Well according to one source there have been “a heap of good applications” coming through on the job. So who knows? But usually I’ve noticed the last few applicants have come from Western Australia so it’ll be interesting to see how things pan out.
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Honestly I would love to see Jade, Brandon and Jackson back. They really made an effort to shine through and make great content. I use to travel to the Hunter Valley once a month and I throughly enjoyed their commitment to the job. I wonder where Jade is these days?
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Last I heard (when she left Newcastle), she moved to Queensland, Gold Coast I think, with her partner & started her own business, being a wedding celebrant. Can’t remember now if she had a baby literally the week before leaving Newy or a couple of weeks after arriving in Queensland, but she’s probably being a mum & doing the wedding celebrant work now?
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Who is your ‘source’? The caliber of replacements to good talent that NEWFM once had (and say what you would like about the station it has had good talent at times with great potential) has been one big disappointment. Not to say you have not heard that, I’d just be surprised.
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From what I have been told all staff from breakfast to evening get paid the same salary that barely makes 55k without additional weekend slots. Laughable.
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The latest NewFM Facebook post promoting The Novo’s mentions that they’ll start from 5am tomorrow (not 6am like last year).
I wonder how that’ll go against Hit & Triple M who start later.
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5am seems unnecessarily early.
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It’s been 5am since May last year. They did it because more people are commuting south to Sydney at that hour
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Aww Shucks 
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From listening this morning it is evident that no matter how early they start they will still struggle to compete in the market. It’s very mismatched and lackluster, almost reminiscent of someone recording a quick podcast at Christmas lunch because ‘grandad won’t be with us forever and this will be a memory’. Newfm should honestly have a think about upping whatever investments they have in breakfast and finding a dedicated team that actually sound like they want to be there.
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NewFM should recruit someone like Rob Duckworth for a music-based breakfast show (even if it’s voice-tracked from Sydney) and revert to Newcastle’s Best Rock taking the B-Rock playlist.
It’s a point of difference having music-based breakfast, and point of difference having rock on Newcastle FM radio again.
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Until BOG start promoting and investing properly in talent and content they will remain in the doldrums.
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And SCA continue to win Newcastle by default.
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Interesting considering Bill has always avoided paying the penalty rate for broadcasting before 6am.
That investment of staff time at NEW could be invested in many more helpful ways.
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I don’t think they would be paid any penalty rates, as any full timers who work a weekend shift for instance get a small “allowance”
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Radioinfo has confirmed it.
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Wow. MASS exodus.
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The station is a dead zone, people would be more willing to eat an apple grown on the grounds of Chernobyl than work there. The talented moved on and even the ones who do not cut it with experience or goods cannot stand to swash around in the environment that is served up to them. I have been told from someone I vouch for as a good source that the culture within is worse each day that rolls over, and it comes from the top. ‘Careless and weak’ was thrown around when chatting management.
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I feel like Hit1069 and MMM are going in the wrong direction…
They used to be clearly identifiable stations with local branding you could listen to all over the internet and your car.
Now we have visitors to the area with no idea whats going on, they are listening to MMM Central Coast instead.
On the internet you used to be able to visit the NXFM website or any other streaming website and just stream them
Now, you have to sign up for an account and even once you have signed up and logged in, you click on say “Abbie Chatfield” and you get QLD ads??? it’s like I have to actively search to find the Newcastle version?? What would the advertisers think of that?
If you are on the Tunein app because you want to channel surf between 2NUR, ABC, MMM, 1069 etc you can no longer locate these stations on there? So if you want hit music you just add Kiis1065 Sydney or similiar.
The original purpose of radio was that it was free, quick and readily available on radios which people had in their kitchens, loungerooms, sheds, kitchens and cars and you could easily surf between stations… but now you have to sign up for an account and you get ads and content from another state?
The Hit network lost many of their breakfast shows and i have a feeling they will continue to fall down this rabbit hole of exclusive content, national branding and people digging through rabbit warren apps to try and find your local station which people will simply not do.
Have a splash page where you can select your local city before continuing through to the website maybe? And letting people stream for 1 minute then cutting them off is one of the most shocking things I have come across.
I’ll give local radio 5 years if they continue like this…
and you can’t even stream New FM? You need to start putting the radio back in front of peoples faces! Not hide it behind so much bureaucracy
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Extremely well said. And I completely agree regarding not knowing which Hit or especially which Triple M you are listening to. There is absolutely no difference which I think is SCAs strategy to just flood the markets with as much Hit and Triple M branding as possible (for survey recall purposes).
It’s sad, because I really feel the Central Coast and Newcastle markets have a real opportunity to cover all grounds.
There are a solid number of commercial stations and commercial networks which could easily each serve a different demographic.
But instead, you’ve basically got 3 formats to choose from across 6-8 different radio stations.
And yep - then there is the networked brekkie shift across Hit regionally. They should really keep 6-9am local with a single announcer at least, and network 9am-12pm. A local mornings slot just sounds silly. Zero opportunity to really connect with local listeners when you’ve got to play so much music.
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