I remover the good old days when NX was a clear #1 in Newcastle, back then the station had its own playlist 100% researched for the Newcastle market.
Back then I think it was Garf, Tanya and Steve doing Breakfast. I also remember that Nx fm had a superior playlist to 2day fm which was more repetitive.
It is sad how SCA have gutted these stations, taken away their identity and locally researched playlist. If New fm was any good SCA would make up the minor places like they do on the Central Coast.
One solution to differentiate Hit 106.9 from Hit 101.3 is to move Hit 106.9 onto the metro playlist shared between Fox and B105.
For Triple M Newcastle move them onto the Brisbane Triple M log.
Having both Newcastle and Central Coast Hit / Triple Mâs on the same log is almost as bad as ARN having Power and Wave on the same logs.
Except there is not as much overlap between Newcastle and the Central Coast.
All the networks are so focused on content with the music playlist being a distant second. We listen to music stations for the music and if they cannot get that right we stop listening and seek out other alternatives.
Yes Ant5476 I do clearly remember the music difference when they switched between local and a networked show.
Regardless of the content, they should make local radio the star of their app⌠not bury it behind podcasts and generic specialty channels or capital city stations
They must be the only ones, even the locals donât listen.
It mustnât be working too well then (for survey purposes) or anything else.
While you wont see it printed anywhere publicly, & some may dispute it, but from a very reliable source, what Iâve been told in the last Central Coast Ratings, Star are out the front, Hit arenât a threat to them & itâs a different target audience anyway so theyâre not too concerned, & Coast FM 96.3 out-rates Triple M Central Coast.
Star are very happy with this situation & hope it continues, Iâm not sure on the actual figures if Coast FM also out-rates Hit Central Coast or not, but when youâve got community stations beating commercial stations, then something is very wrong, but Iâm proud of the quality of Coast FM where weâve got it to now, both programming & technical wise, we now have newer & better technically equipped studios than Star & equal to SCA, so we can easily sound very professional & presenter training to also sound professional is high on the agender at Coast FM.
These days, there is a slightly more obvious overlap with Hit Central Coast & Newcastle and Star104.5/NewFM Newcastle. Both are throwing in the occasional 80âs, with 90âs and not as much new music as before.
Hit Central Coast/Newcastle need to skew younger.
I like the suggestion earlier that Hit106.9 needs to take the B105/Fox log. Then Hit Central Coast could either remain as is, or take the SAFM log.
I can see how Coast fm rates well. They fill the void left by the old 2GO, and two of the other community stations are very niche, a Country music station and a religious station bordering on Natowcasting.
I wonder how Radio 50+ rates?
Yes Star 104.5 have got themselves into a good position with the SCA stations boarder on being irrelevant, also a big gain for community radio stations such as Coast fm.
If only Coast fm had a decent frequency such as 91.7.
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.
âOther stationsâ is about 25%. Note that âABC talkâ only includes the Central Coast service, so doesnât 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 thatâs 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 âcontent firstâ).
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 arenât helping themselves if theyâre 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)⌠thereâs a fair chunk at that end.
I know the name but canât place where heâs from?
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 itâs 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 itâs been going on for at least 15 years. Thereâs no focus on the music! The music directors either have no ability or instinct, or theyâre 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 âpopularâ and safe songs. Itâs just awful. The Triple M playlist sticks out as the worst but theyâre 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. Itâs the biggest frustration for me. Youâre 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 whatâs available where, all the signing up bullshit, dropouts and ads.
Itâs 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.