I once rang up Star 104.5 to request “Is This How You Feel?” by The Preatures, which had just been released at the time.
The DJ answered during an ad break, and I remember explaining why the song would be a good fit for the station. She must have been impressed by my spiel, as she put me on hold while she talked to management! Ultimately though, she said that because the track wasn’t “loaded into the automation system”, it couldn’t be put to air. I was quite puzzled by that response.
Needless to say, I’ve come a long way from the naive days of my youth, and I now realise that commercial radio programming is a scientific, research-driven enterprise…
I was listening to 4BH again this morning while out cycling. In my opinion they actually do the voice tracking a lot better than Smooth. It actually sounds a lot more ‘live’ especially with Livinia Nixon. I wouldn’t be surprised if most listeners don’t realise it’s voice tracked actually. Whereas on Smooth I think it’s a lot more obvious.
Considering one of the ‘listener feedback’ promos has someone praising them for not having anyone “talking rubbish” I don’t think they’d plan to add announcers soon.
On Monday, February 1, Nine Radio will start the countdown for the 500 greatest songs of all time on Magic 1278, 4BH 882, 2UE 954 and 6GT DAB+.
Hosted by Stevie Jacobs, this week-long celebration will be a feast of non-stop appointment listening for music lovers right across the country.
With listeners invited to vote for their favourite tracks, the music marathon will undoubtedly ignite fierce debate as to which classic tracks should make the final cut.
The countdown will feature a roll call of the world’s greatest artists including The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, John Farnham, ABBA, The Beach Boys, Queen, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, and divas such as Aretha Franklin.
Breakfast host Stevie Jacobs said: “What makes a great song? Is it the melody, chart position or the record sales? Or is it the energy, lyrics and passion? Nothing spurs a more heated discussion than the question of what are the best ever songs. We can’t wait to unveil this year’s countdown of the 500 greatest songs of all time, with our listeners ultimately determining the playlist.”
Rolling Stone magazine published its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time in 2004, with Bob Dylan taking out the top spot with his timeless rock classic, Like A Rolling Stone.
In 2003, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age published their list of the 100 best songs of all time and determined that (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding was worthy of the No. 1 position.
Nine’s music stations are available in digital quality via online, apps, smart speakers and DAB+ as well as on 2UE 954AM in Sydney, Magic 1278AM in Melbourne, 4BH 882AM in Brisbane and 6GT DAB+ in Perth.
Johnny O’Keefe - Shout (four other songs by O’Keefe were played)
Ray Brown & the Whispers - Pride (instead we heard ‘Fool, Fool, Fool’ and ‘Twenty Miles’)
The Allusions - The Dancer
Easybeats - I’ll Make You Happy
Liv Maessen - Knock Knock Who’s There
Ted Mulry - Julia
Richard Clapton - Deep Water
Models - Hold On
Koo De Tah - Too Young For Promises
Matt Moffitt - Miss This Tonight
So if you count substitutions (eg. different songs by the same artist), half of my wishlist was covered by 2UE today.
For some reason, they also played a lot of Leo Sayer. I know he’s an Australian citizen and resident now, but he wasn’t when those songs were released…
So some interesting things I’ve noted out of this Greatest 500 countdown on 4BH
They’ve had Stevie Jacobs voice tracked past 12pm for this countdown, so that’ll make it sound a little more live throughout the afternoon.
They aren’t doing hourly news bulletins during this countdown, the last one I heard was 9am. That actually annoys me a bit, these were incredibly reliable, they were always there exactly on the hour and I found that valuable. This makes me think it’s just one big automation thing they’ve pressed play on and just let it roll and that timing the news around it was just too hard.
They mention that people voted for this. How? I don’t listen heaps during breakfast, but during the afternoons for months they’ve mentioned the countdown is coming but never a way to vote for it and the station doesn’t mention a phone number or email etc. So that’s a little confusing, but yea.
All I can think is maybe they do their own private surveys and that’s where it came from?
Alternatively, it’s based on their core audience … ie those who work at Nine Radio and listen all day?
Or maybe it’s just those who have actually emailed via their contact page and/or actually called 131 283? … I wonder what happens if you dial that number?
Doesn’t necessarily mean a poll or survey has been conducted to get a 1000-1. Could be feedback, suggestions, requests, something they dusted off in a filing cabinet…
