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 donāt really get some of the specific targets - but itās a good way of shifting the Gold brand away from a somewhat daggy image it might have for some.
Still donāt get why they wonāt 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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Thereās already too much Bon Jovi on Gold 104 as it is. Sheesh.
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Iām from Melbourne, but this constant referencing of WS says to me that WS was actually a well-regarded recognisable Sydney brand that theyāre destroying for no good reason.
They could have had the āGoldā network without changing the onair branding. The Austreo network did this successfully with 2DAY, 3FOX, SA FM, PM FM et al.
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On The Morning Show interview today, Jonesy said that he was told when he moved to WS in 2002 that they would be rebranding to Gold the next year. āThe wheels, they turn slowly!ā
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IHeartRadio is awful for it. Sometimes it picks up songs played in averts. Songs getting used as beds and whatnot.
Craig Bruce has such a hard-on for networking, must be from working with Canadians for so long. Itās so disappointing to see people like him have such a warped view of the media, and not seeing how that will ultimately lead to the demise of radio, not long term savings.
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Iām guessing this is when they are placed into the log by a host it triggers the playlist log to recognise it as a song.
Thatās very true. And as you say, disappointing that people have a warped view of the media. Similarly, those on here who seem to have the same affection for networked radio and want to see the demise of River 94.9 as a local station and the creation of a networked Gold affiliate in its place.
They suggest River 94.9 is no different to CADA. Hmmm. Clearly never listened. And even format aside, itās certainly a different kettle of fish having three ARN stations in the same market. CADA is in a very unique position.
Listening to River this morning and I can definitely understand why itās not on DAB+. As mentioned on-air, Riverās coverage area is Ipswich, Scenic Rim, Lockyer Valley and Somerset. Listening to an ad break right now: first up is Bakehouse Steakhouse in Ipswich, then Freedom Furniture Toowoomba, Total Tools Ipswich, a Chiropractor in Plainland and lastly an ad for Sophia College Plainland. Good luck getting DAB+ coverage in any of these areas.
Riverās success (with its 33% share) is that it is live and local. The last thing people out here want is for ARN to plonk it on DAB+, (which would be useless) and convert it to another Gold, networked out of Sydney or Melbourne, just so some small fraction of Brisbane listeners can have another bland national station to listen to.
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Nope - it uses Gracenote even for songs logged as songs in the stationās regular playlist.
From memory, iHeart USā implementation is actually based off the metadata coming from RCS (which it owns lol)
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No one wants networking. But suggesting an Ipwich live and local station that has a Gold network music format which adds more variety to the wider Brisbane radio market
I live in Perth but regularly listen to Mandurah licenced stations that I can pick up here. Its close enough that I consider it local, and nothing like listening to a Sydney or Melbourne station
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4KQ played the Bee Gees āAloneā on their final night of broadcast (June 23 2022) and laid claim to the songās success in Australia. Murray Shoring suggested ā4KQ played the song when no one else didā (not sure how true this is given it was an international hit).
I certainly know that the Bee Gees always got a good run on KQ - with a discography spanning three decades they were a great fit for the format. But obviously, there were strong historical links also, given that it was 4KQ that arguably gave the Bee Gees their big break (though this is also disputed).
Whichever way, probably a good idea for GOLD to ditch the Bee Gees.
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I think you might be over-estimating just how far the 94.9 signal reaches into Brisbane. Sure there are pockets to the south and west that receive a ākinda OKā signal. One of the callers this morning was from Mt Gravatt.
River tried a push into Brisbane. They had a studio at Southbank, various promotions, they even sponsored my local rugby team at Toowong. But it failed. You canāt get a significant audience and advertisers in Brisbane with such a patchy signal.
So is DAB+ the answer? No. Thereās probably more people listening already on iHeart.
I actually find it rather surprising for the Gold Network to promote playing Less Bee Gees.
Itās like Triple M coming out saying, Less AC/DC.
I understand theyāre shifting away from the classic hits, however, it really is still part of their DNA and overall brand image.
If itās not Bee Gees, itās still older hits they are playing - which could be confusing to some.
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youāve made two contradictory statements there.
DAB will increase the signal into Brisbane. I have DAB in my car and i drive all over Brisbane, as i live in the west and have family in Capalaba and also down at Yalata - Iāve gotten DAB fine pretty much the entre drive (excluding tunnels).
Getting on DAB will allow people from the west who commute to Brisbane to listen to the same station in the car for example. People wonāt listen to river until it drops out and switch to B105 (for example). they will stay on B105 and eventually all the radios in the house will migrate over too.
Ippy isnāt some outpost miles from the city. by car its a 40km commute. itās less than an hour on the train. River needs to do what they can to keep local residents listening. being on DAB is a no brainer (probably why it hasnāt been done as no one has any brains at ARN)
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It didnāt fail as such, it attracted the attention of the regulators who placed a licence condition on River 94.9 to stop them from conducting such things out of their licence area.
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this raises an interesting question. if they were on DAB and tried the same, would they get in trouble or could they argue they were promoting the digital station? i assume the studios at southbank would still be an issue, but i wonder about the rest as they could claim its promo for the DAB station
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Good question, I guess as long as they donāt mention FM, i canāt see that being an issue.
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Yep as long as they kept it as promoting the DAB station and not the FM frequency they would be fine. Itās the same as ARN promoting CADA across Sydney. As far as licencing is concerned the 4MIX FM licence would be an entirely different entity to the Brisbane DAB station. In exactly the same way as the 2ONE FM licence is different to the CADA DAB station in Sydney.
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