Music seems to be the same. Pushing “Melbourne and the peninsula”, what with all the Rosebud boomers who desperately want to secede from the iron fist of the big smoke.
More interesting to hear Moama Bowling Club as a sponsor this afternoon. Bit of a hike from Arthur’s Seat!
With Pizza doing the V/O’s it sounds very much like the old Mix101.1 “Melbourne’s Best Music Mix” positioner/era.
Still called “easy music 3MP” on DAB.
Just tuning in now and caught some of the new branding. Before this they wouldn’t say Melbourne, just “the Mornington Peninsula’s 3MP” or something like that. Moama Bowling Club have been a sponsor for a while, there’s also a restaurant in South Melbourne who sponsor Saturday Night Songfest.
I wonder why they’re getting away from “Easy.” It set them apart from Magic. The playlist does seem to be the same so far.
”Melbourne and the Peninsula’s best music with fewer interruptions.” Ohh. I think they’re trying to copy Smooth
Ace has not updated 3mp website yet though. It still easy music on the site mind you Ace tends to be slow with updating their websites
playlist seems the exact same though
Stuck in the 80s when the oldies would take a coach up there for a day trip to feed the one armed bandits and have a mixed grill.
JESUS I just looked up how far Moama actually is!! I assumed it was an hour’s drive tops. That’s really weird
I am an optimist about analogue radio in general but I honestly wonder how much longer AM music stations like 3MP can possibly survive. I hope as long as possible, they’re fascinating to me and oddly pleasing to listen to. They’re straight out of another era and just persisting somehow. I just think… Surely all these people they’re trying to appeal to are going to die soon? Then again I grew up listening to 2CH as a kid in the 90s and thought the same thing then too. Constant ads for funeral homes
It’s been interesting hearing 3KND playing a lot of fairly recent pop, R&B, soul and hip-hop music on 1503 AM. 3CR also. Makes me wonder if there’s going to be some kind of future for Magic and 3MP playing the greatest hits of the 2000s, 2010s in the future, still on AM…? Really? I hope so, they are kind of starting to lean towards later music recently
Not any more! Changed today.
Magic 1278 has also changed their name to Melbournes Magic.
This is the thread about 3mp not Magic 1278/2ue/4bh though
True. For a moment I thought that 3MP had some competition until I realised that both stations are operated by ACE Radio.
The DAB+ slogan is now 3MP Best Music. Not wanting to offend anyone, but it’s like English is a second language.
My Grade 4 teacher is spinning in her grave at that one.
I’ve been listening to 3MP for a long time now — honestly, as far back as I can remember it’s always been that easy listening station you could just leave on all day. So this recent change has really caught my attention.
Over the last few months I started noticing a subtle shift in the music — a bit more 80s creeping in, slightly fewer of the softer 60s/70s tracks. Nothing dramatic, just enough to feel like they were testing the waters. Then the latest ratings came out, looked like there was a bit of an uptick… and now we’ve got the full rebrand. “Melbourne and the Peninsula’s Best Music,” new imaging, and no more mention of “Easy Music.”
To me, it feels like a pretty classic radio move:
Quietly adjust the playlist
Wait for the data
Then commit with branding
So I can absolutely see why they’ve done it. They’re clearly trying to broaden the audience a bit — probably bring in some 40–55 listeners without completely losing the older base. Dropping the “easy listening” label makes the station sound less “old” to people flicking through DAB or scanning online.
But here’s the bit I’m wrestling with…
I really hope they don’t lose what made 3MP special in the first place.
That easy listening feel — the softer songs, the slower tempo, the “leave it on all day” vibe — that’s the whole identity of the station. It’s not just a format, it’s a feeling. And it’s something they’ve built over decades (even before the ACE era). You don’t just replace that with “best music” and expect it to carry the same weight.
Right now it sounds like they’re trying to keep the sound mostly intact, just without saying the word “easy.” And if that’s the plan, I actually think that’s smart — modernise the playlist a bit, make it more accessible, but keep the core feel.
The risk, though, is if they keep pushing further: too much 80s (or even 90s creeping in), more uptempo tracks, less of that relaxed, companion-style feel.
At that point it stops being 3MP and starts becoming just another station sitting somewhere between Gold and Smooth — and Melbourne already has plenty of those. Because once that core feeling goes, it’s very hard to get back.
Curious what others think — are you hearing the same shift?
100% agree, love the laid back 3MP vibe and hope they preserve it. We don’t need 2 Magics, 3MP are something a bit different
Well, at least the callsign is back out the front. Initially I had trouble finding MP because it was listed as “easy music 3MP” and so under E rather than 3.
The lower-case slogan used to bother me. Now - I agree - the new one looks a bit ESL.
Why not just list as “3MP”? 
A no brainer to have it as 3MP so it appears close to 3AW. A shame that Magic can’t do the same.
If they used their callsign again - 3EE - they’d be nicely inserted between 3AW and 3MP.
Or if 3MP changed their DAB+ name to Melbournes 3MP, they’d be right next to Malbournes Magic.