Almost consistently across the network, Nova mornings are the worst rating daytime timeslot, by some margin in some markets. Something needs to change if they want better performance.
It is all well and good to pine for the golden days of radio where there were announcers pretty well in every slot and there was a “buzz” - but the reality is the market has moved on and the stations need to meet the desires of the market if they want to be successful. It might turn out that this doesn’t work, but what they’re currently doing isn’t shooting the lights out either.
That and lack of imagination. They have the #1 FM breakfast show in the market now. There’s no excuse to not use that now, with competitions to listen all day to win the next morning. Highlighting breakfast moments and continuing the momentum between two high rating breakfast and drive shows.
Fox shows how it’s done, it’s a fallacy to say dayside radio is a relic from the past. It’s where a lot of people still listen in cars, you need to offer a very good on brand playlist and devices to keep audiences informed and switched on all day.
I find it interesting that you always see jobs advertised for roles such as podcast managers, head of delivery manager, client integration managers, etc - everything in the backroom!
Yet these networks can’t scrape together a few dollars to employ a jock locally - to deliver the final product. In the big scheme of things, a workday jock wouldn’t cost anywhere near as much as someone on breakfast or drive.
Kind of like McDonalds opening up a new store, employing managers, marketing people etc, but not having anyone to cook the food, make the coffee’s or serve (although that job will be gone soon enough…lol)
McDonald’s are opening new stores, some of which have none, or just 1 computer for taking orders. They are encouraging customers to order themselves via the kiosk or app.
There’s no reduction in back of house staff, just front of house.
We are all way too close to it, but a workday jock on a metro station doesn’t need to connect on a hyper local level like once before.
Just like radio plays are no longer a thing, the world evolves and tastes change.
Has anyone actually confirmed who is on air during the 9am-2pm shift? With no announcement or industry chatter of the shift going national it could just be a bug on the website or a temporary schedule while staff are on leave. Even Mel has been on leave the last week, so unless she voice tracked a week in advance (which seems quite unlikely when they have Aaron Rich in her place on Tuesdays so she can film the Cheap Seats), she can’t have been on air anywhere. The guide also lists both Mel and Ross as being on air from 9-2 in Perth, which is clearly wrong.