Looking around the various Sydney stations’ websites, none (apart from 2GB) have bothered to make any updates or add any content on what will be airing in the lead up to new year.
I imagine most will have some sort of ‘special’ show that veers away from the usual Thursday night programming. It seems incredible to me that heading into 2016, major networks don’t make this information available online to interested listeners. I don’t know whether there have been on-air promos for the NYE shows?
I happened to spot a Twitter post from KIIS and they’re going commercial-free from 6pm with Rodney O’s Block Party. I would have thought this would be something to shout about. Even digging through social media accounts for the likes of 2Day and Edge, there is nothing mentioned. Are these stations missing a trick or is the NYE audience so small as to be insignificant and not worth the effort of a Facebook post?
If anyone has any of this top secret info on what the Major Metros are broadcasting this evening please share it here.
2Day FM are constantly promoting the fact that they will be playing the official NYE soundtrack at 9 and midnight. (I assume all of the Hit Network are)
All the CHRs at least (and I would assume the rest of the commercial music stations) are going commercial free - some have been heavily promoting the fact. Most will take some sort of DJ mix…
I would have to assume that at least KIIS and Novas NYE audience is very small.
When’s the last time you went to a party where all the host did for music was turn the radio on? Even if you’re not doing ANYTHING I think you’re more likely to have the TV of Pandora on than a Nova DJ mix
Despite the fact that I’m sure the curated playlists/mixes for NYE from the major commercials will be at least half-decent, a party that had constant 2DAY, Nova or KIIS sweepers peppered throughout would be considered kinda lame, let alone the lengthy talk breaks.
I’d almost suggest that it’s more of a ‘get you in the mood on the way to the party’ sorta thing, rather than a ‘put this on AT the party’
In Melbourne there’s a temporary station on 99.7 running the ‘official’ audio, instead of doing a deal with one of the stations like it seems Sydney did with 2Day. There doesn’t seem to be much promotion of that, so I doubt many people would tune into it.
Yes I had a quiet one on New Years Eve and did flick between the available CHR in Stanhope Gardens as well as Internet radio trying to find some decent house music to get into the mood. Below are my comments on each of the networks
Nova Network
Between 6pm and 9pm it was generally just their standard playlist with mixes of 2015 hits with a DJ back announcing some of the mixes and putting some calls to air. Last song of 2015 Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars.
First song of 2016 Ocean Drive by Duke Dumont. All Nova’s had the same New Year’s broadcast but with time delay to fit local time zones.
Sea Fm Central Coast-
Outside broadcast from the Entrance fireworks. Pretty much their standard play list. I heard them play the best of you.
I did listen to a bit of Triple J but it was not as heavily house music focused as is their Saturday night house party program.
The best mixes were on overseas stations particularly Slam fm which is a dance music station broadcasting across the Netherlands, they stream on the Internet. They started their New Years party mix at 9am local time and was mostly commerical free. The playlist was very uplifting with a dubstep skew. As they got closer to midnight Amsterdam (10am NYD Sydney time) they were mixing 2015 top 40 and house hits into their mix. Last song of 2015 Lean on by Major Lazer.
Radio 1 UK
Only listened for an hour this morning between 10am and 11am which is 11pm NYE to Midnight New Years Day GMT. They also had a good mix of music better then what was offered on the Australian CHR stations. The playlist was similar to Slam Fm Netherlands but also contained some older non 2015 dance hits.
Last song for 2015 Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars.
I always get my NYE party mixes from oversea radio station streamed through tune in radio.
One issue with “countdowns” these days is that the methods used to determine the most popular songs (streams or digital sales) are too skewed towards a few artists such as Ed Sheeran, so any “real countdown” as such is going to be dominated by his songs.
The best any station could do these days are just the “Hits of 2021” and the limit the numbers of songs played by some artists.
