No.
Interested to hear what difference is there will be with John and Garry tomorrow morning. In there ad it has that they have found a few new ways to do Breakfast plus your favourites return.
Obviously any sign of a relaunch of 2UE will be heard on this show. Hopefully they don’t change that shows format to much.
Gee, there’s been so many program changes at 2UE over the past five years (or so) that I’ve lost count and now it seems that there may be another one!
As for the station branding, In recent years (and this is just off the top of my head) we’ve had the following…
*The 2014 relaunch and the “Sydney’s Original” refresh to that last year.
*The brief attempt at reviving the old “Talking Sydney” jingles and Station IDs around 2012-13. I think this was launched around the time that the news theme was switched to a modern remix of the old “Radio Active” theme (which happened in mid-late 2012) or shortly after.
*The 2011-12 branding which 2UE sound very much like an “FM-lite” station, so to speak.
There have probably been others. But in any case, I think that MRN really need to create a decent branding package for 2UE and stick to it for an extended period of time. Look at 2GB’s “The Power Station” branding for instance…that will be five (or four, if you can class the original Mojo-esque jingle and the 2012/current rock-sounding update as different branding) years old this year and is generally quite decent branding for the station.
We still need to hear who will be heard on mid-dawn, afternoons and drive.
Looks like we are a bit closer to figuring out the lineup. On the website it lists Tim Webster 1-4pm and Bill Woods 4-8pm including an hour of Sports Today from 7pm.
All they’re missing now is Ron Wilson.
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So, not lifestyle then?
As I said last year, all smoke and mirrors, seems Luke Bona is having a week off and then returning to mid dawns. Certainly will be a lot better than the crap 2GB is dishing up overnight at the moment and good to see that Alan Pearsall will only be heard on weekends…hopefully just for the time being.
2UE is indeed reverting to a ‘lifestyle and branded content’ format in March according to The Australian
Thanks for posting Jeffmister. This is going to be a complex launch.
Macquarie have to be careful that the new format does not isolate 2UE’s current listeners as I reckon they are more likely to move to 702 than 873. If this happens they could be left with 2GB with its current ratings and an even lower rating 2UE.
Mind you for years now 2UE has experienced weekend ratings that are 30 - 40% higher than their weekday ratings.
2UE and 2GB currently have a combined rating of 17.4%. To succeed any change would want to increase that number. If the New 2UE attracts listeners from 2GB then there could be trouble in the corridors of 2GB.
What the New 954 needs is to pull listeners from FM, the ABC or even 2SM whilst holding on to their current listeners. Maybe the new 2UE format could nab both of 2SM’s listeners.
I am glad that the breakfast show appears to be continuing as I love John and Garry in the morning. Pardon?
I don’t have a subscription to The Australian, in summary what does the article say?
A couple of quotes:
Australia’s oldest commercial radio station, now part of the Macquarie Media Limited joint venture, will abandon the AM talk format it pioneered and in which it was once market leader, for a lifestyle and advertising format believed to be similar to the TV formats on Seven’s The Morning Show and Nine’s Mornings.
The format is anticipated to expand upon one of the station’s few current strengths, its softer weekend formats led by favourites George and Paul (George Moore and Paul Kidd) and include more branded content programming.
The station’s highest-rating shift, the breakfast program with John Stanley and Garry Linnell, has already returned for the year and will remain in its current format.
Current 2UE hosts Stuart Bocking, Tim Webster and Bill Woods are expected to remain on air until the format change in March. It is not known whether they will remain with the lower-cost format.
So basically, this new “lifestyle and advertising” format is going to be the radio equivalent of those infomercial “datacast” channels on Digital TV?
If that’s the case, I really can’t see 2UE’s new format being a hit among Sydney radio listeners.
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It’s an absolute idiotic idea. No one wants to listen to ads for Nature Bee, the Care Alert Smart Dialer, the FiftyUp Club, West End Mazda, Three Threes sauce, Castle Hill RSL and Dyldam all day…oh wait.
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This 2UE thing will be a complete and utter disaster. It sounds awful. Poor John Stanley and Gary Linell.
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Glad John & Gary are staying.
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I used to be an avid listener of 2UE and 2GB (for about 30 years) but find I am rarely listening to them since about October last year. The quality of the presenters has noticeably declined and there are way too many repetitive ads, station promos, news bulletins and other rubbish.
I now find myself listening more and more to US radio via Tunein radio on my iPad or iPhone via Bluetooth earphones. I usually listen on a bit of a delay so I can use the skip buttons to skip thru the ads. Many of the streamsI listen to helpfully insert the ad break markers to make this possible.
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