Was still a shame to drop Dave Rabetts from the breakfast show.
Driving around the area yesterday it seems that Star 104.5 is leaning more heavily towards top 40 than before with the only older tracks being either remixes or covers.
a surrogate nova by a different name maybe
It’s a shame when 107.7 goes to footy then it leaves no greatest hits on air apart from Coast FM.
Yep they’ve definitely changed their format quite extensively. I would be surprised if they still appeal to the same demo that they did 2 or 3 years ago. It will be fascinating to see the next survey results.
For the last 10 years, I listened to Star almost exclusively when driving around the coast, and it was always the first preset on the radio… not any more sadly.
Yeah, after SCA ruined 2GO I thought that Star would be a good alternative since it was a hybrid of 2GO/Sea FM (was one of the early listeners to Star when it started) but they’ve slowly moved towards Sea FM/Hit.
Coast FM 96.3 is increasingly looking like the best option from my perspective… I like the classic hits music mix, with a lot of hidden gems thrown in.
Unfortunately the weekend schedule is a bit hit-and-miss. The 60s / 70s / 80s shows on Saturday arvo are awesome though.
I have to say, and most would probably disgaree, but Star104.5 would have to be the most annoying station I’ve ever had the displeasure of listening to…and not by choice! I was forced to listen being a passenger in a car.
Never more than three jingles in a row!
Seriously, a jingle coming into a talk break, a jingle going into a traffic update and then a jingle after the traffic going back to music…it was beyond annoying. 3 jingles in the one stop down!
Once when listening last year, every single talk break was Rabbet and Gina this, Rabbet and Gina that… and the fake set up calls were all about how good Rabbet and Gina were.
A few months earlier, being forced to listen on a Sunday arvo, a female announcer was on…I’ve got to give it to her, she sounded very enthusiastic, but she was just about screaming down the mic and talking so fast that we couldn’t understand what she was saying (she was mentioning some of the artists coming up).
I’m sure the announcers are talented and very nice people, but it sounded like they have no chance to be creative on air. Just like smooth FM, the talk breaks that weren’t about the brekky show were all cliched and sounded like they were read off cue cards.
While Star sounds slick, it was very boring and bland!
While I’m not the biggest fan of Triple M on the coast, the times I have listened have sounded more local than Star, crossing to their street team during local windows…even through the jock is hundreds of km away! It at least had some great music, although it is nothing compared to the old days of 2GO!
I have a soft spot for Coast FM - although when I eventually got to choose a station and tuned into 96.3, 2 mins in… another damned annoying high-pitched jingle! Argggh!
It was then back to WSFM!
Rant over! 
Yes those listener calls have always sounded hilariously fake…
“Coming up next, we have Katy Perry’s Roar! Looking forward to that Bec?”
“OMG I love Katy! Can’t wait to hear it!”
As if someone in the 2020s would be ringing up a radio station to request a song that gets played every day…
Let’s not forget when Star104.5 first launched, their format was very much CHR, before they reformatted to playing “Rock Stars”.
I was thinking the same thing last week whilst sampling Star FM again.
I can’t listen to Star FM any longer either. Years ago the music was great.
Illawara stations offer a better selection for my taste in the adjoining Sydney market these days, or the local community station Coast 96.3 in the Central Coast as mentioned. Just my 5c worth.
It’s the quality of new music these days! Most of it is just s**t!
Someone, a while back posted an article about the state of new music these days - It’s all designed for tik-tok and social media, not for radio airplay…and Star seem to be going down this path.
It was mentioned elsewhere that some of Capital’s stations - SNOW FM / Eagle FM were easing off on the new music - do you blame them?
Agree! Apart from a select number of new songs (usually by the established artists), it’s complete rubbish.
Star 104.5 is starting to sound even more like Nova every day, the only difference is a sprinkling of 80’s songs. Listening this morning I heard 3 new or semi current songs in a row, very CHR.
Also they are playing Jack Harlow’s new song, they would not have played music like that on Star 104.5 even a year ago.
I wonder if they are getting the station ready for the SCA sale to ARN, when Hit 101.3 joins the same log as Power / Wave fm. Then they will potentially drops the 80’s and become a Hot AC / CHR station like Nova.
Capital Radio Snow and Eagle fm have had quite significant format change. They are no longer CHR stations, more Hot AC now dropping the dance music and more alternative music. 50% or more of the playlist is now 2000’s Throwbacks. I am not sure if they have got the balance right there.
Getting back to Star 104.5 it is certainly sounding much hotter than before, we will just have to wait until just before Xmas for the next Central Coast ratings.
Just checked the Star 104.5 logs for the past couple of days and the 80’s music has been reduced down to 1 song or less per hour.
I have even seen gaps of up to two hours between 80’s songs. It looks like they are phasing out the older 80’s music, and even playing less 90’s. The focus now seems 2000’s to now like Nova, they now sound similar to Hit 101.3.
IMO I think this is a strategic programming move by Nova Ent with the SCA sale to ARN now looking more likely to go ahead, and Hit / KIIS 101.3 likely to skew much older under ARN ownership based on their current regional offerings.
It’s still jumping the gun a little in that case.
I suspect it’s a move they would have made regardless.
They must indeed keep evolving the music to meet the target market rather than let it age.
If larger networks knew how to properly market digital radio and it was long entrenched on the Central Coast, you could easily program logs to counter the SCA stations and provide a point of difference.
I wonder how long it will be before most commercial FM stations phase out '80s music? The vast majority of '70s tracks were removed from playlists around a decade ago.