Don’t want to scare off existing listeners.
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They have also done a hatchet job on the pictures of the shows/announcers. They went from a rich, gold background to a plain white one. Yuck. You can’t even see the print of one of the show names as it blends into the background.
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They’ve been promoting the change for a while now, so they would have known it was coming.
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Sydney DAB station names updated (so GOLD 101.7 and WSFM 80s is now GOLD 80s) and even Lava showing Gold 101.7 too… so they’ve been getting some of the basics right.
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Did they refresh their music playlist?
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I’ve just been having a look/listen…
Doesn’t really seem like it… but (sadly) the now shared Syd/Melb playlist looks to be more WS safe than 104.3 slightly more adventurous.
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so change things on air, but not do the socials/website at the same exact time, so odd…
wonder how long the “WSFM is now Gold 101.7” sweepers will last…
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Surely they will roll out Gold on DAB in Brisbane.
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and do something in Perth too….
wasn’t any noticeable changes on 96fm today, but I kinda hope it joins the Gold network, as that Mediaweek article in November said the Gold head of content will be overseeing its ratings performance, and Gold would be a better fit, but at the same time, i don’t want that ugly logo on 96fm lol
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This is a shame, but we all saw it coming.
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Lol, I thought the on air branding changes had gone smoothly… until I just heard a WSFM branded Christmas promo airing on GOLD 80s DAB.
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Incidently todays billboard is “Less 9 to 5. More Robbie Live” co inciding with Robbie Williams peforming across the road at Fed Sq
Well, at least they are changing them frequently! Keep trying Gold.
Oooohhh… so they’ve giving Sheena Easton and Dolly Parton a bit of a rest then.
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How can they? They don’t have a Pure Gold station now because back in 2022 they sold Pure Gold station 4KQ over to SEN, and then 4KQ ceased transmissions. Replaced by Sport.
Not only that, there’s some rule where you can only own 2 commercial networks in the one market as a company, that is, Brisbane. To comply with the ACMA rules, ARN had to offload 4KQ. This was because they had acquired nearly all Grant Broadcasters regional stations, and with this they ended up acquiring River94.9 Ipswich which can actually be heard into Brisbane and is technically a Gold Network affiliate. Don’t forget ARN owns KIIS 97.3, and ARN treats that as their main station. The main exception being in Geelong because bay93.9 and K-rock 95.5 can be heard into the metropolitan Melbourne area. Having ARN own those 2 stations would technically place them in breach of the ownership rules.
ARN has KIIS 80s and KIIS 90s, so they’re complying with the rules. But as soon as they launch a Gold Network station on DAB+ Digital, then they’re breaking the ownership rules. Unless they launch a DAB+ River 80s station on DAB+ in Ipswich that can also be heard into Brisbane, then they can still be compliant.
Just make River 94.9 Gold 94.9. Simples.
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Yep, and maybe they could increase their transmission power to basically cover the majority of the Brisbane area so then they can relaunch it as Gold94.9 and finally launch Gold 80s on DAB+ Digital. And by doing this, with the station being heard across Brisbane but licensed to Ipswich, they can still be compliant with the ACMA rules.
Also in regards to advertising, keep a few Ipswich ads but also add more Brisbane advertising so then it doesn’t feel weird for Brisbane listeners.
I mean, CADA 96.1 is licensed to Katoomba for example, but can be heard across much of Sydney, so why not do the same for River94.9? Change it to Gold94.9 and still be compliant with ACMA rules.
Gold94.9 Just Great Songs for Ipswich and Brisbane
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Perhaps make Gold 80s a combined Sydney/Melbourne operation now with the same music in both markets and have Sydney and Melbourne advertising on the one station, on DAB+ and iHeartRadio. Advertisers in both cities can still buy airtime on Gold 80s and therefore their ads can still be heard, just on a combined feed. That’s what needs to happen, because they’re now just simply Gold, with the main exception being Cruise1323 Adelaide (even though they’re a Gold Network station).
What I think we really need to seriously think about is just how much longer will the Cruise1323 branding in Adelaide last for? Just for the record I’m going to say it now that this is essentially just a transition period for Cruise1323. They too will be known as Gold in a few years time, and as an added bonus, could end up converting to the FM band so then they can rebrand it to Gold and bring it in line with the rest of the Gold Network.
Each commercial license gets 256 Kbps (I think) of DAB spectrum and they can squeeze as many stations as they want within this.
They can’t do this.. their licence area on 94.9 is only Ipswich and surrounds.
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But Brisbane no longer has a Pure Gold (now Gold Network) station, so launching Gold 80s on DAB+ would probably feel a bit weird and could also potentially alienate long time listeners of 4KQ who listened to the station until it closed down in 2022. Even then, ARN already has an 80s DAB+ station operating in Brisbane, it’s called KIIS 80s.