With just six weeks until Christmas, Santa’s little helpers have been hard at work to deliver a fresh batch of festive cheer in the form of ARN’s award-winning digital Christmas station Elf Radio on iHeartRadio Australia.
 
For the tenth year running, the North Pole’s#1 Hit Music Station is back with a playlist to rival anything Santa could fit on his sleigh. And this year, it’s even easier to get the party started as Amazon’s Alexa is poised to “Play Elf Radio” faster than Rudolph or Blitzen can fly to Australia.

Similar to the age old question of what came first the chicken or the egg, when we think of podcasting, we can ask the same question – what came first, the content or the revenue? 
 
Chaired by Jamie Chaux from Commercial Radio Australia, four speakers start discussing how people are using podcasts and how advertisers are integrating into on-demand audio.
 
“It was 12 months ago when we talked about podcasting on this stage.  So what has changed in the last 12 months,” begins Chaux.
 

ARN has secured exclusive sales representation for all Australian downloads of the iHeartPodcast Network podcast catalogue.
 
The extensive catalogue has over 3.5 million downloads in Australia each month and features leading iHeartRadio Original podcasts such as:
 
• Stuff You Should Know
• DISGRACELAND
• Stuff You Missed In History Class
• The Breakfast Club
• Committed
• Bobbycast

In support of R U OK? Day, and as part of ARN’s ongoing commitment to mental health, Sydney’s KIIS 1065 and Melbourne’s KIIS 1011 stations are going silent for 10 seconds, every hour, for the entire day today.

AirCheck, the leader in broadcast monitoring, announced today that it will begin monitoring 51 DAB+ stations across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
Beginning with Perth, 51 DAB+ stations will be added in addition to the 58 FM and AM stations already monitored nationwide. The process is expected to be completed by the end of October.

This brings the total number of radio stations monitored to 109, in addition to 11 Free-To-Air and Music TV channels in Sydney and Brisbane.

ARN has appointed Daniel Underhill to the role of 96FM Content Director.
 
Underhill is a radio industry veteran with a strong history in Perth and enviable track record, for the past eight years, holding the role of Program Director at NOVA 93.7 and prior to that was the station’s Creative Director. 

In his time at NOVA he was instrumental in helping the team grow cumulative audience to 615,000, an all-time record for the market.

Mix 102.3 Adelaide breakfast radio host Jodie Oddy, has been banned from driving for 12 months after being found to have been drink driving at five times over the legal limit, when she crashed into a tree last December while travelling in a 50 kph zone.
 
Oddy returned a reading of 0.256 at the South Coast District Hospital following the crash in Middleton that had forced another drive to brake suddenly moments before the crash.
 

Speculation of changes at 96FM has been confirmed by ARN, with the announcement that following a review of the station’s strategy and direction, 96FM will soon have a new Breakfast show.
 
As part of this review Paul Hogan and Lisa Fernandez won’t be returning after the mid-year survey break.
 
Of the change, Paul and Lise said “We have had a great time at 96FM and are fully supportive of the new direction that the station’s taking and we wish 96FM much success.”

Barry Keohane has been appointed the role of Content Director for Mix 102.3 and Cruise 1323 and begins his new role on Wednesday 10th July

ARN chas moved Brisbane 97.3FM and 4KQ into new radio broadcast studios with an exclusive housewarming party.