I find it interesting that Mike presents breakfast in Melbourne but is then heard all throughout the day on the digital channels (in Perth at least).
NOVA Entertainmentâs chief programming and marketing officer, Paul Jackson, concedes the stations are operating in very different market conditions, but they are programmed the same â something he may need to address.
âWe program them exactly the same, which I know competitor stations donât do that with their equivalent brands,â he says. âSo thatâs something we will look at and go âAre we at a point where thereâs enough of a difference in terms of the audience weâre targeting?ââ
He says smooth will likely need to âgo a bit narrowerâ in Melbourne because thereâs so much noise in the market and competitive stations all sitting at similar share levels.
I think the problem in Melbourne with Smoothfm is that they are using the same presenters in both places. If they had someone who was renown to be from Melbourne they would improve in the ratings. Leave the music alone I donât think that is the issue. You could even have the same playlist but with different presenters during the day in both cities. At the moment the only program that is local in both cities is breakfast.
Would the Sydney market no longer having a Easy Listening-type station on AM radio (compared to Melbourne where thereâs 3MP in addition to the more generalist Classic Hits on Magic) be another factor in the higher ratings for Smooth 95.3? Or were ex-2CH 1170 listeners more likely to go to 2UE and ABC Radio Sydney before any FM stations?
2UE has virtually replaced 2CH
The Ty Frost and Simon Diaz are both in Melbourne, so smooth is coming from Melbourne 9am - 4pm weekdays, and ratings are strong in both cities then.
Their real weakness is breakfast, but Mike Perso and Jennifer Hansen are both well known to the market.
Are Melbourne listeners really that finicky about their announcers?
Have local talk breaks and mention the footy. Local announcers should be preferred, but for a music shift I donât think it matters too much where they are
Are Mike and Jen not in Melbourne?
Yes they are.
The reason I kept them separate is that breakfast is local in Melbourne and Sydney.
9-4 is national from Melbourne
Drive, nights and weekends mainly Sydney.
Why do you think breakfast is the weakness? I actually thought they were a good point of difference to other breakfast shows.
Nights and weekends can probably stay networked without too many issues, however a locally presented drive shift would probably be a really good idea for Smooth 91.5.
A slightly different playlist to suit the dynamics of the Melbourne market could also help, but Iâm not too sure if the music is the issue.
I wouldâve thought that having AFL as the top stories during the Sport segment of news bulletins + the occasional segment during the breakfast show (weekly footy tips, etc.) is about the most coverage youâd need on a station like Smooth or Gold.
Is it because Jennifer Hansen & Mike Perso donât exactly scream âMelbourne radio institutionâ in quite the same way that Bogart Torelli & Glenn Daniel (both of whom have been on the radio here for years and years) do in Sydney?
Ty Frost and Simon Diaz arenât known to be from Melbourne which is my point. Unless you had inside information you wouldnât know that. So Byron Webb is in Sydney? If they used a personality known to be from Melbourne it would be more successful.
Smoothfm should be local during the day in both cities. Radioâs advantage is that it is local and can really engage with the local region. Voice tracking so it appears local isnât local.
EVERYONE in Melbourne knows who Jennifer Hansen is (and if they donât, it wonât be long before I tell them!) from her days at Channel 10. Itâs why I started listening to the show in the first place, and a lot of others are probably in the same camp.
Never heard of them 
Simon Diaz was at Mix in Melbourne for over a decade. Heâd personally be more well-known to a Melbourne audience than a Sydney one, especially as the (former) Mix demos shift over towards Smooth.
Ty Frost started on-air at Nova 100 in Melbourne in December 2001, and has been with Nova and Smooth in Melbourne since then. He was previously at various Victorian and Albury radio stations.
I recall Ty Frost as the afternoons presenter on the NSW, VIC and SA Star FMs hubbed out of Albury when that first launched in 2000.
I prefer Smooth Relax.
They actually have a good line up but yes would much prefer it to be local. I donât know why they bother with a voice tracker Cameron Dado at night, itâs so obviously pre recorded and on 7 nights a weekâŚas if. If they let there announcers be more âhumanâ it may help ratings ?