Hmm, comes across a bit arrogant to me. It’s not something I would have gone with to promote the show
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He looks smug as fuck on this, not the greatest way to take over from a legacy breakfast show.
CoC does cut through as a product but this ad really does no justice for the show
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Someone asked recently on the Cruise 1323 Facebook page if they are going to the Gold format but Craig “Huggy” Huggins confirmed they are staying as Cruise. 102.3 have also been replying to people saying they will still play the 80’s and 90’s so it looks as though ARN are listening and not just doing a copy and paste of Kiis.
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So where does Gold Adelaide fit into the picture? Will it be a stand-alone DAB station alongside Cruise 1323 and KIIS102.3?
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I’ll understand what when I listen? I feel like I should be asking Gold a question but I don’t have one for them.
Maybe the question was “Why were Jonesy and Amanda axed from the Breakfast shift?”
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Yoir guess is as good as mine. Going DAB only for Gold makes sense but I haven’t seen any announcements anywhere.
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If they did that, they’ll have to cull a station to fit it in their bandwidth. Possibly TijTok, CADA or iHeartCountry would have to go. I can’t see them axing Mix80s or Mix90s.
I think also maybe ARN got cold feet in changing Cruise to GOLD since the station is still on AM?. Looks like KIIS 1023 will be using the line “All The Hits, All The Variety”, a KIIS specially made just for Adelaide it seems.
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And similarly in changing the 102.3 playlist to the east coast one.
Given that Adelaide has an older population and Nova and SA are already in that space.
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If only they’d do literally the opposite and also add a Cruise station into the other capitals. They could pick up a decent number of Magic/2UE listeners with it.
I suppose the answer for why they haven’t added Gold to DAB in Brisbane yet is them not fully knowing what they are doing yet?
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It’s all very baffling. If they do put Gold on DAB only in Adelaide and leave Cruise as is, I strongly suspect they intend to sell 1323 (likely to SEN). But at this stage I think they’ll go with Gold on 1323 as well.
As for KIIS 102.3 staying variety. I’m 50/50 on this one. I feel they might be just trying to placate MIX listeners for now and then gradually align with the east coast format. I just don’t see them making the effort in Adelaide if they’re not prepared to do the same in Brisbane - a market twice the size. If they have any sense they would revert 97.3 to a variety format, and perhaps they will.
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I think they’ll keep it in the hope they can convert to FM at some point.
4KQ was only sold because of the overlap issue when ARN acquired Grant stations in Ipswich and the Sunshine Coast.
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I may be very wrong but I do have a feeling the huge amount of backlash over ARN axing their breakfast trio on 97.3 in Brisbane made them think twice before going too full on with any more changes. Mix (soon to be Kiis) is often Adelaide’s number one station so they would be stupid to drop what works.
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Not necessarily because of that, but it set a precedent. If this can be reversed, anything can.
I mean, their upfronts were hailed as being pretty good. Suddenly now it feels like there’s nothing new from 2025.
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I don’t quite agree. They used that as the excuse to sell it, but made a lot of comment at the time which suggested they didn’t want to keep it as it was “too hard” to make money out of an AM station, even one rating really well. I think it was convenient for them that they had to sell.
As for an FM conversion for Cruise, not a chance in hell based on what’s happened in Perth with 6iX/6PR. But if that’s the plan, to wait, then they would surely go with Gold 1323 in the meantime.
Anyway we’ll see what happens, it’s all very interesting.
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It seems the upfront were a complete waste. Half incorrect if it’s not a truly national GOLD and KIIS network, with some on DAB+ and some using a variety format.
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But the variety music format is what worked best for 97.3, and was the format that was most successful for the original breakfast crew. The CHR playlist has also been causing a backlash in Brisbane since it was forced on 97.3. Bringing back the breakfast crew AND the old music format at the same time is the smart move.
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I find that an odd comment from ARN if true.
If you have say a cume of 200,000, why does it matter if it’s on AM or FM, they’re still listening. And the likes of 2GB and 3AW in particular seem to do quite well financially.
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I agree. 97.3 was a mess. I know at one point they had their old 80’s to now music format during breakfast but then switched to Kiis music from 9am. I haven’t listened for months so I don’t know if they still do that though.
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To be fair, Huggo says, “We’ll be Cruising into 2026”. That doesn’t exactly knock on the head the idea of a GOLD1323 rebrand.
Man I wish DC would come out with an update press release on what the heck is going on with these networks. The upfronts are so ancient right now.
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