Unfortunately, I suspect we’ll probably understand why 2CH has dumped Breakfast with Indira & Trevor from their lineup on the Tuesday after next (ie, when the results of Survey #8 are released)!
Because they’ve received zero external marketing to bring a new audience to replace the rusted on CH audience who are leaving.
Cherie is aware of this and I gather this is part of her plan.
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Breakfast has been dropped because it was never going to rate with that on-air team. They’ve had plenty of time. The station is treading water, they’re positioning statement change to ‘classic hits’ has failed due to lack of spark and creativity in the on-air team and product overall. AM music can work, look at 4KQ. They have what 2CH lacks, imaginative and creative programming.
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This has been a problem with 2CH (not just with the breakfast show, but the station as a whole) for many years now.
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As shit as the logo was, at lease Happy Days 2CH had an upbeat spark to it.
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My memory of Tim Webster on 2WS, 2DayFM, 2UW, 2JJ, 2MMM-FM and 2SM (I’m reasonably sure he worked at all those stations) was that he was a good DJ. He of course was good on 2UE doing news-talk, but sleep inducing on Talking Lifestyle and Macquarie Sports Radio.
I haven’t listened to him on 2CH, so can someone who has please give us a review?
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Time to sell 2CH and become a Christian Commercial Service.
It’s not going to happen @TheStyles83, plenty more productive formats that will generate far more than that.
@TheStyles83, do you have passion for a Christian commercial service?
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You’re saying it’s in the way you do it rather than what you say?
I ask this because 4KQ’s positioning statement is ‘classic hits’.
Who is currently PD at 2CH?
@Journo, welcome to the forum, great to read new contributors, tell your friends and colleagues to join too as we kick the ideas around here in a usually respectful and stimulating manner.
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Sydney is a much different beast to Brisbane though. More choices, a much more cosmopolitan now-now-now in your face city, whereas Vegas is more relaxed, with an older population demo and not as many commercial choices. I know this doesn’t really reflect it properly, but the median age of people in Brisbane is 35, whereas in Sydney it’s 30. (google search)
If 97.3 went Smooth, KQ’s audience wouldn’t plummet but it would certainly suffer, especially their younger demos. CH has to deal with Smooth and WS playing in their lower demos.
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I think they would struggle, Hope103.2 whilst not a commercial station, does a good job for a Christian station and has the advantage of being in FM stereo.
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Maybe, what about a Partnership with Caralis who owns 2SM
Yes.
The execution of the format in comparison vastly different between KQ and CH.
Crankymedia, I’m sure you know, there is no PD at 2CH. It’s one person management.
It’s not about the city it’s located, competition or lack of promotion. It’s simply poor programming, zero revenue growth and a lack of decisive action by current management in Sydney and Sunshine Coast.
Oceania want a return on their majority ownership investments. They won’t invest another cent until there is growth.
One wonders how long they’ll wait?
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Before they delisted from the ASX all their reports indicated that the Sunshine Coast stations were propping up 2CH.
WIN wanted to buy 2CH, so maybe they would still be interested if it was back on the market and going cheap??
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That’s not true at all about median age, if you’re talking about metro areas anyway. According to ABS in 2018 the median age of Brisbane is slightly lower than Sydney - 35.4 vs. 35.8.
The only way you’re getting a 30 figure for Sydney is if they’re only looking at the city council area which is just the very inner core of Sydney. By contrast the Brisbane city council area covers the vast majority of the metro area, hence the 35 figure.
In fact there’s nothing in it in terms of the 3 bigger east coast cities with Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne all being 35 point something.
The only cities that skew older are Hobart and Adelaide.
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I agree with what Journo said. What they’re doing is not working on-air or off-air. My reckoning is that they have spent way too much on personnel, and it’s simply not the key to turning that station around - music is. So scale that expenditure back, focus on making the playlist really interesting and different,( I’m always amazed at how many well-known songs from the past 40 or 50 years never get played on radio!), without alienating the existing audience, and invest carefully in letting people know exactly what you’re playing. Build the cume back to around the 300k mark, keep them listening to extend TSL, and all of a sudden you’re back at a 5 or 6 share instead of celebrating a 4 as a great result and 4.5 as a benchmark. Whilst the market is soft atm, with the right sales management and team, the revenue is out there to make it work.
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I’m no marketing expert by any means, but personally it seems obvious that if 2CH wants to increase their audience share, they need to do an external promotional campaign (including TV, print, outdoor + online/digital) and one which references how WSFM and Smooth are increasingly moving away from any music prior to the 1980s:
There are probably promotional copywriters out there who could do a far better job than myself, but you get the general idea.
I’d probably also ditch this year’s idea of using in station promos the instrumentals of fairly recent pop songs (such as Locked out of Heaven, Moves Like Jaggar, Happy and Catch My Disease) that 2CH would never play full vocal versions of for at least a thousand Sundays, in favour of using more 60s/70s-style production music.
Better yet, how about a proper jingle package? 2CH hasn’t really aired one since their “Easy 1170” days and that era would’ve ended more than a decade ago now!
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I took my figures from 2016 when the figures were the last I had access to as a marketing representative
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Play the 70s and 80s hits that smooth, WS and 2DayFM don’t play. Not just the soft music but some edgy hits as well. It’s the music thats been MIA.
Billboards announce “Discover 2CH on AM 1170 and stereo digital radio”
In between songs a female voice says “You’ve discovered 2CH”
If the songs are smashing that will make a lot of sense. Discovering something is fun.
Sydneysiders need to find 2CH again. Or discover 1170 for the first time.They are bored enough with the current choices on FM…trust me… I am.
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Does anybody think the religious content is hindering the station’s success? It would definitely turn me off listening.
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