I agree in terms of the general population that is how it might be perceived, but in terms of the demographic that it is targeting it is probably the Macquarie incarnation of Magic that existed just before Talking Lifestyle that is most relevant. I still question however whether there is enough awareness and promotion that Magic has replaced MSR.
When you look at how Nine is running the station, it is closer to the Macquarie version of Magic rather than the Fairfax version of Magic (ie announcers, local content etc). This I think creates the ceiling of what they can achieve - which means a rating of 2.5 to 3.0 is probably tops.
Looking at the ratings since 2011, you can definitely see the (negative) impacts of the decisions made:
The Fairfax era was basically one of gradual decline. Breakfast never set the world on fire, because the listener base would pick either 774 or 3AW if they wanted news.
Early 2015 is interesting, in that clearly Jane Holmes had some personal following that retained audience (as demonstrated by the green section where brekky outrated the station average) despite the carnage caused by Macquarie sacking the rest of staff (apart from Jane Holmes) and networking with 4BH. I suspect this is the version of Magic 1278 that the target audience would remember and therefore it provides an indicator of what is possible with the current networked iPod shuffle format.
TLS and MSR are clear unmitigated disasters. It makes perfect sense that Tony Shaw, Jimmy Bartel and Matt Thompson were axed. Why would anyone pay for three anouncers who achieve a rating of 0.0. The current iPod shuffle version of Magic1278 is at least cheaper to run and achieves higher ratings than MSR.
Was listing to 4BH this morning. As usual a good music mix, but the 10AM news consisted of 2 minutes of dead air, then crashed into a song that was half-way through. Then the next song was halfway through and they crashed in with a traffic report.
What a shit station. Honestly why do they even bother if they put out crap like that?
Yeah it has soooo much potential, but unfortunately they are not interested in making it a great station by spending a little money. Given these days there is dab and online and you hear the station in stereo. Being on FM isn’t the complete advantage it use to be (especially if they use all bits like 2ch use to do).
Exactly. They are squandering the opportunity that comes with DAB to level the playing field with FM. Just think how much an organisation like Nine could do to promote these stations and promote DAB, and how easy it would be for them. I don’t get it. Sure promote the app and the streaming, but why not also promote the crap out of DAB as well and let the cards fall where they may.
Magic Melbourne just forgot about the 7 O clock news, played hot summer night instead! Towards the end of the song the news and weather was faint in the background with the song going over it.
4BH (and I assume 2UE and Magic) have just given up on trying to time the songs that lead into the news. They just break into a song wherever to run the news on the hour.
I know. The number of times you hear a song begin then fade out 20 seconds into it for the news is not good. This is metro commercial radio, not radio in the sticks. Hard to take them seriously when they let things like this happen. Automation thirty years ago did a better job.
It makes you wonder if anyone associated with programming the stations ever even listens.
This reflects aspects of todays corporate culture. Purely from an accounting viewpoint, rather than pride in the history of a station like 2UE, or even just the privilege of having a commercial station in Sydney. Sure have a music station rather than a talk station. At least give it some life.
Well that must have been a new record. About three seconds of “Gee Baby”, just long enough to recognise the song, before Magic 1278 crashed into the news theme. 3pm EST.
you’d think, given that the station is automated and pre-programmed, that they could at least time it to have a song end as the TOH approaches for the news. Even a many many years ago when I did work experience at a music station, the announcers used to do those calculations manually to make sure the song ended just as the time pips kicked in and the news started on the hour. One announcer, whose name escapes me now, managed to have a calculator that did mm:ss calculations.
Zetta, which they use for playout, can even do it automatically. It adjusts playback speeds ever so slightly and transition times to get it perfect.
Presumably no one at Nines knows or can be bothered to set it up.
