The ‘never more than two ads in a row’ also means ‘never more than two songs in a row’ so the total number of ads need not be much different. 2SM actually ran with this approach in the 80s so Nova’s approach wasn’t entirely novel. There were also elements of this ‘quick ads, song, more ads’ with the original ‘boss jocks’ in the 60s. Nothing new under the hot Bungendore sun.
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Though I can remember Nova in Sydney saying they wouldn’t have any more than 5 minutes of ads per hour when they first started.
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They had no networked shows back then. I see Kip Wightman was on afternoons at Nova Sydney .He came to Nova Brisbane in 2005 as their original breakfast show anchor.Was there for many years before he transferred over to KIIS 97.3
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Didn’t last long, and as others have said commercial reality bites sooner or later.
It’s money that matters…as Randy Newman once opined.
From Gunnedah’s “Namoi Valley Independent”, Triple G launching Wednesday 17 September 1997.
Oddly the article didn’t mention the station frequency as there was no ad in the paper for it.
A little birdie tells me launch was 10:15am (75 minutes after 9!) and first song played was The Wallflower’‘s '“One Headlight”
Looking good @hatdj 
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I recall someone doing some ‘research’ and that they were possibly running more ads than the competition (Triple M maybe), but because they only played two at a time, people didn’t necessarily realise (if I recall correctly, they may have been playing less minutes of music too)
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Back in the late 80’s, one of the two commercial FM stations here in Melbourne would have no ads in the first half hour of every hour, but in the second half hour they’d have an ad break after every song. All up there was probably just as much advertising as if they just had regular ad breaks.
I’ve never understood the theory behind that.
Years ago, a station I worked at would have breaks at 35, 45 and 55.
We then reverted to breaks at 20, 40 and 55 and within a week, listeners were complimenting us for playing less ads (when really we were playing the same amount)
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Zoo FM was another great radio station back in its day with its modern rock format. The slogan was “90’s and New Stuff” from memory.
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Yes, hard to believe they were local 18 hours a day back then! Now it’s just breakfast I think.
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January 2000 was an exciting time on the Mid North Coast of NSW… with 2CS Coffs Harbour moving it’s brand to a new licence on 106.3 (with 2CFS as the new callsign) on Monday 24 January … And 639AM taking over the old 2CS AM licence
From the ‘Coffs Harbour Advocate’.
639AM article
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And just 2 days later (26/1/2000), 2MC also moved it’s brand to a new commercial FM licence (with callsign of 2PQQ) with Easy listening taking the old 2MC AM frequency.
From the ‘Port Macquarie News’.
No articles, just ads
And Easy Listening 531
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I love the slogan for 531 - “Stay right where you were” lol
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I was just about to say the same thing. Extremely clever - and this is probably other stations switching frequencies could’ve used over the years.
A shame Magic693 was owned by the same company as 3AW. They could’ve used a slogan like that.
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Seemed to be a lot of change jammed into the last few months before the hub from Albury became live in around April 2000. Interesting that 105.5 was still HOT at that point whereas ROX was already Star from distant memory?..
Yes, ROX changed to STAR late August 1999, I think Coffs was the last to change to Star, probably only just before the hubs began… It was still “1055 HOT FM” in Feb 2000 when I passed through then.
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Oh wow. So how big was the previous HOTFM Network? I always thought it was only in QLD.
Just QLD and southern WA mostly. Coffs Harbour was the only NSW HOT FM DMG regional station. They were local at nights then too!
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Yes I vaguely remember Coffs with the Hot 105.5 branding; think it still had it in September 2000 when I passed through. At launch it was just FM 105.5 (as fiched previously).
Was curious as to when ROX FM got pulverised by the neutron Star so thanks for that too. As with many good things, it didn’t live to see the new Millennium.
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