Great list…. And funny that, I’m currently listening to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 on 2NUR FM from the same date and year, which has some of the songs you’ve listed.
Their list is here
https://web.archive.org/web/20150416132410/http://oldradioshows.com/at40/062186.html
At the time, no Sydney station was syndicating AT40, as far as recently 2WS carried it up to about April, so I kind of assumed that after so long Casey Kasem had finally finished, Surprised to hear later that the show continued right up to August 1988.
Interesting list of tracks for that weeks AT40, Many of them had already been and gone from my chart, yet others, I wouldn’t hear until late July and August. The Kenny Loggins track from Top Gun for example, I wouldn’t hear until the end of August, when Triple M first aired it. “Highway to the Dangerzone” entered my top 40 on Sunday 21st Sep 1986.
Didn’t realise it at first, but most of the tracks were rather rocky, considering my taste of music was heavily oriented toward dance and euro-pop. Remember listening to Triple M often during this month. Number one for this particular week was Erasure’s “Oh lamour”.
Anyone listening now can tell my friends taste in music is… well… rather different. 
Just a short note that for the next two weeks at the fresh mix dot com, my friend and I won’t be doing any curated shows, due to both of us having family committments. I myself have had a rather rough week (two syndication proposals were knocked back). Need to take some time out for some space.
You don’t hear this song often. You can always try Braidwood FM, I am just a listener but your curated shows would fit in well in my view.
DXNerd offered, which was very much appreciated, still keeping it in mind as an option. The proposals covered “long form” overnight syndication formats, such as live six to eight hour feeds on 2OOO and 2RPH. ACMA and APRA gave the green light, but both stations managers gave the enphatic NO. So life goes on canvassing other options.
One door closes, another door opens, having interesting discussions with other people, things may get interesting in the AUstralian senate if Rowland keeps flogging her CRA horse, we’ll let that one play out “If” it does. Babyland might want to start up a financial year firesale if things get rocking with this one.
Got some time to kill this arvo, will be doing some spinning from our Sydney Studio’s from 16:00. Don’t have anything planned, but tune in, you’ll never know what surprises I’ll drum up. Will send the feed back to Wollongong about 22:00 hrs ish.
Another spontaineously sparked special tonight, playing selections from my leed top 40 countdown from the week ending Sunday 28th June 1981. This was an interesting time for new music programming. Remember having to videotape countdown to watch on Monday night, as for Sydney’s 2WS, Ken Sparks presented “Rock around the World” every Sunday night from 6:00. Many great interviews and news events within the music industry, and often a record rep would come in to spin many of their new releases. So at the time, for a 12 year old kid, many sources for checking out new music, and what was happening on the pop scene.
01 - Jimmy Buffett - Chanson pour les petits enfants (MCA)
02 - Phil Collins - This must be love (Atlantic)
03 - John O Banion - Love you like I never loved before (Warner)
04 - Pointer Sisters - Slow hand (Planet)
05 - Bill Withers - Just the two of us (grover washington jr) (Warner)
06 - New Musik - Living by numbers (GTO)
07 - George Harrison - All those years ago (Warner)
08 - Elton John - Chloe (carla etude) (fanfare) (Rocket)
09 - Janis Ian - Under the covers (CBS)
10 - Kim Wilde - Kids in america (EMI)
11 - Nolans - Gotta pull myself together
12 - Loverboy - Turn me loose (CBS)
13 - Splitenz - Hard act to follow (Mushroom)
14 - Moody Blues - Talking out of time (Threshold)
15 - Bucks Fizz - Making your mind up (RCA)
16 - Ultravox - Vienna (EMI)
17 - Australian Crawl - Things don’t seem (EMI)
18 - Allen Foley - Shattered palace (CBS)
Keep plugging away. It could be a good fit for stations that want something a little more interesting that an automated playout and aren’t in the position to set up their own programming and/or run the CRN feed overnight.
That said, you may encounter the odd station here and there that follows the BSA to the letter, and may have trouble justifying a syndicated stream where it could be difficult to prove said stream carries content of “local significance”.
Yes, it could be argued that an automatic playout may not be of local significance, but the counterargument is that if said playout was set up by members of the station - who are presumably locals living within the service area - it counts towards “local significance” in the programming rubric.
TCBLs might be another option, as the TCBL licencing conditions wrt programming tend to be more flexible than the conditions imposed on community stations with a permanent licence.
Having said all of the above… if you want to make a syndicated overnight program more attractive to community radio stations, load it up with Aussie music (well beyond the mandated 25% minimum defined in the CBAA Code), as some stations may appreciate the breathing space created so they don’t have to go quite as hard on their presenters to maintain the minimum.
Bear in mind the 25% minimum is across the whole broadcast week, not per shift… hence the opportunity to plug this gap with vintage Australian gear instead of throwing everything Amrap has at the overnight selection could be attractive for stations with an older demographic.
Making logs available would also be a huge help. Not that APRA week is really a thing anymore, but some stations (including all but one community radio station I’ve been involved with) keep music logs for audit purposes.
It would be interesting to see a snip of the original log of Nova 969 in 2001 or even in 2002, for a bit of nostalgia when the playlist was really different compared with what was on commercial radio at the time.
Well, you’re in luck.
Years ago, I’ve managed to find an old SMH article, which I’ve since kept in my personal archives. That article includes a playlist from both Nova & 2Day during the lunchtime hour (12-1pm) in May 2001. This may not have covered the full hour, but should give you an idea on what kind of songs both stations played.
Here it is.
Nova 96.9 - Sydney, NSW
“Sounds Different”
Tuesday 15th May 2001 - 12-1pm AEST
“Roll On” The Living End
“Everytime You Need Me” Fragma
“Drive” Incubus
“Now That We’ve Found Love” Heavy D & The Boyz
“Want You Bad” The Offspring
“Push It (Remix)” Salt ‘N’ Pepa
“My Happiness” Powderfinger
2Day FM - Sydney, NSW
“Today’s Best Music”
Tuesday 15th May 2001 - 12-1pm AEST
“What It Feels Like For A Girl” Madonna (a current hit at the time)
“On A Night Like This” Kylie Minogue
“I’m Like A Bird” Nelly Furtado
“Young Hearts Run Free” Kym Mazelle
“Sky” Sonique
“Say You Do” Invertigo
“If You Could Read My Mind” Stars On 54
I personally preferred Nova over 2Day back then.
I remember Nova playing this one quite often in 2001/02, along with some other early 90s hits that everyone else had forgotten at that point such as ‘Ebenezer Goode’ and the KLF hits. This was probably my first hit of nostalgia when listening to the radio! I distinctly remember hearing ‘Der Kommissar’ by Falco on one occasion…and wondering WTF it was. IIRC 80s hits were pretty rare on the original Nova, though.
Songs around 10 years old are generally lost to radio: too old for CHR and too young for gold. Now those early 90s hits are popping up everywhere, even on 2CA!
I personally love both playlists and back in the day would have been flicking between the 2
I first heard ‘Der Kommissar’ on Nova back then as well.
2001-02 was an interesting era for commercial radio in Sydney & surrounds, which also saw the launch of C91.3 in Campbelltown.
Ahh that’s a nice Nova96.9 playlist.
It reminds me how they took playlists to that next level - not focusing on females/rock/pop… they just played it all. From dance, to rock, followed by pop and then back to dance. And if it was Aussie and new, they’d give it a spin.
Meanwhile, 2Day was sounding very American/international at the time.
These days, both stations sound dated and generic, although I would prefer 2Day over Nova96.9.
Thanks for sharing. They’re both good playlists TBH but Nova really pushed the boundary back then and sounded great.
Most of these songs can now be heard on DAB , which is a credit to all three networks (ARN, SCA and Nova) even though Nova on FM is unrecognisable today than when it once was.
Hey all, I’ll be presenting another special this afternoon on the fresh mix dot com. For two hours I’ll be playing random selections from my Leed top 40, from the week ending Sunday 6th July 1980. Program commences 17:00 hrs Australian Eastern Time, hope you can come along. :).
01 - Cold Chisel - Cheap wine (WEA)
02 - Motels - Danger (Capitol)
03 - Roxy Music - Over you (EG)
04 - Olivia Newton John - Magic (Jet)
05 - Elton John - Little jannie (single edit) (Rocket)
06 - Veterans - There’s no age for rock n roll (vinyl) (Avenue)
07 - Blondie - Call me (Chrysalis)
08 - Fleetwood Mac - The farmer’s daughter (live) (Warner)
09 - Jon English - Hope it turns out right (Mercury)
10 - Sparks - When I’m with you (Virgin)
11 - Misex - Space race (CBS)
12 - Dugites - In your car (Deluxe)
13 - Tarney Spencer Group - Cathy’s clown (unknown remaster) (A&M)
14 - Jermaine Jackson - Lets get serious (single edit) (Motown)
15 - Michael Jackson - Off the wall (Epic)
16 - Ali Thomson - Take a little rhythm (A&M)
17 - Splitenz - I hope I never (Mushroom)
18 - Robbie Dupree - Steal away (Warner)
19 - Joan Armatrading - Me myself I (A&M)
20 - Bob Seger - Against the wind (with the Silver Bullet Band) (Capitol)
21 - Dexy’s Midnight Runners - Geno (EMI)
22 - Isaac Hayes - Don’t let go (radio edit) (Polydor)
23 - Silicon Teens - Red river rock (Mute)
24 - Pete Townshend - Let my love open the door (Atco)
25 - Billy Joel - It’s still rock and roll to me (CBS)
26 - Boz Scaggs - Jojo (CBS)
27 - Meco - The empire strikes back (RSO)
28 - Village People - Can’t stop the music (RCA)
29 - Donna Summer - On the radio (Casablanca)
30 - Kim Hart - Love at first night (EMI)
31 - Mental as Anything - Come around (Regular)
32 - Janis Ian - The other side of the sun (Interfusion)
Going through some old files, I found a few music logs from early-2000’s from some of the Sydney stations. If there is enough interest I can post more.
Let’s begin with…
104.1 2DayFM - Today’s Best Music
01/09/2003 - 10AM (2 months before Wendy Harmer / Morning Crew finished)
DJ: Adam Wiliscroft
Thicke - When I Get You Alone
Fragma - Every time You Need Me
Nickelback - Someday
Sarah Whatmore - When I Lost You
Amanda Perez - Angel
Betty Boo - Doin’ The Do
Good Charlotte - Girls & Boys
BT - Simply Being Loved
Nelly / Kelly - Dilemma
Evanescence - Going Under
Moloko - Sing It Back
Delta Goodrem - Not Me, Not I
9AM had a feature, which I’m unsure what it was…but there was some interesting choices in there.
01/09/2003 - 9AM
Robbie Williams - Let Me Entertain You
Duran Duran - Ordinary World
Corona - Baby Baby
Vic Reeves - Dizzy
Alicia’s Attic - I Am, I Feel
Technotronic - Get Up
Enigma - Return To Innocence
Third Eye Blind - Semi Charmed Life
Rozalla - Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)
Black Eyed Peas / Justin Timberlake - Where Is The Love?
Lo-Tel - Angel
Looking at Survey 8, 2003 which I believe was this survey period, the 10+ rank of stations was…
2Day: 9.8
Nova: 9.0
Mix: 7.9
WSFM: 7.1
Triple M: 6.7
2JJJ: 5.0
It was actually Survey 6 (the final week) & 7 when the above playlist took place. Survey 7 of 2003 was an historical one, as Nova knocked 2Day off the #1 FM spot for the first time (2GB was #1 overall). In the survey before that, 2Day was just 0.1 ahead of Nova.
Anyway, what a great find there! 
It would be great to see more radio playlists from that era.
I remember this song quite well - saw its music video on “Video Hits” all those years ago.
Peaked at #49 on the ARIA Singles Chart in May 2003. Sadly, her only “hit”.
Do you have TripleM for the same period? During that they were more modern and looking to compete with Nova
Brilliant era of FM radio and brilliant sharing. Thank you.
