To be honest 91.7 The Wave would have to be the very best commercial station in Australia atm.
Excellent selection of upbeat music.
As I live in NZ I have it programmed on my internet radio also the app is excellent
I agree, it’s a clever positioning of music to play a decent format of music that mostly isn’t played by the choices currently available from Perth/Bunbury signals.
The very light amount of music in the last decade or two is a welcome change to the usual flogged songs of the moment.
My only concern is that the format is an introductory one and will be narrowed and newer songs added once it gets people switching over.
Of course, that will take longer than programmers think as always, audience habits are hard to change and to pick up the revenue will be a slow rise, sales will need to convince clients/potential clients that the audience is no longer listening to Mix or 96. Sadly 6MM didn’t have a huge audience on AM, so there’s plenty to convince that new numbers are switching to Wave on FM.
On weekdays, there’s only two slots for a music-based local shift: Breakfast (5:30-9am) & Drive (3-6pm).
That’s part of the reason on why I don’t listen to 2LT much, in which there’s too much talk & not enough music.
Maybe it would become more music-based if/when its main 900AM service converts to FM.
In the mean time, I’d rather listen to 2ST, in which at least there’s music right through from dawn to dusk on weekdays.
Mandurah’s 917 The Wave is running a themed Sunday, ‘Smooth Sunday’, relaxing classics etc.
Interesting use of the word smooth. Well done.
OB on Saturday for the beginning of summer season at the local aquatic centre.
Friday and Saturday nights are commercial free, party themed.
Only downside is the use of SCA syndicated programming, My Generation interrupts for fifteen minutes at midday and 8pm weekdays then two hours from 4pm Saturday.
Don’t think they add much, could do write their own more suited to format.
Shame that fortuitous coverage isn’t better, needs better coverage like Murray Bridge, Ballarat, adjacent Sydney signals and Sunshine Coast into the metro areas such as Freo and Perth.
Fortuitous coverage by definition is that which is received through good fortune, so listeners have to take whatever they can get. Though with the flat terrain and- in the warmer months- excellent tropo conditions along the Perth seaboard, I would have thought 91.7/97.3 could make it into large parts of the metro.
That’s true, so is the fact that many licence areas have such coverage factored into planning. See the planning documents around 2000/1 for the change of freq and specs for Ipswich RA1 where this was mentioned in submissions and ABA’s discussion paper.
Interesting listening over the weekend, afternoon news updates voiced by the bloke who, if Bond Uni had yearbooks been in the category of least likely to be voicing bulletins in an Australian broadcast outlet:
The usual weekend afternoon national bulletin full of stories that usually have no connection to audiences from one story to the next.
If they’re taking My Gen in long and short and versions plus some news from SCA, intriguing what other connections they have.
Other observations:
Via streaming, some songs sound of excellent quality, pulling detail out that I’ve not heard on broadcast radio.
Teaser promos for “$10K or a holiday” comp. Good to hear of the station getting some life added to it. The big test will be come AM switch off. Still time for Steely Dan’s FM.
Great songs not heard in a long time. Some I’ve not heard since their first run in the days of AM stereo or FM only in capital cities and a few regional areas. Others are new to me and great fun to research looking through their playlist when winding down for the day.
I’m not a fan of strong accents making it difficult to understand what they’re supposed to be clearly communicating.
Matt also ‘chews’ the words, diction needs a lot of work.
2SM newsroom has had many a ‘backpacker’ over the years.
The regional affairs show on ABC Local Radio is a joke with rural content being presented by Sinead Mangan which, as the name suggests, doesn’t sound the least bit like the Australian country voices the supposed audience would expect and want to hear (familiar voices).
