Me too. It’s a bit lifeless compared to the SCA stations during the day Monday to Friday, but it’s a great alternative on the weekend when the local works stations are playing AFL and Star FM plays dance music at night.
Here’s a playlist from one of the best ‘classic hits’ stations in Australia.
1053 2CA - Canberra, ACT
"Forever Classic"
Saturday, 30th July 2016 - 2-3pm AEST
“Walk Right In” Dr Hook
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" Procol Harum
"Saturday In The Park" Chicago
"Hold Me Now" Thompson Twins
"(You Gotta Walk) Don’t Look Back" Peter Tosh feat. Mick Jagger
"Last Time I Saw Him" Diana Ross
"Women (Make You Feel Alright)" The Easybeats
"We’re All Alone" Boz Scaggs
"One Perfect Day" Little Heroes
"Day Tripper" The Beatles
"Born To Run" Bruce Springsteen
"Rocket Man" Elton John
"Physical" Olivia Newton-John
"Dreams Are Ten a Penny" Kincade
It’s amazing that a fairly small city like Canberra can offer a ‘classic hits’ station (without the talk/sport that is common in regional stations) like the above, but yet Sydney, with a population that is more than 12 times the size, doesn’t really offer that kind of format, not even on the AM band. Strange, huh?
Basically speaking, I generally prefer 2CA over the likes of WS/Gold, Smooth & Magic. Thank goodness I can at least stream them online, which is how I did the above playlist. 
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Classic Hits 693 4KQ - Brisbane.
Seventies weekend feature. (Thanks to TV Cynic for the heads-up).
Lunch, Today (2 hours):
Albert Hammond - Half a Million Miles From Home
Alice Cooper - No More Mr Nice Guy
Nick Lowe - Cruel To Be Kind
Olivia Newton John - Have You Never Been Mellow?
Van Morrison - Bright Side Of The Road
Emitt Rhodes - Fresh as a Daisy
Fleetwood Mac - Dreams
Ted Mulry - Julia
Supertramp - Breakfast in America
Cliff Richard - Devil Woman
Electric Light Orchestra - Evil Woman
Bread - Diary
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Who’ll Stop the Rain?
Eagles - Tequila Sunrise
Temptations - Papa Was a Rolling Stone
Five Man Electrical Band - Absolutely Right
Cat Stevens - I Want To Live In a Wigwam
George Harrison - What Is Life?
Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Oliver’s Army
Ferrets - Don’t Fall In Love
Skyhooks – Crazy Heart
Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs – Most People I Know Think That I’m Crazy
Rita Coolidge – Higher & Higher
Supertramp – Dreamer
Don Fardon - Follow Your Drum
Hollies - Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress
Marcia Hines – You
Bee Gees - Mr Natural
Santana - Black Magic Woman
Neil Diamond - Solitary Man
Bay City Rollers - It’s a Game
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Rubber Room with Ugly Phil O’Neil on Sydney’s Best Rock, 104.9 Triple M.
Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane.
Tonight (3 hours)
7-8 pm
PEARL JAM - Even Flow
LIVING END - Keep On Running
U2 - I Will Follow
GREEN DAY - Holiday
JAMES - Laid
CATFISH & THE BOTTLEMEN - Soundcheck
WHITESNAKE - Here I Go Again
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - Tell Me Baby
SILVERCHAIR - Straight Lines
8-9 pm
DISTURBED - Light
STONE TEMPLE PILOTS - Plush
CURE - Just Like Heaven
SHINEDOWN - State Of My Head
NO DOUBT - Just A Girl
CHRIS CORNELL - Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart
AC/DC - It’s A Long Way To The Top If You Wanna Rock & Roll
ALL AMERICAN REJECTS - Gives You Hell
9-10 pm
BLINK 182 - She’s Out Of Her Mind
FAITH NO MORE - Evidence
BERNARD FANNING - Wasting Time
DAVID BOWIE - Ashes To Ashes
FINGER ELEVEN - Paralyzer
PETER GARRETT - It Still Matters
CLASH - London Calling
FOO FIGHTERS - Generator
RADIOHEAD – Creep
STRUMBELLAS - Spirits
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There’s a couple of songs there I love, and a few I want to burn and destroy. That show struggles to keep me as a listener for any extended period for some reason, which I find a bit sad as I’ve loved a lot of Ugly Phil’s previous work on the Ms
For something just a little bit different, an historical AM-FM conversion music log from 23 years ago!
2WS-FM 101.7 - Sydney, NSW
"The Best Songs of All Time"
Tuesday, 1st June 1993: 8.10-9.10am AEST.
Jimmy Barnes & Tina Turner, The Best - with loyal 2WS listener Lynnette Slavey (spelling?) of Mount Prichard introducing the station’s first ever song on 101.7FM after converting from 1224AM.
Pretty Woman, Roy Orbison
Your Song, Elton John
The Wanderer, Dion
I Feel Fine, The Beatles
Two Strong Hearts, John Farnham
Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough, Patty Smyth & Don Hanley - when was the last time you heard this one on Sydney radio?!
My Life, Billy Joel - In contrast, I’m sure we all know that this song still gets very regular airplay on WSFM to this day.
Proud Mary, Creedence Clearwater Revival
Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
Right Here Waiting - Richard Marx
In 2016, I think you’d be considerably more likely to hear most of these songs on either Smooth 95.3 or Magic 2CH rather than what is now known as WSFM!
And incase you’re wondering how I was able to do this, Frankster’s Archive ( http://frankster.zanyspace.com/ ) currently has the full first hour of 2WS-FM 101.7 as part of his latest site update, Head over there, take a listen to this fantastic piece of radio history and tell him that I sent you!
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On the subject of 2WS/WSFM, I found an interesting website that has the music logs up to 7 days from a number of Australian commercial radio stations, particularly ARN & Nova Entertainment stations: http://onlineradiobox.com/au/
It’s interesting to compare the logs of WSFM & Gold 104.3, despite both of them using the “Pure Gold” branding.
WSFM: http://onlineradiobox.com/au/1017wsfm/playlist/
Gold 104.3: http://onlineradiobox.com/au/gold1043/playlist/
From what I’ve observed from reading both of the above links, WS is more “Mix”-based than Gold, which the latter has a slight rock-skew & therefore tends to play a few ‘classic rock’ tracks from Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd & The Doors, which WS doesn’t play any of (the only Pink Floyd track that WS plays is “Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)”.
3 Likes
I just had a quick look at the WS playlist- they’ve really cut back on pre-1980 tracks, as others have mentioned. The playlist is still about as exciting as watching Geoff Boycott saving a test match, though, with the odd nasty surprise such as Avril Lavigne or Pink thrown in for good measure.
If current trends continue, I’d expect 80s music to go the way of the dodo (on FM) by the mid 2020s. We may have to bring back AM Stereo then, to recreate an authentic listening experience!
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MIX FM Sunshine Coast log from yesterday afternoon with their 80s August
12:22 YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME - BON JOVI
12:26 IF I COULD TURN BACK TIME - CHER
12:32 FASHION - DAVID BOWIE
12:35 DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE - HUNTERS & COLLECTORS
12:39 HEAD OVER HEELS - TEARS FOR FEARS
12:47 JOHNNY AND MARY - ROBERT PALMER
12:52 LEARNING TO FLY - PINK FLOYD
13:01 COUNTING THE BEAT - SWINGERS
13:05 THE BEST - TINA TURNER
13:09 BAD TO THE BONE - GEORGE THOROGOOD
13:13 EVERYBODY HAVE FUN TONIGHT - WANG CHUNG
13:22 ROAD TO NOWHERE - TALKING HEADS
13:27 THE STROKE - BILLY SQUIRE
13:30 ELECTRIC BLUE - ICEHOUSE
13:34 JUST CAN’T GET ENOUGH - DEPECHE MODE
13:42 KICK - INXS
13:45 DROP THE PILOT - JOAN ARMATRADING
13:48 WORD UP - CAMEO
13:53 WHILE YOU SEE A CHANCE - STEVE WINWOOD
14:03 JUMP - VAN HALEN
14:07 I WANT YOUR SEX - GEORGE MICHAEL
14:12 DE DO DO DO, DE DA DA DA - POLICE
14:16 MONEY FOR NOTHING (EDIT) - DIRE STRAITS
14:24 DRESSED FOR SUCCESS - ROXETTE
14:29 ALONE WITH YOU - SUNNYBOYS
14:33 THE FLAME - CHEAP TRICK
14:37 OUR HOUSE - MADNESS
14:45 PARADISE CITY - GUNS N ROSES
14:57 MESSAGE TO MY GIRL - SPLIT ENZ
14:55 TRUE FAITH - NEW ORDER
15:04 CELEBRATION - DRAGON
15:08 EYE OF THE TIGER - SURVIVOR
15:12 SUSSUDIO - PHIL COLLINS
15:12 WELCOME TO THE BOOMTOWN - DAVID & DAVID
15:27 YOU GOT NOTHING I WANT - COLD CHISEL
15:30 HEAVEN - BRYAN ADAMS
15:34 FUNKY COLD MEDINA - TONE-LOC
15:38 I LOVE ROCK N ROLL - JOAN JETT
15:46 UNCHAIN MY HEART - JOE COCKER
15:50 SHOUT TO THE TOP - STYLE COUNCIL
15:54 LOVE IN AN ELEVATOR (EDIT) - AEROSMITH
16:03 PRIDE (IN THE NAME OF LOVE) - U2
16:07 FRENCH KISSING IN THE USA - DEBORAH HARRY
16:11 CHAINED TO THE WHEEL - BLACK SORROWS
16:15 YOU BETTER, YOU BET - WHO
16:24 WE BUILT THIS CITY (INC. DJ) - STARSHIP
16:29 RAZORS EDGE - GOANNA
16:34 R.O.C.K. IN THE U.S.A. - JOHN MELLENCAMP
16:37 WOULDN’T IT BE GOOD - NIK KERSHAW
16:45 BOOM BOOM (RADIO EDIT) - PAUL LEKAKAS
16:49 BOYS IN TOWN - DIVINYLS
16:53 KYRIE - MR MISTER
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Prettu sure they were on the network log as Gold, 2CS and 4TO were all playing the same songs when I was surfing around the apps. During the week is when the unplayed stuff comes out.
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I know I’m not talking about Sydney (especially considering that the following station can’t be picked up terrestrially in normal conditions), but 2MC (owned by SCA) up in the Mid North Coast of NSW would play some of the above 60s music, one of the very few remaining commercial FM stations in Australia to do so in 2016.
I was the one who said the above in the other thread, re very little amount of ‘pre-80s’ music on WS & Sydney’s commercial FM radio in general.
I think DAB+ would become very common on most radios by that point anyway, at least in the major capitals. Speaking of which, it’s a pity that Fun Super Digi (a DAB-only ‘classic hits’ station in Sydney operated by BOG) doesn’t play any 60s anymore, in which they’re now playing only as far back as the 70s, but at least they don’t play any late 90s/00s unlike WS.
For further proof: Fun Super Digi playlist
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Looking at those music logs, Gold seems to be a bit more adventurous then WSFM.
Just had a look at 96FM Perth music logs, it looks like ARN have destroyed 96FM 
And that’s part of the reason why Melbourne generally has better commercial music radio stations than Sydney, along with having 2 commercial AM music stations (3MP & Magic) as opposed to just 1 (Magic 2CH).
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indeed they have! 96FM now sounds like a bad country heritage FM station with its “all over the place” playlist. Trying to cater for both rock and pop fans. Expect the rock to be much less and pop much more in the future in line with the other KIIS stations.
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It’s sad what 96fm has become under new ownership. When I was over in Perth back in October 2012, 96fm was quite a good rock-skewed station, in which it was better than Triple M back in the East Coast, thanks to the lack of talk-based/sport programming. At the time, I thought Perth had better commercial music radio stations than Sydney, mainly thanks to 96fm & 6iX. But now, 6iX is probably the only decent commercial music radio station left in Perth IMO.
Of course, there’s always DAB+ for music formats not offered on the FM/AM bands. Perth used to have 2 rock stations on DAB+: Classic Rock Digital & Triple M Modern Rock Digital. But in June, Triple M Modern Rock Digital disappeared off DAB+ to make way for Easy Radio, competing head-on with Smooth, which is a DAB-only station there. As a result, Perth now only has Classic Rock Digital as the sole rock station available on either FM, AM or DAB+.
Apart from the presence of DAB-only stations, as well as having 2 commercial AM stations (1 x Talk; 1 x Classic Hits), the level of music variety on among Perth’s commercial FM stations is now almost on par to that of the major regional markets, to the point that even Adelaide now has better music variety across its commercial FM stations than Perth, which wasn’t really the case up until recently.
2 Likes
After my comment about Adelaide, I thought it would be worth comparing Mix 102.3 & 104.7 Triple M (5MMM) to get an idea of the music they play.
Here it is below.
Mix 102.3 - Adelaide, SA
"Adelaide’s Widest Variety of Music"
Monday, 8th August 2016 - 11:05-11:55am ACST
“Up” Olly Murs feat. Demi Lovato
"Don’t Speak" No Doubt
"Jack & Diane" John Cougar Mellencamp
"Love Story" Taylor Swift
"Secret Love Song" Little Mix feat. Jason Derulo
"Jump" Van Halen
"Hey Ya!" Outkast
"Big Girls Cry" Sia
"Dumb Things" Paul Kelly & The Coloured Girls
"Hide Away" Daya
"Forever Young" Youth Group
"If You Leave" OMD
104.7 Triple M - Adelaide, SA
Monday, 8th August 2016 - 11:05-11:55am ACST
“Breakfast In America” Supertramp
"Blue Sky Mine" Midnight Oil
"Wish You Well" Bernard Fanning
"Tie Your Mother Down" Queen
"Solid Rock" Goanna
"Dark Necessities" Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Brain Damage/Eclipse" Pink Floyd
"Echo Beach" Martha & The Muffins
"Sex on Fire" Kings Of Leon
"Can’t Stand Losing You" The Police
As you can see, both Mix 102.3 & 5MMM are completely different from one another, far more different than that of between Mix 94.5 & 96fm in Perth today. If I was in Adelaide, I’d listen to 5MMM the most out of all the commercial FM stations, at least when they’re not talking or airing AFL. My 2nd choice out of all the local commercial music stations would be AM station Cruise 1323, which is a Classic Hits station.
2 Likes
Woah, Pink Floyd into Echo Beach - man that’s a jarring change! Still a far better hour than Mix though
List of tracks from MIX FM Sunshine Coast on Monday from 10:45 - 16:45
AGADOO (RADIO MIX) - BLACK LACE
AGE OF REASON - JOHN FARNHAM
ALL THE THINGS SHE SAID - SIMPLE MINDS
AS THE DAYS GO BY - DARYL BRAITHWAITE
BATDANCE (EDIT) - PRINCE
CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE - QUEEN
CRYSTAL - ELTON JOHN
DON’T GIVE UP - PETER GABRIEL
DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’ - JOURNEY
DON’T MESS WITH DR DREAM - THOMPSON TWINS
DOWN UNDER - MEN AT WORK
DRESS YOU UP - MADONNA
EYES WITHOUT A FACE - BILLY IDOL
FALL OF ROME - JAMES REYNE
FUTURE’S SO BRIGHT, I GOTTA WEAR SHADES - TIMBUK 3
GOLDEN BROWN (RADIO EDIT) - STRANGLERS
HERE I GO AGAIN - WHITESNAKE
HIPPY HIPPY SHAKE - GEORGIA SATELLITES
HUNGRY HEART - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
I CAN’T GO FOR THAT (RADIO EDIT) - HALL & OATES
I WISH IT WOULD RAIN DOWN - PHIL COLLINS
I STILL HAVEN’T FOUND WHAT I’M LOOKING FOR - U2
I CAN’T WAIT - NU SHOOZ
KOKOMO - BEACH BOYS
LIKE WOW WIPEOUT - HOODOO GURUS
LITTLE RED CORVETTE - PRINCE
LITTLE LIES - FLEETWOOD MAC
LIVE IT UP - MENTAL AS ANYTHING
LONGEST TIME - BILLY JOEL
LOVE OF THE COMMON PEOPLE - PAUL YOUNG
MAN IN THE MIRROR - MICHAEL JACKSON
MATERIAL GIRL - MADONNA
MONEY’S TOO TIGHT TO MENTION - SIMPLY RED
NEVER TEAR US APART - INXS
NEVER ENDING STORY (RADIO MIX) - LIMAHL
OLD TIME ROCK N ROLL - BOB SEGER
PASS THE DUTCHIE - MUSICAL YOUTH
PHYSICAL - OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN
PLEASURE AND PAIN - DIVINYLS
PRIDE (IN THE NAME OF LOVE) - U2
R.O.C.K. IN THE U.S.A. - JOHN MELLENCAMP
RESPECTABLE - MEL & KIM
ROCK WITH YOU - MICHAEL JACKSON
ROLL WITH IT - STEVE WINWOOD
ROSANNA - TOTO
SHE WORKS HARD FOR THE MONEY - DONNA SUMMER
SIX MONTHS IN A LEAKY BOAT - SPLIT ENZ
TAKE MY BREATH AWAY - BERLIN
THE WAY IT IS - BRUCE HORNSBY & THE RANGE
TRUE COLOURS - CYNDI LAUPER
TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART - BONNIE TYLER
UPSIDE DOWN - DIANA ROSS
WHO’S THAT GIRL - EURYTHMICS
WILD THING - TONE-LOC
WORDS - F.R. DAVID
YOU’RE THE BEST THING - STYLE COUNCIL
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Here’s a log from a station that has just recently switched their online streaming back on. In this case, it’s 6iX in Perth, the only commercial AM music station in Australia’s 4th largest city, but also has an FM translator in the outer northern & southern suburbs, therefore meaning that it has a music format that is really different to the local commercial FM stations. The station is part of the Capital Radio Network’s “Forever Classic” group (which also includes 2CA, 2GN, 2XL & 3GG).
1080/105.7 6iX - Perth, WA
"Forever Classic"
Monday 5th September 2016 - 11am-12pm AWST
“Boppin’ The Blues” Blackfeather
"State of The Heart" Mondo Rock
"Lady Marmalade" Labelle
"Drive My Car" The Beatles
"Alone Again (Naturally)" Gilbert O’Sullivan
"Give It Up" KC & The Sunshine Band
"Running On Empty" Jackson Browne
"Communication Breakdown" Roy Orbison
"Billy Don’t Be a Hero" Paper Lace
"Addicted to Love" Robert Palmer
"All Right Now" Free
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89.3 CIJK “K-Rock” Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada
"The Valley’s Best Rock"
Saturday 10 September 2016- 1800-1900 ADT
Twice As Hard- THE BLACK CROWES
This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ To Glide- THE KINGS 
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Fantasy- ALDO NOVA
You Don’t Know How It Feels- TOM PETTY
Call Me- BLONDIE
Can’t Stop Laughing- THE TREWS
Summer In The City- THE LOVIN’ SPOONFUL
Walking On The Moon- THE POLICE
Centrefield- JOHN FOGERTY
Clap For The Wolfman- THE GUESS WHO
Tush- ZZ TOP
I Wish You Well- TOM COCHRANE
= Canadian artists, as required by the “CanCon” regulations.