The Central Coast survey looked something like (grouping and rounding the numbers a bit):
Star ~19, Hit ~15, MMM ~12.5, Sydney stations ~13 [worth noting that Kiis is 5.5 by itself], ABC talk ~7.5, jjj ~7.
“Other stations” is about 25%. Note that “ABC talk” only includes the Central Coast service, so doesn’t include those who listen to ABC Newcastle on 1233 (may be more relevant at the north end than Sydney programs on the Central Coast stream)… but otherwise that’s a big chunk that the commercials are missing, and the likes of Coast FM and Five-0-+ can and most likely are exploiting, in the very limited way they can (and 2GO arguably did back in the day, and now have gone missing in the name of homogeneity and “content first”).
You could certainly say the same for, say, 2NUR in Newcastle, which I tend to listen to if not listening to 1233 up there.
The outsized Kiis figure (the other Sydney stations are around the 1-2% market each) would not be helping the Hit figure any, but SCA aren’t helping themselves if they’re skimping on local content in favour of networked stuff already being shunned on the likes of 2Day in Sydney… MMM of course, is its own problem.
The older demographics have an other stations figure of 33% in 55-64 and 57% in 65+, and even if you discount that some may be picking up 2GB or the like (which is not surveyed)… there’s a fair chunk at that end.
They have strange shift times, not taking the 9am-10:30am, 105 minutes of music into account of a morning shift.
Midday to 3 or 4pm is a traditional afternoon shift, the 3-7pm that Joel is doing is a traditional Drive shift, which could be either those times or 4-8pm before nights comes in & goes through until midnight, then it’s mid-dawns shift.
Probably no great loss of KTJ, but they should drop K&J too.
Additionally too, Coast FM use to provide many shows at night that would skew very younger. Rave Repeat and the 120. More recently, HomeBrewed and On Air with Brandon Atkins. I am a great fan of the variety Coast have. I do agree it needs a stronger frequency.
This is my No 1 problem with Australian radio and it’s been going on for at least 15 years. There’s no focus on the music! The music directors either have no ability or instinct, or they’re not empowered. But something is very wrong. Even the big operators in the US or UK can churn out playlists that are actually engaging and sound properly curated. Playlists here just sound like a random jumble of “popular” and safe songs. It’s just awful. The Triple M playlist sticks out as the worst but they’re all bad. Even Smooth has declined. The only commercial operators I know that really put effort into the music are Rebel/Breeze, (until recently 4KQ), and the odd niche station like Power 100.
Correct! This is what radio has lost with streaming - the immediacy. It’s the biggest frustration for me. You’re supposed to be able to turn a radio on with one button and easily flick between stations. Streaming is a constant battle to keep up with all the chopping and changing of what’s available where, all the signing up bullshit, dropouts and ads.
It’s an unpleasant and frustrating experience. Unless radio goes back to being simple and accessible I give it 5 years too.
In Brisbane when Jay was running the show at Nova 106.9, the station sounded great, and was the best sounding CHR station in Australia.
This was when music was the focus with their very unique playlist from the rest of the network.
When head office took over and changed the music it was the end of the good old days of Nova, and bland safe playlists ever since.
You’re… addressing the two stations that stream & podcast with the press of a button in a forum about… a market with those two stations and… one that doesn’t stream? Weird post
I am going to give my (probably unpopular) opinion. I honestly don’t think the element of local is as important to most listeners as it is to radio veterans. I agree, that a bit of local is good, but moving with the times of Spotify, AppleMusic, and podcasting… I actually don’t care about what local potholes people hate the most. I don’t want to sit through personalities trying to be HYPER LOCAL (OMG I WENT DOWN TO THE OCEAN BATHS, THEN I WENT FOR A BEER AT THE BREWERY, AND THEN BECAUSE I AM SO LOCAL I LICKED THE FLOOR OF THE ARGYLE HOUSE THAT USED TO BE CALLED FANNYS AND I KNOW THAT BECAUSE I AM SO LOCAL). Maybe it’s just me, but give me a minute of local news (and make it good), and focus on entertaining me with good content and good playlists. It’s also something to criticize the hit network but then look at something like NEWFM who are SO SO LOCAL WE HAVE THE NOVOS and they rate lower than the ground I am standing on.
