If there’s a station out there targeting John Patkin, he reckons they must be bad shots 

I was 15 in 1980 when 5SSAFM started broadcasting in stereo. As a country kid attending boarding school, I listened to the station with a group of other teenage boys in our dormitory mostly in the mornings. We had listened to Bazz and Pilko for the previous two years when we started our secondary education, but the lure of The Police booming through in clear stereo won out. Lights out at 9:30, I’d covertly listen to Jeff Medwell talk people through their problems on 5DN. Now in my late forties and a wider range of stations to choose from that supposedly target my age group, I can’t find anything that fits.

Where has my station gone?

Turn to an adult contemporary FM music channel and I get a lot of music I liked as a teenager and twenty-something but it seems too gender biased for me. There’s too much Madonna and Pink (who ever that is) and just the same Cold Chisel. I think those Flame Trees are well done now. Where’s my Midnight Oil? What happened to all those great tracks from the 10 to 1 album?

Midnight Oil came to Adelaide – many times. I watched the sweat pour off Rob Hirst when the Oils performed on the grass at Memorial Drive but I’ve never heard them on my favourite adult FM music channel though some industry friends have shown me music logging that suggests otherwise.

So what about AM talk? It gets hard to listen to opinionated hosts and ads for erectile dysfunction and funerals.  The vitriol is off-putting and the ads aren’t appealing, so it’s off to the ABC for talk, news and current affairs. It feels like there’s more time for in-depth discussions but sometimes it gets too heavy. But the music? It can be good but for the most part it seems mismatched, such as an interview on kids’ health followed by Petula Clark.

Is it me? Lost in the 80’s time-warp and wandering the radio wasteland hoping for a station that matches my demographic or is it an opportunity? I’ve noticed the concept of bridging the age-gap by getting mothers and daughters to share their music tastes which acts as a seed for the listeners of the future but there doesn’t seem to be a strategy for males and other combinations. It might be worth exploring. In the meantime, pity me for having to change stations and occasionally being forced to listen to my own collection of MP3s which includes Flame Trees.

John Patkin is a Senior Consultant at Ergon House www.ergonhouse.com. Dr Patkin has a research background in media use and linguistics and has worked in commercial and public broadcasting.