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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Their approach to digging the ‘bozos’ across town in their promotional run for NEWFM really does give off ‘Napoleon Dynamite challenging Mike Tyson to a fight and then also saying he’s already wiped the floor with him’. Embarrassing and baseless. The stats are there, we know who is and isn’t listening to who. What’s that thing they say, point a finger and that’s two back at yourself? Laughable, and completely bunkers whilst at the same time not shocking for NEWFM.
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The solution is cheap & simple!!
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Keep the network feed separate (which they are doing anyway) so nothing needs to change here.
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Switch NewFM’s local logs to take the same playlist as sister station B-Rock.
Focus solely on pure rock (Newcastle’s Best Rock) and forget all about bragging about talent.
Let the rock/music do the talking.
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Yes they need to either go rock or hot ac. Just pick a lane and focus on the music.
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NewFM need to stop being “the wedge” between Hit and Triple M.
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The problem with focusing on pure rock, is they need to have the talent who can bring that format to life.
At the moment the jocks they have don’t connect with the music, it is imperative that they can do the music justice, rather than a forward/back announce.
It will never be as simple as a format change for these guys, they basically need to start from scratch with an actual budget to even have a chance at competing.
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Yes I tend to agree. That’s what Rebel FM does well - their announcers really connect with the rock.
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