Hit Network

I thought this also, but after today looking at the Hit metro and regional logs on Lava they have moved away from the older listeners and have gone back to their under 40 music format.

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Don’t really see what the average population age has to do with it. It’s whether the people were actually living in Perth or not when the station was around.

4MMM doesn’t compare with FM104 in it’s glory days but that doesn’t imply that the majority of current Brisbane residents would remember it branded that way either. In fact the population change in Brisbane since FM104 was dropped as the primary brand would be even greater than Perth.

However a point of difference is that 4MMM has still retained links to FM104 both through its frequency and also continuing references to “FM104 Triple M”, which is still heard on air today, and has been for 30+ years. It’s not quite the same as the PMFM situation. There has been essentially a co-brand of sorts with 4MMM. For example they still call the weather forecast the “FM10-forecast”.

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Q: If Mix 94.5 has a different music format during breakfast/daytime vs during the networked shows in the afternoon/evening/overnight - then why not network the way ARN tends to do: Just insert local music that suits the rest of the station into the networked shows for Mix 94.5? With Perth always being 2-3 hours behind the east coast, it’s not like it needs to be kept in sync timing wise for calls etc.?

ARN do this for 97.3 FM, Mix 102.3, 96FM, 4KQ, Cruise 1323 etc. and it results in a fairly consistent sounding station from a music standpoint. Whether or not the networking itself is a good idea or not is a whole other point, but if you’re going to network, it at least keeps the station sounding consistent all day.

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Wow so many posts regarding Perth radio, I’m touched :blush:

Anyway from somebody where hit music happened in the 80s the great stations in Perth include The Wave from Mandurah and Smooth FM on DAB+, that is what Mix 94.6 should have moved to (MMM Soft Rock not too bad either).

And 92.9? Well that was always playing hit music (directly competing with Nova FM and down Mandurah way with Coast FM) and that seems to have all disappeared with the new Hit 94.5 suffering from a serious identity crisis from what I am reading here. How difficult is it for SCA to make Hit 94.5 a true hit station playing the best popular music from this century (2000 to today)?

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I’m hoping that’s where they’re going. Hopefully what they’re doing at the moment is just a transitional phase. But they won’t ever call it Hit 94.5. It will remain as Mix 94.5, just like the SAFM and B105 brands returned and 2Day and Fox remained. They’re heritage brands.

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They completely reversed 92.9 and 94.5 and they are worried about heritage brands? I would be more worried first about the listening audience when you switch music format and branding later to keep and attract that audience once that brand means something. I am not sure what Mix 94.5 brand means, all mixed up maybe?

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You’re confusing brands and formats. Mix 94.5 has been a brand since 1997 (thereabouts), hence why it’s considered a heritage brand. They have had several formats over the years.

92.9, the frequency, has been host to several brands over the years - PMFM, All New 92.9, 92.9, Hit 92.9 and now 92.9 Triple M. There have been a variety of formats throughout those brands.

SCA completely understands what they’ve done. They know there will be huge shifts in audiences for both stations. They obviously believe the risks are worth it. At the end of the day, it’s their decision as owners of those brands and businesses.

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That means she may have to present Fox breakfast from Sydney for a few weeks as DWTS is filmed there.

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Lower risk to relaunch 92.9. I would guess that 94.5 is the prime money maker of the two. Elsewhere Mix 106.5 became KIIS in 2014. Not only did they change format, they changed their name. I think Mix 94.5 can weather the storm, but Nova will be way ahead.

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That happened due to the poaching of Kyle & Jackie O. Another factor in ARN’s decision to rebrand one of their Sydney stations may have been that the Mix 106.5 brand had been associated with a string of failed breakfast programs by 2013 (pretty much the same situation 2DayFM has been in for a while now), as none of the post-Jason Bouman/Sammy Power hosts really worked for them.

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Yes definitely, my point is, it is possible to transition from one format to another successfully. I reckon Mix 94.5 has enough depth to transition however long it takes. First ratings will be interesting.

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As well as costing more, the attraction to a national show is selling national advertising.

Right now they can say Carrie & Tommy reach 1.6 million listeners (or whatever it is) + podcasts/catchup, whereas state based shows would be far smaller.

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Yeah, I can see “Send him back South” being the general consensus on Dave Hughes from listeners of the 2DayFM Morning Crew.

Why am I not surprised? Although one can understand why SCA had to go back to a personality-based breakfast show on 2DayFM after Music for Breakfast with Jamie Angel went as well as their other post-2014 brekky shows, I can see The Morning Crew with Hughesy, Ed & Erin being another expensive flop.

Just about the best thing I can say is that at least SCA haven’t networked the Gawndy & Maz show (carried by most of the Regional NSW Hit stations) into Sydney, although given the performance of 2DayFM at breakfast in recent years maybe they should’ve saved the cash and ran the networked show until at least one of the established brekky shows on KIIS/Nova/WSFM/Smooth comes to an end.

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Don’t most shows pay people to call in if they aren’t getting the people ringing in?

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Probably, although it wouldn’t overly surprise me if it’s been a practice more commonly done by 2DayFM than some of the other Sydney breakfast radio shows recently!

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People in glass houses, Sandilands… people in glass houses…

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Stan Zemanek paid actor Bryan Wiseman to impersonate various callers, most notoriously a regular character who was a woman drinking champagne in a bubble bath. When it was revealed that Zemanek was faking calls Wiseman admitted that he had jokingly made other fake talkback calls over the years including to John Laws, though he wasn’t paid and the announcers didn’t know.

Mike Carlton sometimes called Brian Wilshire, but I remember Wilshire picking up once that it was Carlton.

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Well 92.9 which was Hit (Now Triple M Perth) are playing Rock Music now which Perth Deserves.

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Why’s that? Maz is experienced and should definitely be back on metro radio.

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