Perhaps they’re concerned about being too similar to Smooth by doing that. It’s a point of difference I suppose by not playing anything too new.
And in addition to what was said about “Less Tay Tay, More Green Day”, that approach sounds like a more “tradie-friendly” playlist to get tradies (back) to Gold during the day.
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Yeah it definitely sounds like that’s their goal. Both Bon Jovi and Green Day are Triple M core artists.
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Let’s not forget Green Day are at Marvel on March 1 and Engie March 3. So a touch of ambush marketing in all this seeing as the tour is promoted by MMM. In fact, last year on the GOLD104.3 website they even included tweets promoting the tour featuring the MMM logo.
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It wasn’t that long ago (2016) that Gold 104.3 were bidding for the rights to call three footy games a week for their male-skewed audience.
Listening today there were certainly times when a ‘Triple your music’ sweeper wouldn’t have gone astray:
Classic Rock 104.3/101.7
Yeah def a move towards male.
Yes 2025 is turning out to be the weird year so far.
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Yes, this seems to be what they’re doing. Yet without creating a proper national Gold network what’s really the point of taking on Triple M in just Sydney and Melbourne? Why haven’t they re-branded Cruise (and also River 949 for that matter) and at least put Gold on DAB in Brisbane and Perth?
It’s all just so half-arsed which seems so typical of ARN.
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100%. they need to look at what smooth has done. no license in Brisbane for FM yet its a station i hear everywhere.
First question is why have they not put River on DAB in brisbane? i know they are an ippy license but it seems like a miss to not use some of the spectrum they own to put something they already produce on DAB
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Yeah true about River. Why wasn’t River put on DAB in Brisbane the second that they sold 4KQ?
The company seems to have no clue or focus anywhere outside of Sydney and Melbourne. It’s ridiculous. Brisbane is the 3rd biggest market in the country with a population heading towards 3 million, yet they treat it like some backwater. So bizarre.
Also very true about Smooth on DAB in Brisbane - I hear it everywhere in shops.
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Jonesy and Amanda celebrating 20 years on The Morning Show today.
According to Google - they started 17 Jan 2005
So this was premature in September 2024
ARN have a definite focus on Sydney and Melbourne, which probably makes some sense given they would be the main markets for advertising revenue. Especially given that they only get half the profits from 97.3, I’d estimate that Sydney and Melbourne would make up somewhere around half ARN’s total revenue, so they’d see it as being a case of diminishing returns to focus on other markets. As for Cruise, maybe this is ARN acknowledging that being on AM and having an older audience they’re better off staying in their own lane because they really have no hope competing against Triple M Adelaide.
You almost never hear ARN mention their regional stations unless they want to make themselves sound like a big network. They don’t seem to get much attention from head office, so I’m guessing those who are in a position to actually make those decisions simply don’t care.
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That’s the problem though, if they think of River as just a regional station, rather than look at how they can leverage it across Brisbane. It’s no different to Cada 96.1 in that regard. As for revenue I suspect even half of 97.3s revenue is bigger than you think. They’ve also said previously that Hot Tomato’s revenue is comparable to Adelaide. If they won’t even focus on their 3rd biggest market and do a few very basic things to improve it then they don’t really understand what “network” actually means. And they don’t really need one. Just be a Sydney and Melbourne operator if that’s all they have the bandwidth to deal with. At least Nova and SCA know how to run national networks.
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if i was an ARN shareholder i’d be asking why isn’t River on DAB+ - from a financial point of view it makes sense. the content is already being produced locally, with local advertisers and DJ’s. presumably licence fees for the music are paid, so its essentally free content for DAB that they can sell to advertisers and potentially increase rates as DAB listeners increase
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Exactly. Why aren’t they looking at really simple ways to increase revenue, even if it’s only small amounts. It would cost them next to nothing. Australian operators have been less than effective at leveraging DAB and monetizing it, but ARN is a joke compared to SCA and Nova.
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They have 4 stations in Sydney and Melbourne. For the sake of easy maths, let’s assume each of those has similar revenue (similar markets sizes, so the Golds could be similar. KIIS Sydney will be the highest and KIIS Melbourne the lowest, so they sort of cancel each other out). On that basis, even if 97.3 has similar revenue to the average of Sydney & Melbourne (and being a smaller market we’d expect it to be lower), that means that at most ARN’s half of 97.3 is generating 1/8th of Sydney/Melbourne combined.
Some big assumptions there, but even if they’re spot on it’s not insignificant. It’s no way to run a business.
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Interestingly, on a news update on GOLD 101.7 this afternoon, they said the temperature in the west before the city even though they are moving away from WSFM branding!
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Probably trying to keep the peace. 
I like the Gold outdoor advertising - the logo even works pretty well on billboards.
I don’t really get some of the specific targets - but it’s a good way of shifting the Gold brand away from a somewhat daggy image it might have for some.
Still don’t get why they won’t take the step towards some brand new stuff, even a song an hour of a top 40 will open them up to the older end of the Hit/Nova audience.
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