Reminds me of a Vega tagline
“40 Years Of Music doesn’t leave much time for talk”.
Very true in this case. No talk at all, not even an announcer.
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Better Music is too close to WS/GOLD etc.
A more effective positioner would be “<City’s> Widest Variety of Music” or “The Best Songs of All Time”
Better music doesn’t give me an idea of exactly what genres or decades of music I could expect if I was to tune in. “All Time” or “Widest Variety” does a better job of that in my view.
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Hits and memories?
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I listened to 2UE at work today. It reminded me of WSFM but with variety. Triple M but with music. Similar to 2CH but upbeat. It did sound like smooth though, it had no live announcers.
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I am not sure if smooth would the ring of fire by Johnny Cash. Maybe 2ch. The love god on triple M?
Regardless of the stations being announcer-free (I think it was already mentioned earlier), I’d like to see them become a bit more interactive and creative with their playlist.
Some ideas:
- Nightly countdown
- Featured years/genres maybe 9-10am or 12-1pm
- Online music panel with prizes up for grabs
Surely this and more is already in the works.
I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, but I am actually looking forward when the day comes that an announcer is heard again on 954AM. Even if it is just 6am-12pm and 12pm-6pm daily shifts.
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2UE’s bitrate on DAB has been reduced from 96 to 80 kbps. Not sure why… still sounds pretty decent though.
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Mo’ cost cutting? Those bits don’t pay for themselves you know.
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If Oceania Capital Partners which owns 2ch has the money to employ on air talent I would think a bigger meda company like 9 entertainment has the money to do it two
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Difference is, Nine will minimise their debt a lot quicker than 2CH. However, they’ll have an ordinary sounding product at the end of it all whereas 2CH has attempted to remain consistent, but won’t reduce their debt anytime soon.
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A few posters have speculated Nine will sell off the music stations. That might happen but I’m not so sure. If their intention was to sell them quickly why bother with Magic Perth on DAB only? I think they’re in for the longer haul.
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2CH have announcers doing 7 hour shifts. If that isn’t cutting a station to the bone then I don’t know what is
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Yes, that is correct. But to the average listener, they probably don’t notice it as much as a sports station becoming a jock-free lifeless music station.
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Yes, I doubt it will happen too, that would only give rival media organisations like News Corp an opportunity to buy it and create a rival to 2GB.
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It went up to 96kbps? Bitrate wise, I thought that stream has been 80kbps since the final days of 2UE’s previous incarnation as a talk station (probably when NTS was launched).
You’d think literally any owner of 2UE which didn’t also have 2GB under their wings would want to relaunch 954AM Sydney as a talk station.
If Nine are in it for the long haul with their music station, I suspect that we’ll eventually see them add announcers (even if voicetracked outside of breakfast and maybe drive) and of course, a level of advertising on-par with the other commercial music stations.
Either way, I’m at least expecting the new music format to rate better than Macquarie Sports Radio ever did in Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane. It won’t get massive ratings by any stretch, but it can at least be considered “successful” if the ratings are above 3% (and in the case of Sydney, outrating 2CH) by Survey #4.
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Yes, i doubt given how much effort Macquarie went to buy 2ue and sell 2ch just to stop having a 2nd commercial talk station in Sydney.
Although starting a commercial talk would not be easy in this climate.
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A few of the international news stories about the Women’s T20 World Cup state it will be broadcast on SEN Radio and Macquarie Sports Radio in Australia. Eg. in this story:
I wonder if this is one of the contracts Nine has to honour, which means it will be on 2UE, Magic and 4BH?
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Nine need to get rid of the “daggy” old songs such as Georgy Girl by The Seekers or any song by The Seekers for that matter. Also Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain and anything by Carol King! Doesn’t fit with some of the other music.
mmmm…the most expensive format to launch. 2UE was losing around $4 million a year before the merger. I doubt there are too many smart operators who would want to take the risk. I emphasise “smart”…there are probably a few not so smart ones who would try!
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They could try to “lure” Alan or Ray and then launch a new station. At the moment 2CH / 2SM are not in a position to do this given the (perceived ) financial situation of those stations. (ie create a competing talk network in Sydney with Ray/Alan).
If Channel 7/Foxtel was to buy 2ue they may want to lose some money and give it a go ie throw some money at Ray or maybe Alan (depending on the contract situation). Given the bitter rivalry esp between 9 and 7.
If BOG was to buy at a bargain price the 3 stations, they could use the Fun playlist (with less repeats) on 2ue (rather than having a new talkback station). The 2sm supernetwork can then go into Melbourne and Brisbane. Bonus. Or even better make it the 2ue super network and let 2sm go for a music format. So maybe people might accidentally tune into John instead of Ray 
.