I guess , but from a station that was once CHR and played more new music than Throwbacks, to now very little new music it is quite a massive change.
My guess Capital Radio must have done sone research and Snow / Eagle fm had lost significant listeners to GN / XL fm which are now clear market leaders in their respective markets.
I think the programmers have gone to extreme with these changes as the music is now 75% Throwbaxks. I think they will loose the younger end to Triple J / Streaming, but probably the younger listeners have not been there for a while hence the change. Triple J is suffering this probably with their core audience too.
I really donât like the new format at al to be honest. I wonder if they will start playing 80âs music soon and copy ARNâS regional AC stations?
Hereâs the low down after ringing Eagle fm and speaking to the lady on reception.
Major market research was done across the Cooma and Goulburn markets for Snow and Eagle fm. The findings were that the music was too repetitive.
Listeners loved the high school Hits, so this is now making up the core playlists on Snow and Eagle fm.
Changes are going to be made to GN / XL fm to modernise the music slightly by included more 2000âs music. This is a bit questionable as it is now the core playlist for Snow and Eagle fm, and will create overlap with the sister stations.
This is a major change for Snow and Eagle fm which have been practically CHR stations since they first launched.
I said I was not convinced by the new format for Snow / Eagle fm as they are practically only playing two or three current songs an hour, with the rest of the log being 2000âs high school hits.
Wave / Power fm now play more new music than Snow / Eagle. Even-though they go back to the 80âs and 90âs with their flashbacks.
Yeah, but it sounds like they havenât expanded the playlist, theyâve changed it & screwed it up, when all they needed was to add more of the same to the logs so it wasnât repetitive, they couldâve even just added a 100 more high school hits to the log, or go from a 200 song log to a 500 song log, donât replace the entire music library, & now it sounds like theyâre going to screw up the XL/GN music when there was nothing wrong with it & as many of us in here agree, itâs probably the best music log/playlist in Australia.
I donât know the full findings of their research maybe some of the songs on Eagle / Snow where too alternative and did not test well so they have also used this as an excuse to make the playlist safe.
I wonder if the rate the hits button on the top of the Eagle FM web page (that no longer works) & the Vote #1 fresh hits on the SNOW FM web page (that also doesnât work) was their major market research?
Youâd actually be surprised how many stations hire consultants or do market research on their music, only to change it & screw it right up.
Those rate the hits buttons have not worked for a very long time. Since Eagle and Snow fm are now represented by ARN sales and take W&W and KJO, I wonder if they are using ARNâs market research?
Basically Capital Radio are trying to get Snow and Eagleâs format as close to ARNâS Hot AC regionalâs (Power / Wave) as possible, without stepping on the toes of GN / XL Fm by playing 80âs and 90âs music. They even use the same positioner âGoulburn / Snowy Mountains Best Musicâ
This is equivalent to Novaâs Greatest Hitâs format change which sounded quite jarring from the previous format of the station.
When I was down in Jindabyne last ski season I heard XL fm on in more shops than Snow fm so maybe they have had a decline in audience which has caused the format shift.
Iâm not sure a tight CHR format focused only on new music works in a regional area with only 2 stations. I think Hot AC with possibly more CHR at night might be better received by the audience generally.
It was never a tight CHR format, the high rotation hits got spun a lot less than Nova and KIIS. Sometimes 4-6hours between spins. Nova averages 3 hours.
Snow and Eagle use to play lots of Australian music from artists like Ruel, Peking Duck, Hill Top Hoods, Flume. Some of these songs you would only hear on Snow / Eagle and Triple J.
Unfortunately like the old Nova it has morphed into an ultra safe AC station. I think the issue is the younger listeners are listening to radio a lot less or not at all so it is the death of the last of the CHR stations. Look at the UK three CHR stations is too many, KISS fm Uk share is woeful and there is talk that the network could be blown up and replaced with Greatest Hits.
Iâve long driven through Kevinâs FM markets, heard the s.39âs and been baffled as to the programming and commercial rationale.
Solus markets with very little in building receivable overspill, especially in their major population centres.
The Cooma market sees an influx of visitors to the ski fields for the snow season. Itâs considered these people listen to the radio and add to the audience and client value, what music do they wish to hear?
For years, Eagle and Snow have had very modern music formats, almost bordering on alternative, some of the Triple J playlist crossover.
Based on the flimsy phone poll regional surveys, the FM commercial station in almost all instances is the most popular. In Goulburn and Cooma, the previous, narrow music format wouldâve limited this somewhat.
Weâve all seen the music logs of the original stations, GN and XL FM, a favourite amongst Mediaspy contributors. A large music had existed, the new format narrows that gap.
I do feel the updated music programming for Eagle and Snow needs a more sophisticated approach to serve a wider audience. Clients would also benefit from this too.