Even though Triple M was hard rock in the 1980s, its Top 8 at 8 was very pop-oriented (and yes, based on listener votes) and songs would come and go from the Top 8 at 8 weeks before even hitting the mainstream charts.
The Top 8 at 8 was popular but oddly never inspired Triple M or Fox to really expand into new pop music across the day. 3XY had that market to itself but being on the AM band it was losing listeners even though outside of the Top 8 the FM stations weren’t touching pop.
Fox then adopted “the new Fox mix” sometime around 1990 which was a bit boppier and more dance oriented and gave it a clear difference to Triple M and new FMs TT and KZ which all were becoming basic variations on similar formats. (KZFM later branched out to become Gold 104 and focus on 50s, 60s and 70s hits)
I can’t remember what year it was, maybe 1993 or 94? When Fox and Triple M basically swapped formats. Triple M became the dance and top 40 station and Fox became hard and classic rock. Didn’t last long and the formats soon swapped back.
Was strange though when I visited Perth a couple of years later that Triple M there (the old 96FM) was still the dance and top 40 hit station, whereas Triple Ms over the east coast were back to playing hard and classic rock.