How is it that NewFM still have not found a replacement co-host from when Meg left for Star104.5?
They’re running BOG’s 2nd most competitive station with just 3x male weekday announcers.
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Absolutely nobody, I repeat… NOBODY… should be surprised,
From my understanding anyone who propped management up and did their jobs for them have left the building. Sentiment in RE to what it is to work for NEWFM in any capacity is lower than the floor. They just do not entice anyone in, be it listeners or staff anymore.
We have seen people slowly fall away… good talent from the likes of Lizzie Stokes, Brandon Atkins, Brad Wood, Jackson Brunner, Matty Harrison, Meg Alexander disappear from the air waves of Newcastle and go onto different and bigger things & none have been replaced.
NEWTM management should be looking at their efforts and feeling ashamed. It’s an opportunity missed with NEWFM, and they have no one to blame but themselves:
Also, up your wage. Paying people the bare minimum to do a job for you when you don’t even offer acceptable work place culture…. Completely wrong.
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Very good point - regional radio always paid low but the costs in most of those towns were lower than capital cities so it worked. That is no longer the case and places like Newcastle are no longer cheap to live in and that’s assuming you can even find a place to live. Newcastle’s only saving grace from a radio managers point of view is its not commutable for staff to Sydney, so staff have very few alternatives in Newcastle if they want to stay in the media.
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Management would rather whinge that staff don’t want to put the extra effort in…
The reason they don’t put the effort in is because they’re all working second jobs to survive. Not to mention if anyone is off sick from the on air team, the PD won’t even call somebody in or cover the shift himself (and he’s meant to be the floater), the slack falls on the other announcers.
It was quite a regular occurrence to have the breakfast hosts filling in on mornings, which is just odd in my opinion.
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They actually had another girl in between Meg, Tyler - she was sounding really great but has gone back to SCA in promotions. Just goes to show how woeful that job is
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Found this old 1991 liftout from ‘The Star’ Newspaper relating to potential FM conversions in Newcastle in my cupboard yesterday.
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I wish I still had the letter from John McGahen (Jack) who was the GM of 2KO back then.
He wrote to me to say he won a bet with the GM of X13 and decided to go to 102.9 simply because he didn’t want a similar-sounding station right next to another one (106.9 and 107.7). So 102.9 was the best option for KO.
X13 became X107 and was on air a few months before 2KOFM was.
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Yes, I recall X13 converting in May 1992 and 2KO converting in October 1992.
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How/why did 2HD avoid the FM conversion?
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In the letter I got from John McGahen, he said that he and X13’s GM were relieved when 2HD decided not to apply for conversion.
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Yes, 2HD opted to stay on AM.
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Very strange looking back. I wonder what their reasoning was?
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AM talkback, a strong ratings and revenue station, FM in its infancy still really
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Yeah more money in radio back then too… the current FM regional conversions seem to be more about reducing costs than anything else since AM transmitters are more expensive to keep on air.
2HD might be rueing that decision to stay on AM now though.
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give them 100.5 and swap 1143 to RPH
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I’m surprised to hear that from an SCA person like you! I would have thought SCA would want to make 2HD continue to suffer, not give them an opportunity!
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Ha! I don’t listen to HD so it doesn’t bother me!
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No guarantee they’d take that opportunity (to try and shake things up if they went to FM at least) if the stories about New FM are anything to go by, in any case…
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I’d use this opportunity of having an all-male workday line-up on NewFM as a time to shake up the format.
I know it has been said & done before, but here’s what I’d do if I “had the keys” to 105.3FM.
Format: NEW1053 - Newcastle’s Best Rock
Logs: Save money & share logs from sister station B-Rock
Weekday line-up: Joel Gosper 6-10am, Steven Jones, 10am-3pm, Krivo 3-6pm, Scott Frappell 6-9pm.
Keep the BOG-FM network running on its usual ‘80s to Now’ format, continuing to be separate from NewFM’s.
Very little effort required. Just maybe a revamped logo, website & on-air imaging. But no new investments in staff or staff workload required.
Simple.
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Yes, even if they went to FM, I think they’d keep the fornat they have now… It would be about reducing his costs as he has done with 2RE and 2GF.
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