My guess they would worry they would take wsfm listeners then. They could use the 2ST log. I would consider a rock station but not a safe version like Vega became. Play some classic rock / prog with potentially some new rock.
If you’re going to make it a proper Katoomba licensed station, make it Housos FM. Get Pauly Fenech involved. Bogan music to take on Triple M. 
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The last time CADA (or the Edge as it was known) radically changed formats was in 1997-98 to an alternative format, and that worked out great!
Also, CADA has been rolled out as a national station on DAB, even in Canberra, Hobart, Darwin, Gold Coast, so I’m going to guess there is next to no chance it will be blown up.
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In all honesty, apart from branding and signage at each ARN metro HQ around the country, I doubt there’s much more required to be changed if they ditched CADA for something different.
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Stick to 60-70s, either way a rockier classic hits station would probably go over well and get a good local audience if they catered to the market. A bit like Geelong stations .
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That’s pretty much what Vintage FM broadcasts (to pretty much the same area). Looking at the log on Lava from last night
| 2025-04-18 | 19:36:03 AEST | The Troggs | Wild Thing | 2m 35s | 1966 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-04-18 | 19:37:23 AEST | KISS | I Was Made For Lovin’ You | 4m 31s | 1979 | |
| 2025-04-18 | 19:42:44 AEST | The Beatles | We Can Work It Out | 2m 16s | 1965 | |
| 2025-04-18 | 19:44:03 AEST | Chuck Berry | You Can Never Tell | — | — | |
| 2025-04-18 | 19:46:43 AEST | Bill Haley & His Comets | Rock Around The Clock | — | — | |
| 2025-04-18 | 19:49:23 AEST | Tommy James & The Shondells | Mony Mony | — | — | |
| 2025-04-18 | 19:52:03 AEST | 1910 Fruitgum Co | Simon Says | — | — | |
| 2025-04-18 | 19:54:43 AEST | The Beach Boys | Little Deuce Coupe | 1m 41s | 1963 | |
| 2025-04-18 | 19:56:14 AEST | Andrea True Connection | More, More, More | — | — | |
| 2025-04-18 | 19:58:44 AEST | George Thorogood & The Destroyers | Bad To The Bone | 4m 52s | 1982 | |
| 20:00 | ||||||
| 2025-04-18 | 20:04:04 AEST | Delltones | Come A Little Bit Closer | — | — | |
| 2025-04-18 | 20:06:44 AEST | The Kinks | Sunny Afternoon | 3m 31s | 1966 | |
| 2025-04-18 | 20:09:24 AEST | The Buggles | Video Killed The Radio Star | 4m 13s | 1979 | |
| 2025-04-18 | 20:13:24 AEST | Sonny & Cher | Beat Goes On | — | — | |
| 2025-04-18 | 20:16:15 AEST | The Supremes | You Can’t Hurry Love | 2m 48s | 1966 | |
| 2025-04-18 | 20:18:45 AEST | Art Of Noise Featuring Duane Eddy | Peter Gunn Theme | — | — | |
| 2025-04-18 | 20:22:45 AEST | James Brown | I Got You (i Feel You) | — | — | |
| 2025-04-18 | 20:25:25 AEST | Daddy Cool | Come Back Again | 4m 53s | 1971 |
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Have you seen what CADA rates in the other markets? It’s embarrassing
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So what? It’s an alternate format on DAB.
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There are plenty of other alternate formats they could try that would likely attract bigger audiences, which is what we were discussing. What’s with the “so what” attitude?
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While I think it’s normal for the industry to be so against this, the reality is that a younger audience simply wouldn’t care or notice.
Announcers in music shifts are just tying up a bow. They tie it all together. It’s not personally driven, and it mainly just mechanical maintenance.
With award rates gradually increasing each year and more competition for sales dollars, ARN are trailblazing what will soon become the norm.
For radio to continue to exist into the next 20 years, this evolution needs to happen. Like it or not, it will become more and more widespread.
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The music isn’t bad! Going for a younger audience than kiis that’s for sure. But if KIIS really wanted to set themselves apart from the others, taking in the Cada log would be it.
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Our radio offerings have a chronically narrow genre & format target, in part because we have an industry that is beholden to ratings above everything else (including what could be considered good radio). It also doesn’t help that radio networks don’t want their DAB services to perform well in case it shifts listeners away from their primary service(s).
ARN, to their credit, are trying something different, and CADA breaks away from this mentality - this is what we should be using DAB for. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and it’s a guarantee that it won’t rate spectacularly, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t have stations like it.
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You’re assuming that blowing it up for something different will rate better in all 5 markets.
Wirh only one announcer plus an AI announcer, it’s a low cost station, and would be profitable.
Besides, Western Sydney is a relatively young demographic and the format does well for its target audience.
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Does anyone have a recording of the AI host?
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There’s some on James Cridland’s website.
It’s absolutely horrid. Levels all over the place and part way through the talking, she turns American with pronunciation.
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I can vouch for ALL Australian regional radio announcers who can do a better job than those 3-5s talk breaks in a major metro market. And I bet a bunch of them would do it for free - just for the experience at a ‘major station’.
It’s an insult having AI on CADA. They’re better off simply running wall-to-wall music than to slap in the face of every up & coming radio announcer.
So much for nurturing new talent at ARN. Back in the day it wasn’t uncommon for Mix & WSFM staff to do shifts on The Edge to get their hours & experience up. How hard is it to ask if any KIIS/Gold producers would like to have a turn at hosting CADA Workdays?
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You’ve got to wonder what’s going on at ARN. They seem like a complete basket case
and to think the talent that was there a couple years ago too….
sad to see how much of a shell in itself it is now