I’ve noticed that as of this week, WS now offers 40 minutes of non-stop music, in which there’s no ad-break until about :40 past the hour. Perhaps this change was in response to the recent ratings result that was released a month ago, in which it has fallen behind every commercial FM station except 2Day.
The Music Network also reports that ARN is to self-syndicate My Generation, presented by WSFM’s Jonesy & Amanda. The show is heard on WSFM, Gold 104.3 Melbourne, 4KQ Brisbane, Mix 102.3 Adelaide, and via Southern Cross Austereo’s LocalWorks network.
I am listening to WSFM today. I am amazed that in a city like Sydney a radio station brands itself on air with a voice saying “WSFM” in between songs. If your lucky the voiceover says “101point7 WSFM”
It is very basic. It is very boring. It is very cheap. It is very unimaginative.
From sound effects to pumping jingles to making use of stereo sound to the heritage Triple M whisper. And WSFM use a recording of a voice. Pure Austerity.
In case anyone is interested there are many jingle and ID packages you can listen to from the United States. This is one of my favourites as it includes examples for CHR, Gold and AC formats: http://www.ignitejingles.com/audio/
I love the shotgun versions - quick 2 - 3 second IDs for use between songs.
I have to switch to Nova now - WSFM is playing an INXS song that I have heard hundreds of times. In the past week.
WSFM’s current On-Air branding (personally I think the pre-2014 branding should’ve been kept, with some tweaks to keep things fresh of course) let alone their music playlist is fairly safe, generic stuff but one positive is that they aren’t getting their voiceover artists to do faux-American accents…yet.
Funny you should mention that, since WSFM and KIIS (not to mention The Edge, which is also a fan of the faux-American VOs from what I’ve heard) are under common ownership!
It’s bad enough that they feel that they need to use an American accent. It’s so much worse when you can tell it’s an Aussie attempting an American accent.
I haven’t noticed this in Melbourne, though they are using Howard Ritchie (Capital FM London, has done work for the Today (Hit) Network previously) quite a fair bit
Looking at the link above, WS has been adding more late 00s/early 10s such as from the likes of Adele, Bruno Mars, Duffy & Lady Antebellum, which are the type of artists you would hear on Smooth. By contrast, Gold 104.3 in Melbourne, which is equal #1 FM with Fox, is more rock-skewed and appears to be not as worried about Smooth as WS are, in which WS are now 2.1% behind Smooth in the overall ratings.
Even the SCA’s Classic Hits stations (2MC, 4GR, Mix FM Wide Bay, 2WG, 2RG, 5SE & RadioWest, all of which are to be rebranded to Triple M on December 15) are more true to its format than WS is these days.
With this weekend being a long weekend in NSW, it can only mean one thing: WS is doing “80 Hours of the 80s” this long weekend, which commenced from 3pm today, going until Midnight Monday/Tuesday.