2Day FM have been doing a “wow” weekend all long weekend. Very limited commercials with the widest mix of music including current hits with maybe one or two current charted songs an hour. Has been an excellent choice this weekend. Baffles me why the last survey didn’t reflect much change. This is probably the best station in Sydney at the moment, music wise.
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Agreed
Does any other Melbourne listeners out there who listen to The Fox, find themselves switching stations (while the ads are on) to KIIS and then find that the KIIS playlist is just so frustrating compared to The Fox’s. I mean for a station like KIIS that claim they play Top 40(CHR) music and whenever I listen in they’re playing a lot more KISStory music and stuff from the early 2000’s then fresh or new Hits in the Top 40 (CHR) Playlist they claim themselves to play. IMO KIIS should be true to themselves that they play a more Hot AC if not Adult Contemporary Playlist with not as many Fresh Hits and More stuff from the 2000’s, because right now I could not find their Playlist more frustrating especially from a young listener that wants more New Hits. I tune into The Fox 
a lot more nowadays because of KIIS’s frustrating Playlist and I can tell you Fox play the perfect amount of New Hits, Hits from last year and their Trademarked Old School that is why I love them so much.
Both KIIS Melbourne and Sydney are more Hot AC than CHR.
CHR formats rarly go older than 4 years on their playlist, and will never make a song and dance about it when they do (ie, “KISStory”).
I’d suggest they don’t want to acknowledge it because of risk of Nova perceptually owning the CHR space if KIIS were the “Hot AC”. It means jack all to listeners, but I’d say advertisers would have their thoughts on it.
Nova are much closer to a true CHR in Australia. The Edge 96.1 is another contender if ARN were to invest a little more effort into it.
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What about Fox is that a true CHR??? Because it is to me and over a million listeners in Melbourne. I didn’t ask yet care about Nova?
Hot AC audience would have more money to spend, CHR is likely younger with less disposable income.
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By that logic, no stations in Melbourne are true CHR formats. Nova regularly run “Throwbacks” in mornings, and Fox is supposedly “famous” for hits and old school (and R&B for some reason).
Yeah. I find it hilarious how people try to slot them into these neat little boxes that exist overseas but don’t necessarily apply here.
Yep, we are really lacking a true CHR done right in Australia. I’m talking currents every 50 - 90 minutes, recurrents every 3 hours and almost no gold (ok, maybe 1 every 2 hours).
Get the songs right, invest in the right type of research and you’ll easily know what songs you can play every hour and change them up every 2 - 3 days.
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I find it hilarious that everyone here laments how often songs are repeated on our radio stations whilst also suggesting we don’t have a CHR ‘done right’.
Have you heard any CHRs around the world…? Makes our repeats seem light in comparison. Heard the breadth of the playlist of other stations around the world…? Makes ours seem huge in comparison.
Not sure how you maintain the tight playlists and rotations you’re suggesting without repeats…
Or are there few stations around the world doing CHR right…?
Or maybe each market has different needs and different audiences and therefore each format should be directly tailored to it rather than working off a formula for what makes CHR ‘right’?
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Finally, something I agree with you. We have already gone too far towards that CHR model and it’s obvious listeners don’t like it or want it.
The wind back has only just started and I predict there will be more steps away from the CHR model in Australia, as seen by 2Day already.
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I agree that Nova - at least in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide - is the closest to a KIIS-FM/Z100 style CHR station: with its tight music rotations, and even tighter voice-breaks from jocks focused on the music (as opposed to the local market). There’s no sense that Nova breaks the hits - rather, it simply plays them.
I also agree with @JBar that the ‘wind back’ of pure Top 40 will only continue, because I think the model it is based on is, in 2018, broken. With streaming, people are listening to more music for longer, and there’s no indication that tight daytime shifts will in anyway lead to increased TSL.
Further to that, the peak shifts on radio are in breakfast and drive, because that’s where a station can truly sound different to its competitors. While Fox, KIIS and Nova might all play Shawn Mendes, which station’s presenters are truly passionate about his music, and about the other artists on their playlist?
(Or, as in the case of Kate, Tim & Marty, which personalities will openly take the piss out of the music between their breaks?)
On the subject of music formats: Personally? I think a playlist like Nova 106.9 - one more closely resembling the Nova of old - would work for either KIIS or Nova in Melbourne, especially against a dominant Fox. That said, I don’t think translating 2Day’s format south of the Barassi line will help them hold a 9% share: sure, it might eat away from Gold and, to a lesser extent, smooth, but the younger demos would flee to Nova and KIIS in droves.
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Kevin Blyton’s X Digital in Perth not to your liking?
Both to their long term detriment. Localism essential. Breaking hits essential in this era of wide access to music choices elsewhere.
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Localism I can spend a day debating on so I won’t start here. As for breaking hits, radio must evolve. Radio can’t be the medium that breaks hits forever, and possibly for not much longer.
Given there are other services that are already better at it and can be much more user-tailored, I think radio would be better off finding the thing they can dominate in, that they can be better at, than trying to fight a losing battle when it comes to breaking hits.
Personally, I don’t think localism for the sake of it wins anything, but I do think good content is a pretty safe bet.
If I were a radio station, I’d be investing in my own people and those outside of my station to be developing as much content (audio predominantly but also video, written and other forms of content). Good content will be radio’s saving grace.
Totally agree with you @AustralianAerial not really with your comment @amc_556 but yes Nova I guess is the closest to a KIIS FM in LA because they don’t really play any songs that are more than 5 years old. Again no one has Answered my question about how I thought that all Nova stations in Aus were the same except for Nova in Perth??? But if your comment is true that Nova106.9 is different to Nova969 then is Nova Brisbane’s playlist really resembling the Nova of Old (Sounds Different) format that so many of us liked? Agree with you totally that if Nova 106.9’s playlist is more of a sounds different or urban contemporary format with fresh hits then I would think and also love if KIIS in Melbourne would take on that format mainly because I think that it would suit them perfectly and think it would sound so good on them because it would be something different for the Melbourne market except for six years ago when Nova100 was still sounding different, and yes there is no way 2DayFM’s format would suit Fox because all the young demos would go straight to Nova but probably not KIIS because as I said before I and so many other Melburnians think their playlist is too frustrating. Fox will always be a Hit Music Station because they’re The Fox and they will always rate #1FM in Melbourne
Their throwbacks are older than 5 years.
I don’t hear throwbacks being played on Nova 96.9 when I go to Sydney
At breakfast they play two between 6am and 7pm. Then again between 9am and 12 noon. Thursdays is throwbacks all day.
Right ok so then no true CHR in Aus. Questionable…
My guess is because in recent years, 2DayFM’s reputation has been in tatters with a number of format and breakfast team changes on a yearly (sometimes even less than that) basis.
Although 2DayFM’s current format should be a decent enough fit for the Sydney market, I personally believe it may take some time (provided that the management are willing to persist with things as they are now) for the station’s overall ratings to improve.
I personally believe stations can and must strike a balance between good quality local content and good quality networked content. But this is probably a discussion to have at length at another time and in another topic.
Although I don’t expect any dramatic ratings shifts to happen in Melbourne anytime soon, Fox 101.9 always getting #1 ratings is far from a certainty.
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