Now this presents a problem - which preset do I ditch in the car to put 4BH back on…
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If they were REALLY that successful they would have been challenging the lower percentages of the FM stations of the time rather than getting their niche audience and not a lot else. Whilst the move had to be made away from a format that was never going to work the way it was structured, filling the gap with the same music you can hear if you drive 30 minutes out of town on a regional MMM station (minus the hourly Pink and Maroon 5 pieces of crap) ain’t going to cut it. Personally would have been a better move to cut the losses and just shut the whole thing down, hand back the licence if necessary.
Nine will run the stations on a VERY tight budget. With 2CH bleeding money over the past few years (unfortunately the Oceania ASX reports are no longer available after the company de-listed from the ASX) Nine will be very careful not to follow in the same footsteps.
The music format is just a means to lose a lot less money than with the sports format.
It will probably be announcer free for a while or they’ll get Nine personalities to do voice tracks.
4BH was beating some of the FMs in a few surveys. They even reached No. 3 station overall rating 10.5% I’d call that successful wouldn’t you?
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I could see 9Radio moving Hadley’s Country Music Countdown onto this network from 2GB/4BC.
https://www.2gb.com/ray-hadley-hints-at-return-to-2ue-after-station-relaunched/
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Well it looks like 2CH will be the One that will Fall under the Sports Brand SEN because the Music They Still Play does’nt Attract Advertisers the Way it used to.
Initially no presenters as confirmed by Robert Moran writing for the SMH,
The move will see the station – including its national counterparts, Melbourne’s Magic 1278AM and Brisbane’s 4BH 882AM – launching without presenters and focusing on hits from the 1970s, '80s and '90s.
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It’s good that Hadley can now say 2UE without vomiting.
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Whilst we are at it, bring back 3XY!
Though I think the Greeks are still using that callsign on 1422?
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You would have to think eventually they’ll move David Campbell and Richard Wilkins off Smooth and bring them across to Magic Network.
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Why would they move from a successful station to a station with a tiny audience?
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Because Nine are slowly but surely moving all their people back in-house. Wait a couple of years and see what their ratings are and whether it’s sustainable to bring personalities into the mix.
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I doubt 2UE on the AM band will have anything close to the ratings Smooth do on FM. They won’t have the budget to be able to poach stars from Smooth.
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They could do better than you might think if they harness and promote DAB rather than ignore it like most others.
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Would be nice if they put Simon and Phil on Magic Melbourne late nights.
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Don’t both Richard Wilkins and David Campbell mainly do voicetracked weekend shifts? Smooth FM would probably survive if both Dickie & DC were to eventually leave for (or be pushed over to) a Nine-owned music network.
I agree with @portmacman’s prediction that sometime over the next few years, we’ll likely see/hear talent on-board “Team Nine” across all platforms: TV, radio and online.
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The view of former 2GB and 2UE late night open line host Ian Parry-Okeden.
And reminiscing about his story on the cover of (the much missed by me) PBL’s Sydney City Monthly.
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As good as it’d be to see big names come to the new network, let’s remember this is their rock bottom strategy. The last thing they’re looking at doing is investing a tonne of money to something that hasn’t been rating for years.
In saying that, let’s bring back Pete Graham’s Saturday Night Live!!
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Great, can’t wait to listen to a scratchy old signal with distortion & interference while listening to my favourite songs!
Hillarious - the announcement equates to radio’s equivalent of a Test Pattern
As I said earlier, this is just a smart business decision to stop the extreme financial losses at MSR.
AM music stations in metro markets do not make money. As good as 4KQ’s ratings are, unfortunately when nearly 70% of your audience is aged 55+ its just not a great sales pitch. The big advertising dollars are 25-54.
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