For those wondering - the full lists are updated now on their websites.
4BH #1 was Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody.
Magic 1278 #1 was Eagles - Hotel California.
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I still wonder why 2ue did not take part of the Easter 500 Countdown for
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Well, this is true, just shows the diverse tapestry of Australia that one city is culturally different than another in music tastes, personally being from Western Sydney and now Living in Brisbane again since January. I like the song
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In its last survey 4KQ, had a share of 10.2% and a cume of 304,000.
4BH finished 2024 with an 11.6% share and a cume of 263,000. So not bad.
Fast forward to 2025 and now 4BH has slipped to an 8.1% share and a cume of 220,000. Notably, they’ve shed a sixth of their streaming listeners.
What’s causing this slide? Are listeners getting a little tired of the format (which is a lot tighter and more repetitive than 4KQ) or are there other reasons? On AM have some listeners ditched the music for more talk in the lead-up to the election? Or have some music listeners just made the switch to MMM, Smooth or River?
I’m wondering whether last year’s ratings success was just an aberration and is BH now just settling into its ‘new normal’? Or is the slide set to continue?
Maybe rather than worrying about what order the same old tired songs should be played in, it’s time for a playlist re-fresh.
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I can’t say this for certain, but had they known how 4BC & 4BH was going to play out, even with 4BH on a slide, would they have done the frequency/transmission site switch, given I believe 882 & the Wynnum West site to have better coverage across Brisbane than 1116 from Nudgee?
The 693, 1278 swap in Melbourne with 3AW & Magic, & the sites being on opposite sides of Melbourne was probably really a no brainier, to have 3AW on the better site/frequency, given that city definitely prefers talkback radio over music (yes I know there’s lots of music that rates well on FM, but 3AW on AM still out-rates all of them most of the time, with the same in Sydney), but did they think Brisbane was going to be replicated when Brisbane clearly & pretty much always has preferred music radio over talkback.
In Sydney there’s technically no need or point in doing a frequency/TX site swap between 873 2GB & 954 2UE, given the frequencies aren’t that far apart & neither is the transmission sites, being only a few hundred meters apart.
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Good points. When the switch happened, 4BC was on 7.2% and 4BH a measly 2.5% (4KQ was on 10.2%). Nine’s focus was clearly on giving 4BC the better signal and they were probably happy enough with 4BH scratching around getting twos and threes (4KQ didn’t become SEN until eight months later).
So you’re right, had they’ve known about the prospects of 4BH becoming Brisbane’s solitary commercial music station, they might have kept things the way they were.
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I don’t think 4BC’s demise was due to the switch. It was due to the failed gamble of resurrecting LG&M following 4KQ and the miserable attempt to introduce only SOME classic hits into its News Talk format.
When K&J were up for grabs, I didn’t see 2UE or 2SM go for them. Only a music station like Mix106.5 had a go. LG&M should’ve been left for maybe Triple M. Not for 4BC.
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I think the problems for 4BC set in long before LG&M. The Sydney networking really started the decline. I get what they tried to do, but yes in retrospect they would have been better off moving to 4BH or River 949. I couldn’t understand why ARN didn’t keep them on and move them to River. Seemed to be a no brainer to me.
I’m not sure though whether a full time talkback format will work in Brisbane and Perth in years to come. I think they should probably have a more full-service format on 4BC. News, talk, sport and music. Still some AM stations in North America offering full-service formats.
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Yes I agree the playlist needs a refresh. I used to be a big 4BH listener post 4KQ but it just sounds daggy and stale now.
It wouldn’t hurt to introduce more 80s and 90s into the mix. Or go back to their easy listening roots seeing as we don’t have a Smooth FM* here
- DAB doesn’t count.
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I wasn’t suggesting the 4BC demise was because of the switch, it was purely programming.
The switch was because Nine Radio thought 4BC was going to be the better higher rating station & wanted the best signal/coverage on air for it, to gain more listeners with less listener reception complaints, but in my eyes that was a false basement of thinking Brisbane would & was following Sydney & Melbourne with talkback success, when reality was that it wasn’t/wouldn’t, so the switch was pointless & somewhat backwards to what’s there now.
Had 4KQ not collapsed & 4BC been programmed with local shows of interest to Brisbane instead of piping Sydney into it, the switch & 4BC being the better station warranting it to have the better signal/coverage over 4BH may have been plausible.
If Nine radio can’t come up with some better local interest programming for 4BC, personally I’d be swapping the stations back to where they were, frequency & TX site wise.
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Their playlist can be repetitive sometimes,it needs a refresh.They do tend to flog the same songs
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Or Nine could close 4BC altogether and lease the 882 frequency to Ace who could launch an easy-listening format, similar to the old 4BH or current 3MP.
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I doubt it would happen but also Brisbane doesn’t really have a Smooth FM type station since 973fm changed to Kiss. If they were able convert to FM with a similar format that could work well. But not going to happen until they realise that the demographics in Brisbane is different to Sydney and Melbourne and talk radio just doesn’t rate and never has.4BC will never be number one in Brisbane with a talk format no matter how local it is. If they completely rebranded as a music station that is the only chance they have.
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I remember a long while ago I was at work and I was inadvertently humming ‘Take that - Back for good’ and a friend (who is like eleven years younger than me) was like 'were you listening to 4BH this morning? And I coughed and was like ‘Maybe, err, I was just dropping the kids off at school’. And she was like ‘Just after 8AM, Take That! Back for Good! Yeah I never even knew that station played such great music!’
Now that was (I’m guessing) back at that stage when 4BH was 4BH before it went Magic. Because I remember her mentioning to me ‘Did you hear that shit-hot thing they did for Richard Marx yesterday?’ And there was a brief time there in 2017 (maybe?) when their playlist was amazing. And I said ‘Yeah, I was picking the kids up from school’…
I remember when I was working as an 18 yo student at Myer Chermside on a Thursday night and I had a little transistor radio (call me a freak) and on my break I went outside and was flicking through the stations and heard:
Second chance - 38 Special on 4BH. I remember it actually gave me goosebumps (the chick I was with couldn’t care less - but she worked at Fosseys so we were on different wavelengths!).
I guess my point is: 4BH add Take That and 38 Special to your playlist. Oh, and the latest CYRIL and James Blunt track wouldn’t go astray as well.
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I remember that era of 4BH well, when they were a true soft AC station. “Second Chance” and “Back For Good” were among the newer music they played, along with the older softer hits. Sounded great. Yes it was before the Magic era and IIRC it started earlier, like the early 2000s.
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The same can be said about 6PR Perth.
Nine Radio could sell this to NOVA ENT for smooth to broadcast on 882AM Perth (and why not even Brisbane).
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Problem is Nova wouldn’t be able to own 882 in Brisbane as they already own 106.9 and half of 97.3. Nine could still do a deal with Nova and broadcast Smooth on 882 in Brisbane. I believe they were considering doing just that with 6PR last year.
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Well done ACE with what they’ve got to play with. That’s quite an old photo of Jamie Row, but still very professionally put together.
I’m surprised they didn’t use their “Melbourne’s Making the Switch” logo in this. And interesting that they’re pushing the 70’s.
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So this afternoon I heard the tail end of ‘Empire State of Mind’ by Alicia Keys on 4BH during their 5 O’Clock Top 10 Count Down (was a Mother’s Day theme today). Not sure if it was the version with JAY-Z rapping (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk6014HuxcE) or the version Alicia Keys did without JAY-Z (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W44NZvHc9I) - wish I could check on Lava, but for some reason 4BH haven’t reported a song to Lava for the last month and a half (if anyone’s reading this, if you could fix that’d that be cool).
But yea, that’s got to be the newest song I’ve think I’ve heard on 4BH. If they did play the version with JAY-Z rapping, that’d stick out a bit for those listening. 
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