Thursday, March 24, 2011

Radio demography

Throughout high school and uni the only time I listened to the radio was in the car and it was Triple J, all the way. I liked most of the music, I liked the succinct news bulletins and I generally thought the announcers were funny, or at least amusing. Once I lived in East Perth and worked in Perth my car time each week was minimal and my radio listening dwindled towards the non-existent.

However, over the past few months I've been turning the radio on at home during the day, for company and interest. For a while E looked astounded every time the voices started up, and I referred to it as the "magic talking box." Now I just say "shall we have some company? Find out what's going on in the world?"

My complaint is this: despite having had a significant birthday last month, I am not old. But neither am I 18. I was sad to realise that I actually don't enjoy Triple J that much anymore, at least not for extended periods. Way too much hip hop and somehow the announcers are grating and just a bit teenage. I whinged to D and he said "we've outgrown their demographic." I don't know if Triple J has a stated age range, but if they do, I suspect that D is right, and we're at the upper end of it.

But what to replace it? Certainly nothing that's on FM. On the days there's no Parliament, I quite like ABC News Radio (in Perth, 585 on the AM dial) even though it can get repetitive on days where nothing much happens. Through lack of other options, it appears to be a choice of that or 720, the local ABC station, but that means facing the dreaded talkback. If I am feeling especially tolerant I sometimes find talkback amusing. Mostly it's just an easy form of exercise as it gets my blood pressure right up!

Does anyone have any radio suggestions? 


Image credit http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/archives/images/set2/radio.jpg

3 comments:

Sarah said...

As weird as it sounds, I used to listen to Sonshine FM a bit in Perth - as long as you don't mind the odd bible verse after the news. Music as okay and not too many ads. The other option would be to try and pick up a country ABC - you only get Geoff from 8.30 to 10 then switch back to local port talk and animals on the loose stuff. Better the devil you know sometimes! I can get both 531 (Geraldton) or 558 (Albany) here... Online is the other option...

_vTg_ said...

I also am a NewsRadio listener, though less so now that Big Bro listens too, cotton wool mum that I am.

News Radio streams news while parliament is on, so depending on your computer and Internet setup you can still listen to news?

Aussie Mum said...

There isn't much choice is there? I too hop between Triple J (I'm well beyond the demographic) and 720. However, I never get much chance to listen to either because my boys (5 and 2)always want there music on in the car anyway. Enjoy having control over the radio while you can because E will soon have musical tastes of her own I'm sure!

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