You’re right with the change in music being in response to smooth, and its working. Smooth is still ahead but only by 0.5% market share. WSFM finished 2016 with #2 breakfast and tied for #2 (Mon-Fri) with smoothfm, compared to this time last year where WSFM was rating poorly.
Personally I don’t have a problem with pure gold/classic hits stations playing the occasional more recent song. Provided the song is appropriate, and Adele certainly is. As long as 80% or so is pure gold nothing wrong with some newer appropriate music. Are people suggesting 50yo listeners don’t want to hear ANYTHING recent? Ratings for Smooth, BBC2 and the like suggest differently. It’s all about music selection. Even 4KQ uses to play “greatest memories, latest hits”.
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I agree that 50 year olds want to hear new music and not just “safe” songs. The No.1 station for 40 - 54 year olds in Sydney is KIIS. That speaks volumes.
The average 50 year old in 2017 is very different to a 50 year old in 1990. Generation X would be turning 50 at the moment. And the X’ers are often misunderstood by radio stations.
Today’s 50 year old would have been 11 years old when Elvis died. Today’s 50 year old had not been born when Kennedy was President. Today’s 50 year old watched Melrose Place when they were 25 years old - not Leave it to Beaver or I Love Lucy.
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I guess I’m the oldest of the Gen X’ers then. I don’t mind some new hits ,Adele and the like but I like mainly 70s to 80s hits and some 90s
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Yeah I’m in the Gen X heartland and it’s mostly about the 80s, then 70s, some 90s, and very selected new music (some examples Adele, The Killers, Of Monsters and Men, Avicii). If I had to pick just one decade of music to hear it would be 1976 to 1986)
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you guys may need to shift to smooth or AM then.
AM? You’re joking right?
It’s called DAB.
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AM stations on DAB. Same thing.
Just heard a new positioner on WSFM
“Better Music And More Of It”
Very 90s sounding (I think NEW FM used this back then), but I like it!
Just a shame it wasn’t Ray McGregor voicing it.
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That positioner was also used by 94.9 Power FM in Nowra/Wollongong (it was actively competing in the Wollongong market as a de-facto 3rd commercial station back then) back in the late 90s.
Here’s proof: https://web.archive.org/web/19980114232846/http://www.powerfm.com.au/
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Same with Gold in Melbourne
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I heard the same thing today on 96FM Perth.
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Seemingly part of a relaunch of the station’s music format. Sounds good so far from what I’ve heard. Given it finds a path between KIIS and Gold, would be nice if they chucked it on digital over east - would be a good competitor to Triple M.
Edit: AAAARRRGGHHH - why did I praise it. The moment I made that post, two awful songs and now I’m switching it off.
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Every station plays a bad song or two.
You might have just been unlucky to get 2 in a row.
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Hahaha, was that Last Night by Good Charlotte Moe 
It was 2day fm’s positioned in the 90s. Ie better music and more of it. If you look at the end of this clip.
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WSFM has gone back to 101.7 WSFM instead of WS…FM101.7
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They should just rename it. Something catchy like Westie FM. 
Or Gold 101.7
I dunno, I’ve always liked WSFM.
Had 4KQ converted I always thought KQFM would sound pretty good too.
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