At least they kept the heritage for 96FM.
What heritage? Gold96FM will eventually transition to Gold96. The music will be coming from the east, and so too will Christian in the morning.
The fact theyâve already networked workdays on KIIS, itâll likely be networked workdays at some point for Gold.
ARN will be first to truly network all metro stations in this country.
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A broken clock is also correct twice a day, doesnât mean its information is reliable or accurate.
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To be fair, the 96 rebrand (or brand realignment at the very least) has been locked in for 18 months - itâs taken an eternity for ARN to sort all of their puzzle pieces out.
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Has it? It seemed to be going that direction for awhile but then ARN started implying it was staying KIIS aligned before confirming with at the upfronts the station will finally fit into a network it actually belongs in.
Yes. Iâm not sure what the hold-up was, but a KIIS DAB station was the plan ever since Kyle and Jack went into Melbourne.
IMO the laws should be a little bit more relaxed when it comes to radio station branding. I mean, how many StarFMâs do we know of in Australia alone?
Radio is restricted by its listening area - so itâs not as if Heart will grow significantly outside of its accessible areas. Even LiSTNR is probably geographically limited so nobody internationally can stream.
I beg to differ.
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If I recall correctly I think I read somewhere thereâs an agreement with the Star name that both SCA and Nova are allowed to use that name in regional areas, I believe stemming from the time DMG sold its Star stations and they eventually came under SCA ownership. But not sure about ACE as they have started using the Star name too.
Anyway, the plot thickens as a read this morning that Global owns about 14% of iHeart Radio in the US (and maybe Australia, not sure if itâs separate?). So they have a vested interest in the Heart name globally.
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iHeartRadio and ARN are separate companies. ARN licenses the iHeartRadio name for Australia.
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Yeah I know that. I was just referring that Global has an Australian presence already, given their part ownership of iHeart, which could strengthen their case for the Heart trademark in Australia. Itâs not just ARN that stream their stations on iHeart, Rebel media also has Breeze and Rebel FM on iHeart.
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It doesnât have a presence in Australia. ARN has exclusive rights to iHeartRadio in Australia, Global Radio has nothing to do with the programming decisions made by ARN, even though ARN have licensed the iHeartRadio app.
Global has a minority ownership of iHeartMedia, which owns hundreds of radio stations across the US, so they would have more of an interest in the US market than the Australian market.
iHeartMedia used to be Clear Channel. ARN was a joint venture between APN News & Media and Clear Channel until Feb 2014, when APN News & Media agreed to purchase Clear Channelâs 50% stake in ARN.
Global didnât buy into iHeartMedia until Feb 2021.
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Itâs about branding. The fact is Global owns a stake in iHeart, which has a presence in Australia whether it has arrangements with ARN or not. Thatâs enough of a presence for a trademark case. Despite any content arrangements with ARN in Australia, iHeart still owns all trademarks related to iHeart itself. Anyway, itâs a funny kind of âexclusiveâ rights - Rebel media stations (Breeze & Rebel FM) are also on iHeart in AustraliaâŚ
And who said they donât have more interest in the US market than on Australia? But clearly they have enough interest for them to lodge two trademark applications! I have no idea how their applications will go, but the company must have a reason to do so, and a reasonable expectation they will succeed. Theyâre not doing it just for fun.
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Would ARN have asked them to perhaps?
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Itâs possible I guess.
Whatever happens itâs definitely prompted SCA to promote the hell out of their Heart station in an attempt to prove theyâre using it, and to weaken the Global case for ânon useâ.
Interesting to see the old WSFM now GOLD101.7 Facebook page has been renamed to, âJonesy & Amanda on GOLDâ. It was previously, âGOLD with Jonesy & Amandaâ.
I wonder if weâll only see one show page for 101.7FM as opposed to having a dedicated station page.
Itâs a strange attempt at protecting the âHeartâ name however Iâm sure there are other âHeartâ stations in other countries where iHeartRadio has a presence.
Honestly, I donât think anything will come of this, but weâll see.
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Imagine the uproar if someone was coming after the Gold name in radio. Good luck.
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They could always go to a hybrid name of WSKZKQDN96 FM.
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