You know when you have that friend you know is a good person, and someone talks smack so you say ‘no no, that’s not my experience with them.’… interesting that NO ONE jumps to NEWFM’s defence & that is telling.
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It must be frustrating for the staff and the people on the ground. I have no doubt, they’re all in it for the right reasons.
There are some huge problems to address. Was listening on the weekend, the inexperience was painful to listen to. Lots of excessive weather breaks and excessively long talk breaks.
The seguing is non existent and the guy on air kept getting artist names wrong. Do they have a PD?
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OK in the last two years:
Jade Leeder
Lizzie Stokes
Brad Williams
Alex Ryan
Ryan Atkins
Matty Harrison
Brandon Atkins
Jackson Brunner
Meg Alexander
Michael Robertson
Tyler Thompson
They have all left the station. That’s ELEVEN announcers in TWO years. If any other radio station had this high of a turnover rate, they’d be having a good hard look at themselves in the mirror.
Not this lot, though. This says all you need to know about working there.
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I think there’s one common denominator with all of those who have departed NEWFM (and that is an incredibly big number of talent lost). The common denominator is, as mentioned, TALENT. From what I am aware of, most of those listed to have left have gone on to do great things in their lives. The glaring problem is talent retention.
What it seems NEWFM FAILS to realise is that if you want to have dedicated and talented staff (especially your on air) you need incentive for them to stay and champion your station. You need budgets, great tactics and activations, you need to pay your talent what they’re worth, you need to have workplace benefits, and you need to have good culture.
I’ve been told that the PR management do in RE to an unliveable wage is ‘it’s the sacralise you make to be on the radio in such an incredible spot, the beaches, the people, the largest provincial market’…… and if true that’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard.
- that might work at a place like HIT, and we are all smart enough to know why
- these days, it’s not about how much you love your job… you’re not buying a house or even your weekly groceries with ‘hi love, I’ll swipe my ‘love my job’ card and hope that payment works’.
Offering low wages and poor work culture is like giving someone an aged cheeseburger that you know will give them food poisoning but you tell them it’s fresh and from a michelin star kitchen.
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I can only receive New fm with tropo here so have not heard them recently. Has the station slipped so much that it sounds like community radio?
I guess if they can’t retain staff, just put it on autopilot with advertising , and take it out of the ratings.
It is so sad to see what has become of a once great radio station that was constantly number #1 in the early to mid 90’s.
They just need to sell the station before the ratings become abysmal.
I am sure Nova Ent or ARN could make it competitive again with the right talent and resources.
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That’s exactly it. People will work for a lower (but still sufficient) wage if the culture is great, and people will stick it out (for a while) with a poor culture if money is great, but if you’re not offering either then there is no appeal to anyone.
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The woman problem is massive. It was so evident listening today. Jackie O flying the flag for all of those “local as” novocastrian women.
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The woman shortage in a lot of radio is due to the girls just having better employment options:plenty of local businesses love to have a well presented youngish lady fronting their marketing or sales and are willing to pay a bit above the money to get them. Radio doesn’t have to match that because of the pipeline of wannabe’s who want a cool job. They soon discover it’s not so cool particularly at 5am in winter fronting for a breakfast shift.
For a lot of the blokes, unless they have a trade there is often nothing else in those towns for them hence them staying longer.
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I don’t think there is a ‘women shortage’ in radio. I hear plenty of female voices in the industry, and see a tremendous amount of female producers. You know where you don’t see women? In places they feel disrespected and underpaid.
And maybe I misinterpreted what you meant when you said a company will pay a little extra for a woman to front their marketing if they’re ‘well presented’, and correct me if I have, but that sounds kinda gross and straight outta mad men.
I’d also disagree that radio doesn’t have to match that, because most of the people I know on radio don’t just want a cool job… they’re passionate about the medium and they get joy out of making great audio. And if you’re a company employing people who get up at all hours of the morning to entertain, they put their heart and soul into what they do, they miss out on their own lives, oh and their creativity / stories / and image PLUS all of the above is what contributes to your station making money then it’s pretty clear people in radio don’t want money for doing a cool job… they want to see a wage that reflects what a company is taking from them… that reflects their skills and what they add and contribute. That’s really not too much to ask.
And for the ‘blokes’ (this is why I think whoever wrote this has a view that is probably similar to a place like NEWFM)… unless you have a trade you’re useless in a town, let’s say, like Newcastle so you’ll stay at a station longer? In 2023 I couldn’t disagree more…
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Those places you refer to are pretty much right across radio and TV from small country towns to capital cities. In metro TV the standard career path for many female (and some male) journalists is out of broadcasting at 30yo and into PR or as a media advisor to a pollie. There is better $$$ on offer and better hours.
With regard to blokes, there are very good reasons why there are now very few technicians working in radio and TV: They do what is basically telecommunications trades work and there is better money on offer in telecommunications than radio where the pay is peanuts and radio also demands 24X7X365 on call. In a town like Newcastle defence contracting pays far better than radio but in other smaller towns no such big employers exist.
The job losses when the NBN studio at Mosbri Ct closed down have left quite a few people high and dry for a job and outside of commuting range to Sydney. Regional media work is actually a very risky job.
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While I see the point you’re making, I still think that in 2023 the ideas of how some do run their network is so old and outdated. I also don’t place all of my views in re to how radio works on people who are on air or who work as techs. Radio would die if we just kept looking at radio as such.
I mean, look at the amount of creative roles that people get paid a liveable wage that things such as LISTNR have created. And then we see old dogs like the super radio network who very much sound like the broken record above.
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You are very correct about radio needing to change - some stations are eventually going to not make enough $$$ to cover costs if not already. The jury is out on LISTNR though: SCA’s share price hasn’t seen any of that windfall go to their shareholders. I don’t know of any old school broadcasters who have been successfully converted to an online business yet.
Lets hope SCA is the first.
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Well said.
Unfortunately, NEW won’t see any change until it changes hands. Period.
The ABC’s of any succesful, forward thinking radio station are non existent. It’s become uncomfortable to listen to, with the INCESSANT and extremely repetitive “attacks” on the opposition, it’s starting to remind me of that angry, negative friend we’ve all had to cut loose.
The plain reality is, SCA have a far better offering.
Some free advice, to those in charge. Spend the money on keeping and finding decent talent to take the brand into the future. Stop hiring more and more people to fill the carpark. Quality not quantity.
We all remember the energy around town when it launched. The positivity and energy beamed out of the speakers.
There was such good will in the community, something thats been squandered and taken for granted over the years. Do the hard but neccesary work guys.
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I would like to apologise to anyone who caught my ugly mug on Triple M’s Facebook stories. 
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Just saw the latest genius idea the NEWFM marketing department have got this survey, a VIP experience for KISS.
1 - they don’t even play KISS
2 - they didn’t even think to play a KISS song when they did the announcement
I’m glad they’ve got ‘something’ but unless you’re over the age of 40, it probably doesn’t appeal. I guess this is their demo now?
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Our guess on the NEWFM demo is probably better than MGMT. I don’t think they really know what or who they’re out to target. Or how to target.
My guess on WHY and their APPROACH…
Managements ticking the boxes of SELF INTEREST. It seems that if upper management have an interest in attending these things, they’ll run it.
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Way to win the ladies folks.
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The 40+ ladies maybe.
Which doesn’t really align with the music they play otherwise.
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Well…Gene’s tounge can do a lot…
No wonder MMM and Hit trounce New FM in the ratings. I suspect this is how New and 2HD are being run:
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Heard yet another attack promo this morning about the “bozos in the afternoon who go blah blah blah”.
I didn’t think they could sink any lower, but sinking so low as to literally insult other stations/programs when you’re CLEARLY underperforming yourself is actually laughable.
We get it, you’re “local as”. But the other two have literally double the listeners.
Stop attacking and actually work on yourself. Work on building your team with strong talent.
Work on tactics that meet your demographic.
Work on making your brand stand out on air and online (a plethora of news articles on Facebook isn’t it, FYI).
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