Radio Stations - Music Logs

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1789

I didn’t know if it was just me, but a lot of the times when I come across Gold (101.7 Sydney) lately they seem to be playing a lot more newer stuff this year ??

So I took the opportunity to dump a week’s worth of music from Lava from Sept 2025 vs March 2026. The split by decades had (surprisingly) not changed much. 80s music is still the most prominent decade (around 60-61% of total music played).

But they are playing fewer tracks overall (1,478 in Mar 2026 vs 1,524) and fewer unique songs (516 vs 530).

But what was interesting to see what songs GOLD did play in 2025 that they are not playing much of (or at all now) vs 2026 and vice versa.

eg. ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ was played 10 times during the September 2025 sample period, but didn’t get played at all for the sample week in March 2026

Song / Artist 2025 2026 Variation
Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears 10 0 -10
Take Me Back - Noiseworks 7 0 -7
Dreams - The Cranberries 6 0 -6
(I Just) Died In Your Arms - Cutting Crew 5 0 -5
1999 - Prince 6 1 -5
99 Luftballoons - Nena 5 0 -5
I Found Someone - Cher 5 0 -5
If You Could Read My Mind - Stars On 54 6 1 -5
Semi Charmed Life - Third Eye Blind 6 1 -5
Two Princes - Spin Doctors 6 1 -5
Weather With You - Crowded House 6 1 -5
Funky Town - Pseudo Echo 1 6 5
Keep On Loving You - REO Speedwagon 0 5 5
Kyrie - Mr Mister 0 5 5
Lean On Me - Club Noveau 0 5 5
Live It Up - Mental As Anything 3 8 5
Mickey - Toni Basil 0 5 5
Original Sin - INXS 0 5 5
Smooth - Santana / Rob Thomas 0 5 5
The Power Of Love - Huey Lewis & The News 1 6 5
Viva La Vida - Coldplay 0 5 5
Where Do You Go - No Mercy 0 5 5
Celebration - Kool & The Gang 0 6 6
If You Could Only See - Tonic 0 6 6
Love Shack - The B-52’s 0 6 6
Nothin’ But A Good Time - Poison 0 6 6
Playing To Win - Little River Band 0 6 6
Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley 1 8 7

nb.

Sample period dates

2025 - 14 to 20 September inclusive

2026 - 8 to 14 March inclusive

3 Likes
1790

I heard this on 2ue yesterday.

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1791

Looks like this one is making a comeback. It used to be thrashed in the 90s; I called it the ‘wee in your ‘jamas’ song (we be jammin’).

An interesting exercise. It proves that- although it’s a painfully safe playlist- some songs get put on the bench for a while. But like the Dragons, it doesn’t matter what or who they sub in, it’s still shite :wink:

2 Likes
1792

Clearly the Gold MD took a roadtrip to the far expanses of… Gosford and brought back the station formerly known as 2GO’s playlist with them.

1 Like
1793

They may not need to travel so far a drive from North Sydney to a hill in the Northern Beaches will result in excellent FM reception from the Central Coast. A walkman would be fine and you can enjoy the beautiful view as well as you diligently scriple down the playlist with a pen & paper. (There is the Listnr app as well but that isn’t as cool :grinning_face:).

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1794

I remember my first visit to Palm Beach in 1994 and being amazed at how clear COAST ROCK was on my little portable radio :smiley:

(Being from the deep southern suburbs of Sydney, we didn’t venture up there often)!

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1795

Yes, I knew someone who lived at Gosford back then who was amazed he often got better Coast Rock FM receotion in the car when in Sydney than he got around the Central Coast.

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1796

Yeah the central coast is a difficult place to get solid FM reception in and around the southern half of the Central Coast. NewsRadio 98.1 gets bad interference (it’s a bad frequency) and the terrain doesn’t help either. Where the opposite the Illawarra, I think is much better even though the northern end has some issues once north of Bulli. Maybe I should reply in a different thread which capital city/town has the best FM reception and the worse?

1 Like
1797

Given the above, let’s look at how the ACE “Classic Hits” stations compare to 6iX, music-wise.

2UE/Magic 1278/4BH
“Classic Hits”
Friday 10th April 2026 - 9am-12pm AEST

9am

“You Should Be Dancing” Bee Gees (1976)
“Bring Me Some Water” Melissa Etheridge (1988)
“Happy Together” The Turtles (1967)
“Two Strong Hearts” John Farnham (1988)
“Take It Easy” Eagles (1972)
“You Can Do Magic” America (1982)
“Let Your Love Flow” Bellamy Brothers (1976)
“I Am… I Said” Neil Diamond (1971)
“I Can’t Wait” Stevie Nicks (1985)
“Sundown” Gordon Lightfoot (1974)
“Beat It” Michael Jackson (1983)
“Good Lovin’” The Young Rascals (1966)
“Because The Night” Patti Smith (1978)
“Centrefold” The J Geils Band (1982)

10am

“Give It Up” KC & The Sunshine Band (1983)
“Walking On The Moon” The Police (1979)
“If I Could Turn Back Time” Cher (1989)
“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” The Beatles (1968)
“Solid Rock” Goanna (1982)
“Cars” Gary Numan (1979)
“Just The Two Of Us” Grover Washington Jr / Bill Withers (1981)
“Sweet Home Alabama” Lynyrd Skynyrd (1974)
“Dream Weaver” Gary Wright (1976)
“Chain Reaction” Diana Ross (1986)
“Lonely Boy” Andrew Gold (1977)

11am

“American Pie” Don McLean (1972)
“Three Little Birds” Bob Marley & The Wailers (1977)
“Shake A Tail Feather” Ray Charles / The Blues Brothers (1980)
“Come And Get It” Badfinger (1970)
“Baby Come Back” Player (1977)
“I Got You (I Feel Good)” James Brown (1965)
“Never Knew Love Like This Before” Stephanie Mills (1980)
“Two Hearts” Phil Collins (1988)
“Love Is In The Air” John Paul Young (1977)
“For All We Know” Carpenters (1971)
“Wild, Wild West” The Escape Club (1988)
“Take It To The Limit” Eagles (1976)

6iX - Perth, WA
“Forever Classic”
Friday 10th April 2026 - 9am-12pm AWST

9am

“We Built This City” Starship (1985)
“Boogie Shoes” KC & The Sunshine Band (1975)
“Things Don’t Seem” Australian Crawl (1981)
“Y.M.C.A.” Village People (1978)
“Heat Of The Moment” Asia (1982)
“Pop Muzik” M (1979)
“Come To Me” Diesel (1991)
“We Are Family” Sister Sledge (1979)
“Burn For You” INXS (1984)
“Built Me Up Buttercup” The Foundations (1968)
“Takin’ It To The Streets” The Doobie Brothers (1976)
“Wouldn’t It Be Good” Nik Kershaw (1984)

10am

“Golden Years” David Bowie (1975)
“Spirits In The Material World” The Police (1981)
“I’m Every Woman” Chaka Khan (1978)
“Learning To Fly” Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (1991)
“You’re No Good” Linda Ronstadt (1974)
“Town Called Malice” The Jam (1982)
“Good Lovin’” The Young Rascals (1966)
“Cover Me” Bruce Springsteen (1984)
“Rocket Man” Elton John (1972)
“Another One Bites The Dust” Queen (1980)
“Sunny” Boney M (1976)
“Everlasting Love” U2 (1989)
“Jackie Wilson Said” Van Morrison (1972)

11am

“Take The Long Way Home” Supertramp (1979)
“He’s So Shy” The Pointer Sisters (1980)
“Radar Love” Golden Earring (1973)
“Lady Madonna” The Beatles (1968)
“Down Under” Men At Work (1981)
“Every 1’s A Winner” Hot Chocolate (1978)
“Start Me Up” The Rolling Stones (1981)
“I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” Robert Palmer / UB40 (1990)
“Tragedy” Bee Gees (1979)
“Hip To Be Square” Huey Lewis & The News (1986)
“Lady Marmalade” Labelle (1974)

2CA in Canberra mostly used the same log as that of 6iX, but with “Last Train To London” by ELO replacing “Built Me Up Buttercup” & “Takin’ It To The Streets” at the 9am hour, the deduction of “Everlasting Love” at the 10am hour, and the addition of “How Much Love” by Leo Sayer at the 11am hour.

9 Likes
1798

Thanks, I wondered if 2CA and 6IX were ‘Still The Same’…as they’d play from Bob Seger :smiley:

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1799

Interesting that Star 104.5 still uses the tagline “More Music Variety”, when they now have a lot less.

They used to repeat new songs every 5 hours. Now that’s down to every 4 or even 3 hours - this ties into their shift from an AC format to a Hot AC / CHR.

Also, they used to play a wider variety of songs from each artist. If Taylor Swift had a new song out, for example, they still used to play older songs from her back catalogue. Now they’ll only flog the new singles.

For an example of what I’m talking about, this is Taylor Swift’s airplay from yesterday (Sunday 12 April):

06:40:37 AEST Taylor Swift Opalite
08:48:31 AEST Taylor Swift Elizabeth Taylor
10:11:58 AEST Taylor Swift Opalite
12:06:29 AEST Taylor Swift Elizabeth Taylor
13:44:58 AEST Taylor Swift The Fate of Ophelia
14:49:21 AEST Taylor Swift Opalite
15:59:24 AEST Taylor Swift Elizabeth Taylor
18:10:19 AEST Taylor Swift Opalite
20:10:53 AEST Taylor Swift Elizabeth Taylor
22:37:51 AEST Taylor Swift Opalite

I guess repetition sells, but it’s certainly not the same station that it was just 5 years ago.

I’m wondering if recent changes to the Central Coast’s demographic - more young families moving here from Sydney due to cheaper housing - have caused them to change their programming to cater for less TSL and a younger demo?

4 Likes
1800

Star104.5 can do whatever they feel like. They’ll always win over the heavily networked commercial FM competition.

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1801

If you don’t like it, there’s always Sydney radio or New FM.

1802

People on here were asking what 4LM in Mount Isa sounds like when they are playing music.

Here is a music log from 4HI Emerald, which plays the same music as 4LM. This during Queensland which airs from 2pm to 6pm weekdays. The format is Classic Hits with a rock edge going by the below.

4HI - Emerald - Queensland Drive - Friday 23rd April 2026 - 2pm to 3pm

Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi

Clocks - Coldplay

Heroes - David Bowie

Purple Rain - Prince

Cry - The Mavis’s

Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) - Journey

History Never Repeats - Split Ends

Katchi - Offenbach vs Nick Waterhouse

Khe Sanh - Cold Chisel

Toy Solders - Martina

Jeremy - Pearl Jam

Gimme Shelter - Rolling Stones

When they play music , I quite like it :+1:

6 Likes
1803

Wow- those two back to back is awesome. That’s the first I’ve heard of ‘Separate Ways’ being played on a bog standard Australian commercial radio station, too (Rebel would probably play it).

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1804

Rebel gives Separate Ways a spin every now and then. This awesome song was the highlight from me.

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1805

It’s funny how Australian radio is now embracing Journey a bit more; it was only the Steve Perry solo hit ‘Oh Sherrie’ that got any airplay prior to about 2015. It started with ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ which I believe featured on Glee, and now has spread to a couple of other songs.

I am waiting for ‘Girl Can’t Help It’ to have its moment in the sun.

4 Likes
1806

I’m pretty sure that “Don’t Stop Believin’” got a surge of worldwide popularity prior to Glee all thanks to the Season 4 episode of Family Guy “Don’t Make Me Over” and of course in 2007 with the series finale of The Sopranos.

1 Like
1807

I just streamed an hour of TMFM Tamworth this afternoon to sample their local music log.

This seems pretty consistent with what I’ve heard from them in the past when passing through their AM/FM signal coverage area.

Safe-ish, but a little bit better than what you’d get on Gold or Triple M regionals.

3pm-4pm Tues 2 June

Boys Of Summer – Don Henley

Young Hearts Run Free – Kym Mazelle

Absolutely (Story Of A Girl) – Nine Days

Out Of Touch – Hall & Oates

Dreams – Fleetwood Mac

You Can Call Me Al – Paul Simon

West End Girls – Pet Shop Boys

Once In A Lifetime – Talking Heads

Kryptonite – 3 Doors Down

I’ll Be Your Shelter – Taylor Dayne

Danger Zone – Kenny Loggins

5 Likes
1808

Yet another song to add to my personal, " Oh No , Not That Song Again " list

2 Likes