the week’ on The Drive
Show (2CC) was somebody called “Geoff”.
Geoff thinks that D. Hicks should face a firing squad – no ‘yeah buts’ or ‘if maybes’ .
Make of that what you will .
9. Craig-Dubious | February 25th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
I heard “Ken” talking to Prue McSween about ‘dating hints’ yesterday afternoon just after 3pm.
Apparently “Ken” has had a large number of girlfriends over
the years, so he knows what he’s talking about.
10. Craig-Dubious | February 25th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
“Ken” was also heard talking to Prue & Janelle on the Taste for
Life program today just after 5pm.
Apparently he knows how to make a really tasty hamburger !
11. Craig-Dubious | February 25th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Oh, and OK on the firing squad for Hicks !
12. David-H-Eastwood | February 26th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
I’ll second the firing squad for Hicks !
13. John_Barnes | February 28th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Oh, I forgot to mention – I heard Ken tell Mike Welsh to “Get yourself in order” and “Go back to Tasmania”.
14. John B1_B5 | February 28th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
I doubt whether M. Welsh will take Ken’s advice though.