From Radioinfo:
The ACE Radio Network will launch a brand new Australian music show, AS IT DROPS, hosted by a passionate music enthusiast Kayla Wilson, this Sunday, February 16th.
It will air on Sundays from 6 to 9pm on ACE’s FM stations (Mixx, Edge, TRFM, Coast FM).
More: https://radioinfo.com.au/news/the-ace-radio-network-debuts-new-australian-music-program-as-it-drops/
…Ben Vertigan has officially kicked off his radio career at Warrnambool’s 3YB FM/COAST FM, following in the footsteps of his father [Jon] and grandfather [John] before him.
3NE is converting
The real villains in media are the boards that slash, cut and gut media outlets rather than investing.
Interesting they are launching a new breakfast show, it seems to be going against the grain of what ACE has been doing over the years. With local afternoons. Previously 3NE previously was taking 2ay breakfast show which was very close to being axed itself very recently if not mistaken.
It would appear that 3NE is getting a rebrand as part of the FM conversion process.
Very interesting choice of name too given that Star FM was for many years associated with the now Hit stations in Albury and Shepparton.
Except it looks more like a sun than a star. Though the sun is a star too! 
Is Colac’s 3CS going to follow suit? If so, that’ll make it harder for Melbourne and Geelong to even pick it up. Even more harder if it’s on a frequency where a Melbourne broadcaster is taking its place, to the point where it’s going to be impossible to receive the new FM Colac service, even during tropo, because the ducting will only enhance reception of the Melbourne stations. People outside of the Colac/South West VIC FM license area are going to be unable to pick it up at all, and no, not even Geelong would be in with a chance at reception of the new signal, because a Melbourne broadcaster is serving Melbourne and Geelong on the designated frequency.
Geelong cannot even pick up Mixx FM Colac except for in elevated sections of Highton and in some parts of Leopold. With the Colac transmissions being only an hour away, attempt to DX for Colac on 106.3 FM in Geelong and you’ll just get Flow FM Healesville instead. For Melbourne and Geelong to even have a chance at reception of a heritage FM-converted station from Colac at all (even during ducting), they would need to find a clear channel on the FM band. Pick a Melbourne or even a Geelong-designated frequency and it’s game over.
At the moment it’s very easy to receive 3CS in Geelong on the AM band on 1134 kHz, but reception of it in Melbourne can tend to either get wiped out by tropo from or cause a signal clash with Triple M Collie (Southwest WA).
Or quite simply put, is ACE Radio only rebranding (and converting to FM) their heritage stations in markets also served by SCA’s Hit and Triple M stations? I’m a bit confused. Also if Warrnambool’s 3YB is on 94.5 FM, surely that could cop a rebrand to Star 94.5.
I wonder if others will get that treatment. It’s much better than the generic logos they have on most of the network.
Odd positioning for the network though - unless they’ll be dropping the talk content once they go FM, and have a more general greatest hits format? Star would have been a good name for the Mixx/Edge network.
3CS is not licenced to be picked up in Melbourne and Geelong. Any fortuitous coverage into those areas is exactly that, fortuitous, and not taken to be guaranteed. If it goes in any FM conversion, then so be it.
looks to be same logo style as Magic 1278 in Melbourne https://www.magic1278.com.au/
Looks like no talkback if this is true
00:00 - 0600
Star Overnight
06:00 - 1000
Matt Hobbs
10:00 - 1400
Karen Prater
14:00 - 1800
Nathan Robb
1800 - 24:00
Star Nights
Oh wow. Here we go.
Get ready for a mass roll-out of this generic coffee stain logo across all ACE markets.
I actually prefer the 3MP logo. It looks fun, vibrant & fresh, yet still appealing to the mature market.
I’m confident we’ll see 2UE and 4BH join the Magic1278 colours soon.
… As for Star, do we really need another Star network? Given part of the market previously had Star which rebranded to Hit, will this cause listener confusion?
I actually think it could be a deliberate move. The demographic who used to listen to Star as a hit music station might be drawn to the “new” Star as it will be playing the hits from that era as classic hits.
This is exciting. Matt Hobbs had a big local following from when he hosted breakfast on the original Edge Fm. This will be a bit of competion for the Triple M stations in the region. Being all music they will do well I think. I wonder if 2QN will follow and will they keep talk on 2AY
I would not be surprised if the music format is similar to the old music format on Edge FM when NE Broadcasts owned the stations. (Real Music Variety from the 70s to Today)
Hopefully a sign of things to come. Less reliance on networked talkback is a good thing.
I think that being all music on weekends (and I’m hoping it’s a slightly older skewing format i.e fair bit of 70s and 80s as that demographic is not well served at the moment) is going to be a good point of difference for them especially with the AFL being also available via the ABC and Triple M.
Curiously enough, Edge FM have started taking local football on Saturday afternoons (often simulcasting 2AY), will be interesting to see if they move the AFL over to 102.1 too or if they drop it completely.
Especially 2QN when they go FM in the near future and that the have some commonalities eg the two share announcers etc.
Though theirs might be a bit different as they’ll apparently stay on AM and simulcast 1521 and their new lower power 106.1 (1kw when 102.5 Edge is 50kw).
