Radio outside of Australia - Whats good?

Would be great to see those logs. I’ve been to Germany a few times and I’ve found their rock/classic hits stations to be really good!

Their TV on the other hand…horrendous!

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Germans have a penchant for AOR.

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I do love the randomness of BBC Radio 2.

Just listening to the overnight show with OJ Borg and they’ve played these back to back:

  • Our House / Madness
  • Santa Can’t You Hear Me / Kelly Clarkson with Ariana Grande
  • Won’t Get Fooled Again / The Who
  • midnight mastermind - where a listener asks the host 3 trivia questions on a certain subject
  • Remember / Becky Hill & David Guetta
  • Then an album track from the new Westlife album! Their album of the week - remember those :slight_smile:
  • Land of Confusion / Genesis

What’s not to love lol.

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That reminds me of this interesting article about commercial radio of old:

The Top 40 format on 2SM was much broader than today’s radio playlists, and Sparks remembers playing AC/DC and Led Zeppelin, alongside Barbra Streisand and Benny Hill’s Milkman song.

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The only Barbra Streisand you’ll hear on a station such as Nova today would be the Duck Sauce song called “Barbra Streisand” where over a disco beat someone says the artists name.

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I’d think the closest conundrum that stations have these days is over whether to play K-Pop. There’s the easier decisions with some of the western focused ones with a featured artist.

Otherwise, what charts is probably a lot narrower than in previous years, there’s no longer the problem of there being some really out of format Rock tracks charting, and listeners are mostly used to rap/R&B tracks by now.

If anything stations also fairly well embrace the recent trends of ‘throwbacks’ charting - playing some Fleetwood Mac isn’t going to be a station changer to almost anyone - which is a safe way to add some “new” tracks to a hit music playlist.

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Do any local stations play K-Pop?

I have to admit until recently I was unaware of the popularity of the genre (especially in younger cohorts), but given Nova seem to be trying to hit the “trending” music on social media (mainly Tik Tok) I would have thought they would have been all over the genre too.

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‘Gangnam Style’ was probably the first K-pop hit to achieve mainstream success in the West…that was around a decade ago now. Kind of like an MC Hammer moment. I assume it’s only grown in popularity since then- not my cup of tea, however.

Japanese pop (‘J-Pop’) seems to be quite popular, too.

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Radio BOB from Germany has a variety of rock stations
https://www.radiobob.de/

After the shutdown of Lush 99.5FM in Singapore in 2017, Mediacorp has launched a new online only station, Indiego, that plays indie music
https://www.melisten.sg/radio/indiego
https://www.todayonline.com/8days/mediacorp-adds-made-singapore-music-platform-indiego-melisten-1772871

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Interesting to see Ted Stryker has defected to Alt98.7 in LA after he left the airwaves a few months back. Seems like another nail in the coffin for the once world famous KROQ!

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Here’s an interesting snippet from an interview with Archie Arenson, who has returned to Australia to present breakfast on Power 100 in Townsville after a 2-year stint working in radio in the UK.

Is there any difference between commercial radio in Australia and in the UK?

I feel that musically there is a lot more variety in UK commercial radio with more genres available to the listener. Some stations like Absolute Radio allow listeners the ability to listen to one breakfast show but have the choice of 9 different genres of music playing between talk breaks (70’s, 80’s, 90’s, etc) which blows my mind! Brands also have dedicated spin-off stations like Heart Dance, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s.

Their competitions are run slightly differently to Australia as well, with premium text mechanics a common form of entry – charging listeners to enter. It means major stations are giving away upwards of AUD$30k a day pretty much all year round.

Full interview:

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Yeah, kinda glad we don’t have those premium text competitions, they feel pretty much like gambling rather than a contest of luck.

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A follow up to my post here: If you could create the perfect radio station... - #90 by Petarkco

I found that Apple Music’s Classic Hits “station” has become a bit too repetitive (If I had a dollar for every time it wanted to play Jack & Diane) so went searching for a real radio station to save me the hassle and I came across Classic Hits 109 through Apple Music’s search and based on the logo I thought it was an ARN station but it turns out to be a Toronto, Canada based station, albeit online only (if the frequency was not a giveaway).

Claims to play 70s/80s/90s and does, has a pretty good mix and no ads, just the odd ID here and there.

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Are there some in Canada too?

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Regarding rock stations in general yes but most of them such as CJAY in Calgary and CFOX in Vancouver seem to have taken a vastly more safe and/or classic lean in the last 10 years - also there’s the CanCon requirements to take into account with those.

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Toronto has The Edge and Indie88, both of which play rock and alternative from the past few decades, and Q107 which plays classic rock.

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I blame the second series of Taskmaster NZ for helping me discover Radio Hauraki - I’m enjoying their playlist immensely.

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Hauraki flipped from classic rock to alternative/active rock a while back. It’s probably what 9inety6ix.1 would sound like today had they stuck with the alt rock format of 1998. A regular visitor to these shores during Sporadic E openings; I’m surprised that you’ve never heard them.

The playlist is actually pretty good with some classic rock mixed in now; it resembles a slightly edgier version of an ‘adult album alternative’ station.

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Currently listening to the BBC Radio 2 overnight show. The show is normally up-beat playing new and old songs that are generally up-tempo. Tonight being the night before the Queen’s funeral it’s far more somber and playing soft AC hits. It sounds quite good. I wouldn’t want it all the time but they’re playing some great easy listening.

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in Vietnam if 91fm does not have to carry all-traffic format in drivetime, they would be “more music” during daytime hours.

there are call-in programs on 91fm and on 365fm during evening - they are mostly dealing with love letters, dating proposal, and remembering friends after a time of being far away @myfriend

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