DMG reveals Novanation and Koffee as digital radio launch moves to August
Commercial Radio Australia has postponed the official national launch of digital radio until August, the organisation admitted today.
As recently as last month, the CRA had still been signalling that the “use it or lose it” date of July 1 issued by the Government – which was itself an extension on a previous deadline – would be the date for a full rollout. But the plans appear to have been derailed by the delays in the ABC and SBS in launching their services and the CRA quietly moved to an August 6 consumer launch.
A spokesman told Mumbrella there would be a five-state simultaneous transmission across the entire radio network. She conceded that the CRA had not made an announcement about the date switch but said: “We have been talking about it on air.” She said that Perth will be the first market to have services switched on later this month, with other states to follow.
The timing emerged as DMG Radio – parent company of Nova, Vega and 5AA – announced the launch of its two new digital radio brands – Koffee and Novanation – last night. Koffee – initially only in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, will offer chillout music while Novanation, broadcast nationally, is aimed at the lovers of dance music.
I would like to correct a couple of misperceptons that may be created by your article on digitla radio. Firstly, I am not sure who provided the information to you that the rollout has been delayed until August – this is totally wrong. In fact it has been publicy stated on a number of occasions that the only thing delayed is the suimultaneous outside broadcast listener event which will now take place in all 5 cities on August 6. In relation to rollout of services, as publicly stated, all commercial radio services will be rolled out by the end of May with the ABC and SBS joining us on air across June. We will well and truly make the use it or lose it date of 1 July and in fact will be well in advance of that date. We also released information this week that across all commercial stations in the 5 launch coties and on SBS ad raising listnere awareness of dogitasl radio stasrted htis week. These will continue in various forms and with various messages on the benefits of digital radio for the rest of the year. I would appreciate you correcting the misperceptions of delays that may be caused by article. Joan Warner, CEO, Commercial Radio Australia
Hi Joan,
Thanks for your comment. The story does make it clear that the state by state-roll out begins later this month, so the use it or lose it by date will be hit.
But the official launch event now takes place on August 6. If that’s not correct, please let me know.
All the best,
Tim – Mumbrella
“In the 5 launch coties and on SBS ad raising listnere awareness of dogitasl radio stasrted htis week”
Well put, Joan,
Yes, typed in haste at the end of a long week – and no spell check – you’ll need to fix that Tim!!!
Should read – “In the 5 launch cities and on SBS, ads raising listener awareness of digital radio started this week.”
Anyway, maybe I was piloting yet another new style of online/texting grammer/spelling … where spelling doesn’t matter much as long as the idea gets across???
Thanks for picking me up on it Anonymous.
get a life anonymous …and how gracious of you Ms Warner