Yes, people will get the shits, but if you tighten the music choices, dump Hadley, then what you call the station, as much as I tend to disagree, won’t be so much of an issue. If people want to listen to Hadley rant on, they can stream it. If you must have a talker, make Australia Today a 6 hour show with 3 hours exclusive to those stations, but I’d go against it. Go for more regional-type shows. And reinstate the local breakfast shows on Hit stations at the very least.
The one big advantage SCA would have over Grant is that they have NRL (and AFL), even some of those voices can be given the arse (Mark Geyer, Ryan Girdler and Wendell Sailor should all be given the punt but that’s just me) - that to me is more preferable than listening to shows about local sport.
‘We will continue to have 4RO take the majority of their shows including Hadley from 2GB except for Breakfast and Drive like they have done for years, and we’ll let two of the stations we jointly own with Blyton to continue to take Hadley, and for one of those to be a 75% clone of 2GB.’
Having read the extended discussion, I thought I’d add to it:
I would not keep the legacy callsigns (on AM), as the level of local content is minimal and it tarnishes the memory of what, for some, were great stations
I am absolutely fine with a network name, when the vast majority of content is networked
I find the confusing aspect the differing formats between city and country. When I drive from Melbourne to Gippsland, Triple M is not the same. IMHO one of the objectives of a brand is a consistency in product no matter where you are (The Maccas approach).
I would have reinstated the band Star or (similar to the ABC) used a name like Double M for all the non-metro stations regardless of frequency band. (Announcers could then say you are listening to the Ms with fully networked live content such as AFL)
@MarkHD is probably right - we have had five years (1 year in Gippsland!) to adjust. I suspect we’ll just have to wait until the SCA share price falls to a level that we can afford to take them over and change the name!
Well I wasn’t aware of what 4RO does. But yes, Grants could also stand to drop Hadley too for the same reason she’s said herself - you can stream Hadley. 2NM doesn’t take Hadley, they still have Hunter Valley Today.
Who is CK replacing? Where is Minty, Glenn Mintern?
Good on him for going outside of radio with events. He’d done all he could on radio with the opportunities made available to him.
Interesting to read the many mentions of 4TO in the media release via the link. Research is showing them the far more memorable local brand remains popular. Most locals up there are averse to change and would still refer to it as 4TO.
The MMM regional branding is a failed strategy and should be dumped.
92.5 Gold Coast on a non market specific rock music log affirms this.
Unlike the mash up brands on the Hit side of the network, like the “Hit 101.9 The Fox” branding - I think it would sound fine to brand as “Townsville’s Triple M 102.3 - 4TO” and similar, at least where it’s a legacy call sign, would be harder with old brands like Gold FM, but there’s not as many of those.
Still gives you all the positives of the network brand - but highlights that localism and history. SAFM and B105 wouldn’t have flipped back from Hit if this stuff was all meaningless to listeners.
Or “Townsville’s 102.3 4TO FM - part of the Triple M Network”.
You can pitch the station to national advertisers as one of the 40 odd Triple M Network stations and as 4TO FM to local advertisers and have the best of both worlds.
Rogers broadcasting in Canada does branding effortlessly to keep heritage names where appropriate as part of a national brand. Take their rock network stations for example. Some are just generic “Rock” with the frequency, while some with important heritage like CITI in Winnepeg and CHEZ in Ottawa keep their names in the same logo.
SCA are displaying inconsistencies themselves by reverting back to local branding on Hit metro stations, but retaining generic branding everywhere else.
The difference is the market sizes (I’m guessing). With the exception of 92.9 Perth, Triple M has been in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide for a long time, essentially making them heritage brands. This would make them equivalent to heritage stations like 2Day, Fox, Mix and why they revived SAFM and B105.
We all know SCA puts less (or little) importance on their regional stations, so by being able to put them under one brand banner (either Hit or Triple M), it gives them a national network to sell. The only difference is the regional stations in the Triple M National network just happen to have the same name as the cap city stations. Whereas the heritage cap city Hit stations all have individual brands and the regionals are all lumped under Hit (which they had obviously planned to role out everywhere at one stage).
Are SCA scaling back on the nationally networked dayparts?
Just saw today that they picked up a new announcer for Hit CQ? And 4TO are getting a new announcer?
