Is it possible for an AM station to move to the FM dial, if they want to? Or are existing FM stations protected by government regulations that they can never do so?
Yes there is rules around AM to FM conversions. Currently only possible in markets where there is only one commercial radio operator.
Discussed in this thread: Am To Fm Conversions In Solo Markets
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Vega’s ratings would be a raging success for these stations.
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That’s a great idea but add 2UE60s so you can grab the older boomers.
Your Decade. Your Music.
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It reminds me of when the Today network stations all had blue globes behind them with their names in red, and 92.9 in Perth had that hideous red and black box thing. Awful!
It would certainly make a change if a network owner wanted to honour a heritage logo. 
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They’re clearly having a little crack at ARN’s Gold/WSFM who use “Better Music and More of It”.
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Nobody has picked up that the station will launch on Groundhog Day (February 2). Prophetic?
Is that like Platypus Day? 
Yes, both the TV and radio rights expire at the end of 2024/25 season.
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It’s crazy how things have come full circle over the last few years with local announcers being dumped from Magic 1278 & 4BH in favour of a networked Magic format, 2UE becoming Talking Lifestyle which then replaced Magic, TL a year later being replaced by the unsuccessful Macquarie Sports Radio and now the return of 2UE, Magic and 4BH.
Think the use of ‘soft launch’ in the press release suggest 2UE, Magic and 4BH might launch the music format without having announcers initially before introducing them (probably a combination of live announcers for breakfast & drive with voicetracked announcers at other times) in the months to come.
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While I still can’t help but wonder if the plan is to sell these stations in the medium-long term, the decision to move away from the absolute disaster that was Macquarie Sports Radio is a good one by Nine.
So much for the theory banded around on this forum (which I don’t think was ever truly backed up with anything) that there was some form of agreement that prevented 954AM switching to an all music format because of 2CH.
Mind you, I’m sure 1170 are genuinely scared about how the Sydney market will soon have two AM music stations for the first time this millennium because lets face facts here - 2CH has considerably more to lose from Nine relaunching the 2UE brand as a music station than either Smooth or WSFM do.
Agreed. Hopefully Nine will be smart enough to schedule commercials on television for these relaunched radio stations during strategic timeslots, such as 6pm news ad breaks.
Not sure about the other markets, but the last I checked Macquarie Sports Radio was at 80kbps on Sydney DAB+. One would imagine that the bitrates will remain unchanged for the relaunched 2UE, 4BH, Magic 1278 and Magic Digital Perth.
Speaking of NTS, I wonder how (or even if) Nine sees that DAB+ only station as part of their long term strategy?
IMO, very little/nothing of substance would be missed if NTS went off air tomorrow.
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Surely the “live and local news, sport and weather” will be enough of a point of difference to lure listeners from 2CH and 4KQ 
Still needs a fair bit of work.
In hindsight I would’ve opted for Grubby & Dee Dee on 1278 breakfast, Tim Webster or George Moore on 954 breakfast and Brisbane… well go nuts with the amount of AM radio talent available on the sideline.
Maybe they’re waiting for certain contracts to expire before a strong launch?
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Would the new Music Station target the 50+ Audience?
In the marketing world soft launch means it won’t be accompanied by advertising at launch. Generally that allows for things to settle in and tweaks be made before they direct the masses at it - but the product should still be complete. The press release technically goes against that, however it’s unlikely to hit the news any more than a newspaper article or two at this stage (of course excluding industry publications).
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Just need to bring back 1377.
And 1377 as 3MP has more music history then 1278. Remembering that 1278 was used by 3AW up until 2006.
But it won’t happen. Crocmedia have firmly taken over PSN’s radio assets in Melbourne and sport is their niche.
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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