Radio Networks and Local Content

Canberra.
The next speaker at ANZCA 2010 is Harry Criticos, whose interest is in regional radio. He begins by introducing the Super Radio Network, which has taken advantage of the deregulation of the radio industry, and he studied this through observation of and interviews with staff at a regional station that acts as a hub for AM and FM SRN stations, focussing on breakfast shift journalists and afternoon and drivetime announcers as well as managers. All were very interested in being involved - and the focus of the study was how people sourced and used information.

The SRN currently has some 38 radio licences: 22 AM (one of the in a capital city), 14 FM, and one digital. SRN is the second largest radio network in Australia, and the largest in New South Wales. Its development stems from the deregulation of the radio industry in 1992, which caused major changes in the industry and allowed for significant expansion and greater efficiency in radion broadcasting (indeed, the industry pushed for even more deregulation, especially of local content provisions). There was also greater concentration of ownership, despite licence provisions.

A 'network' is defined by law as a national station or a large network of stations with significant links between individual stations, capable of sharing source materials and output - and so, the networking which deregulation allowed for tended to reduce the diversity of ownership, and in turn, the number of staff employed by the stations. SRN broadcasts some 945 networked hours per week across 14 stations on FM, and 1972 hours per week across 22 stations on AM.

How do staff feel about all this? Journalists thought that while their stations are locally based, they often have to ignore local stories because of the top-down economic pressures of having to generate content that can be shared across the entire network. There were some differences here between FM and AM perspectives - AM journalists and announcers tended to have a much more local perspective. Managers tended to ignore local coverage altogether as it did not pull parge audiences - and such attitudes are assisted by the very generic definition of 'local content' in the Broadcast Services Act which regulates local radio content.

Today, there may be little chance to change this any time soon, as any push to include more local content by redefining 'local' more narrowly would mean that the vast majority of 'local' stations would no longer comply with their licence terms. Legislators seem to have given up on defining 'localism' altogether now - so radio management and staff are left to define it as they see fit, and that means largely that revenue is a driving force behind networking mechanisms and content selections.

Technorati : ANZCA 2010, Super Radio Network, business, local content, networking, radio
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