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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 7 Hansard (5 June) . . Page.. 1953 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

The ABA is under a duty to identify vacant radio channels and decide the number and type of new licences to be made available. Then it's for business and the community to take up these opportunities.

A number of players expressed interest in providing new commercial or open narrowcasting radio services in Canberra and Queanbeyan. These included Capital Media ACT Pty Ltd and 2KY Racing Radio, which expressed interest in providing open narrowcasting radio services in Canberra, Queanbeyan and Yass or a commercial radio service in Canberra. RG Capital Radio also expressed interest in providing an additional commercial radio service to Canberra. The ABA also noted at the time:

If the ABA decides to make a new commercial radio licence available, other interested parties may emerge at the licence allocation stage.

Submissions to the ABA inquiry from the existing licence holders suggested that commercial broadcasters, from a point of view of both competition and range of services, adequately serviced the Canberra market. The ABA claimed to have found little support for further commercial services from advertisers or audiences. This, coupled with unusually strong levels of demand for community services, led the ABA to decide that no additional commercial radio services be made available in the Canberra market in 1999.

This seems to me to have been a short-sighted decision, especially given the ABA's decision to grant an additional licence to the seemingly adequately serviced market in Gosford on the New South Wales central coast. This inconsistency in the ABA planning process in respect of commercial licences is a real concern.

Let us look at the two markets: Canberra and Gosford. Firstly, in Canberra the licence area had, at the 1996 census, a population of 306,830 people. It is worth noting that recent figures put Canberra's population closer to 325,000. The median age in the Canberra licence area was 29 years in 1996, and the licence area has a high percentage (37.8 per cent) of persons aged 18 to 39 years, which is the age group traditionally of most interest to advertisers. The median household income within the licence area was $44,103, more than 50 per cent above the national median and 75 per cent above the regional New South Wales median.

By comparison, the Gosford licence area has a population of 260,839. The median age in the Gosford licence area is 36 and the percentage of persons 18 to 39 years is 28.7 per cent. The median household income within the licence area is $30,680, just 5 per cent above the national median.

From this comparison, it is clear that the Canberra licence area has a population 17.6 per cent higher than the Gosford licence area, a dramatically larger attractive advertising market, a dramatically higher median household income and a much lower rate of unemployment. It is worth noting also that both areas had a comparable population growth rate.

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