PJ has done a fantastic job at NOVA Entertainment so it will be a big loss for Australian radio.
He did a great job with Smooth FM, Coles radio, the streaming stations and has improved Nova’s ratings as they were in decline around 2008- 2010 in Sydney and Melbourne. The music on Nova has changed dramatically as they have gone for a different audience than when the original Nova launched. I listen to Smooth FM more than Nova these days but Nova 10s, Noughties and Throwbacks are good to listen at work or on the Radio app.
A new abomination on Nova this morning. They have done a Nova Remix of First Class by Jack Harlow. They replace First Class in the chorus with Nova. So you don’t even hear the title of the song in the song. What’s worse, they sing it as Nover rather than Nova. A classic error when Australians try to do an American accent and do it badly, where they will pronounce an r at the end of words when there is no r .actually there. And N-O-V-A-N-O-V-A replaces G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S
And that song is on the way down so now they suddenly play it on high rotation. Crazy. Seriously, they have lost the plot.
I don’t just listen to radio for the music but it’s an important part of it. I don’t see the point of listening to London radio when I live in Sydney. I want to hear about what’s happening in this city and Australia. The chat, news, entertainment, traffic, weather is the stuff which makes me want to listen to radio and not just stream music.
Basically, I think Nova has the best shows and presenters but the playlist is the big problem. The news breaks are also not as good as they used to be or as good as the competition. They rush through a lot of important news and put in fluff about Kardashians or entertainment scandals in their bulletins which does them no favours.
Has he really???
I personally don’t think so. Nova was so cutting edge and the cool station before his reign. He tried to copy Capital fm, and then Heart with little success. Programming was so all over the place. For two surveys they were after a younger audience and then flip older for the next couple of surveys, and then go younger for the final surveys. There was just no consistency. Meanwhile Kiis continued to erode the younger audience away from Nova in Sydney.
Dual programming came in under PJ’s rule and the loss of talented local dj’s. and Greg Burns was going to be the next messiah!!!
Competition’s and promotions KIIS continue to smash Nova in Sydney. The music is better programmed, and on Friday’s and Saturday nights they play dance music, Nova’s old domain. KIIS sounds edgy, Nova just sounds very conservative and boring.
Nova does rate in Perth and Brisbane, and now in Adelaide where there is lesser competition, but in ultra competitive markets such as Sydney and Melbourne it gets shown up.
Hopefully the new network head can return it back to more of its original sound, at least in Sydney and Melbourne were it needs to sound different to stand out from the rest of the pack.
That is the only way it has a chance of competing with KIIS 106.5.
I do, I love BBC Radio 1, the music, the presenters, and they have a great news service too. Often Australian news stories make it into their bulletins.
Sure, the sound is different but it’s actually rating higher in Sydney and Melbourne now, than when he took over in 2011. Fitzy and Wippa for breakfast have helped Nova 96.9 stay strong in a very competitive market and Nova 100 is doing well too.
KIIS is dominant in Sydney but in Melbourne Nova consistently rates higher than KIIS 101.1.
Also, don’t forget how bad Vega and Classic Rock was before Smooth FM launched. Smooth FM was a game changer for Sydney and Melbourne.
Re Nova Sydney, yes the cumulative figures have increased, but the share has not budged 6-7. There was the occasional 8 share but this was at their peak when Marty was on KTM. Since he left Nova, W&W and KIIS have been more dominate in drive, and Nova 969 has been stuck in 6-7 share at best.
Re Nova 100 they have had at times the #1 fm breakfast show, but as soon as the breakfast show finishes the audience is gone. Music issues, and interstate dj’s being piped into Melbourne from Sydney.
Smooth was a format copied from the UK which found success in Sydney and Melbourne, but they messed with it’s winning format, and the ratings have suffered.
Re their digital offerings, Novanation was so good for it’s time, and they should have kept it on one of their dab+ channels. Cole Radio is just a money making machine.
Koffee was also a great station replaced with a station playing throwbacks currently heard on their fm offerings.
I read on RT they are currently not replacing PJ, instead their current programming team will now report to the CEO. Will this put them at a further disadvantage compared to ARN and SCA not having a CD director, or is the CEO taking on this role for now?
Have they really? Smooth 95.3 is rating a 10 which is a huge number considering how competitive the market is. If anything, they have gone up, not down. Smooth in Melbourne is also in the 8s and 9s, and they are at or near the top. They have moved Smooth younger but still have largely the same announcers as they did 10 years ago. The music will always change over time - that’s the nature of commercial radio and they have to respond to the changing market conditions as well as audience/demographics.
Novanation had about 50 listeners and Coles radio is a juggernaut - hugely successful. Ditto Smooth Relax and the other Smooth/Nova DAB+ offerings.
Nova 106.9 sounded the best in its first few years IMO, from 2005-2009, when it was rating in the 18s in Brisbane. Whippy did a great job as music director and announcer. When DAB+ launched in 2009 they removed a lot of the oldskool 90s dance and urban tracks, to move more mainstream and ratings started to go backwards, however they seem to be doing alright now - near or at the top- in a much more competitive landscape than back then.
When you stream Nova online, you always get a native ad played before you are connected. It’s very annoying if your connection drops out because you have to hear the native ad again before it reconnects.
Even worse, now they are playing native ads over the top of the regular ads. Even more annoying, this week when Nova goes off to a long ad break they are playing the same two ads over and over and over and over again during that ad break when you normally would hear eight different ads. They really want to piss off listeners, don’t they?
Urzila Carlson filling in for Chrissie Swan on Nova 100 breakfast today, Chrissie filmed the grand final of The Masked Singer in Sydney yesterday afternoon.
What’s worse, they sing it as Nover rather than Nova. A classic error when Australians try to do an American accent and do it badly, where they will pronounce an r at the end of words when there is no r .actually there. 
And N-O-V-A-N-O-V-A replaces G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S