After 3 years at dmg Radio, Mark Spurway has been appointed to the role of Transmission Relations Advisor at the ABC with responsibility to audit the transmission network for quality control and efficiencies.
The ABC transmission network, which is owned and operated by
Broadcast Australia, is the largest terrestrial transmission network in the world and Spurway will be assessing the 5 radio and one television networks for the national broadcaster.
Spurway spoke to radioinfo about his new job:
radioinfo: As someone who has worked at many stations, now that you are leaving dmg, what can you say about the network?
Spurway: It’s a remarkable network headed by an even more remarkable Paul Thompson. Working
with Paul to help set up the Nova stations has been a fantastic experience… It
is a rare event in radio to work with someone who has the vision to set up a new
radio network.
Despite everything thrown at Paul by the competitors he has won
the battle to get new licences, displaying sheer determination and integrity.
Paul Thompson leads a team who deserve to be, and will be, very successful.
radioinfo:What will you be doing in your new role at the ABC?
Spurway:I’ve always taken a keen interest in how radio works and what comes out of the ‘stick’.
ABC MD Russell Balding offered me a role to look at improving the
quality of ABC product transmitted over 500 sites covering the 5 radio networks
and the TV network. It is a tremendous opportunity for me to work with one of
top 3 public broadcasting networks in the world (the others being the BBC and
CBC Canada). It is also going to be a great geography lesson as I’ll know every
hilltop in the country.
radioinfo:A lot of your work recently has been on strategic planning for Digital Radio. What are your thoughts on if and when radio should go digital?
Spurway:Radio must embrace the digital age. The industry has to stop dithering and take
a policy position, otherwise the Government will either make the decision for us
or flog off the spectrum to phone companies or the Defence department.
With free to air TV and Foxtel and Optus spending millions on digital technology,
radio cannot afford to become irrelevant in the rush for digital convergence by
other media.
It is time to look past next month’s spreadsheet and into the next
decade of digital opportunities. This is an area, with convergence of media
technology, that new players will focus on with any changes to cross media
ownership rules.