Sigh…
May as well just relay 104.9 and be done with it. You know they will do it in the end.
“Now Sydney’s second lowest commercial FM radio station comes to Townsville. The station that Sydney stopped listening to over a decade ago is here - Welcome to Sydney’s Rock and Comedy on Townsville’s Triple M.”
It would probably have made more business sense to change Triple M’s name to 2TO, use the 4TO playlist and relay Pricey to breakfast on 104.9
It’s s pity as the 4TO logo is a good symbol that represents tropical North Queensland
7 Likes
We’ve all known it, it’s close to a year late on what was announced for the first round of brand axings.
Mark, you and us all know that it’s more than a brand change, it’s destroying decades of brand recognition and goodwill for the sake of simplistic arguments that don’t pass the test of first year uni subjects on critical thinking and common fallacies.
Minty has been on air until 5pm and KO kept going until some time ago disappointingly:
4 Likes
Well the first round of brand axings 2 years ago doesn’t appear to have generated the community bscklash that some thought it would.
2 Likes
that is simply because punters understood, when they listened to the station, that all the music and personalities like Hadley (national) or their local breakfast was still the same, without the music being changed to the capital cities formats et al.
For 4TO, Minty, Chooky and most importantly Pricey are staying, the Greatest Hits are staying, Everything Townsville is staying. It’s a fresh coat of paint and a name change. Same for KO. Little A will be carried out of the place in a box (love you Ambrose!) and JR, Tanya and Steve will still drive the place in the mornings.
3 Likes
There was never going to be a backlash from the average listener who is not terribly interested in the radio industry.
What does happen though is that Newcastle and Townsville lose a call sign that related to their city. In the age of the internet local will become more important. Triple M is no longer local. Triple M is somewhat generic.
It looks like the Triple M virus cannot be stopped. It is destroying every regional brand in its path. The takeover of 2KO and 4TO show the absolute power of this virus. Incredible.
9 Likes
It’s a radio station, not closing the local’s favourite footy field.
Regional Australia have suffered the death of a thousand cuts for many things many times before. There’s not going to be backlash, but more shrugs of the shoulder and another reminder that those many miles away think they know what’s best.
Locals in regional Australia have seen it all before, each time they’re disappointed but resigned to the changes, they have little choice.
It’s a cumulative effect, slowly but surely. What was once the local station with a local name and local line up with a local connection to the community looking after their needs now pays lip service with that annual childrens’ ward fundraiser.
Think of the many thousands of years it took to create the Tessellated Pavement, that’s symbolic of the cuts and changes for the worst in regional Australia. Dumping decades of brand value, loyalty and recognition is another change for the worst, another erasing of local identity.
Simply because change can be made, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily right nor the best thing for the community or the company.
Should add, there’s not much choice with radio, you either get your local information from the station or not. Alternatives are limited. A bank closes in regional Australia, you can make a measurable impact by withdrawing your assets and supporting what branch does remain open in your area.
Community protest in the streets it won’t be, but another “remember when we had local radio and life was better with…”
2 Likes
So how do they explain keeping Mix in Perth?
Any details on 2GO and Gold?
5 Likes
Perhaps they will rebrand next year in a 3rd phase?
Absolutely true. That explains it perfectly. The locals generally will keep listening because there isn’t any alternative, but the connection is lost and people just see it as yet another degradation of service. It’s such a pity because the argument for doing it is so pathetic. Meanwhile locals in small cities across North America retain their local station names for the most part. It’s just sad.
4 Likes
I’m happy to see that ‘Pricey’ is staying ,he has been on air at this station for over 25 years, I first heard him on air when I visited my sister when she was working up there from 1995-97.This was before they changed to FM.It will be a sad day for Townsville when 4TO FM are forced to take the Triple M branding,yet another very old callsign will disappear from the airwaves 
8 Likes
I live in Sydney but I find it sad that if I drive 45 hours north I would be listening to the same call sign that I can hear in the harbour city.
I feel sad for Townsville. It looks like radio in the 21st century is all about Sydney. This massive continent is becoming a little bit more bland everyday.
6 Likes
Your can’t compare the Australian and North Americans markets. In the US the population is far more decentralized so national advertisers have to embrace regional media.
In Australia most of the population is in the 5 metro cities so advertisers can get away with being lazy ignoring regional media.
Advertising revenue in regional radio, TV and print is significantly lower per capita than their metro counterparts. This is the real danger to regional media - when profit margins drop, there will be cuts to services as they’re no longer sustainable.
What SCA are doing is increasing their regional revenue by pandering to the ad buyers. It’s not that they can’t understand networks of different stations, but they see the metro brands and being trusted premium brands that they recognise. For a regional station in the network to have a different brand makes in unknown and inferior - and therefore a riskier proposition.
The local brands, no matter how trusted and recognisable to listeners don’t actually have as much value as some on here seem to think. Even you say that the listeners will keep listening regardless of what brand is used. That basically means that the brand has nothing to do with keeping listeners and therefore has very little of any additional value of anything else they call the station.
4 Likes
I’m not buying that at all. What is the difference to the advertisers if the station is still part of the “triple m network” but called 4TO FM. As far as they are concerned they are buying ads on Triple M. Why not leave the branding for all of the regional stations intact as “4TO FM - part of Triple M”. Then everyone is happy.
As for a “premium brand” they are trashing it anyway by applying it to AM signals like 4GR and playing Taylor Swift. Triple M is meaningless now even in metro areas where it has narrowed to being bogan and sports mad.
A brand needs to be consistent to maintain its value IMO
7 Likes
I loved this summary of the Triple M Australia-wide takeover of every local radio brand:
5 Likes
From that article:
Rocktober will always be 2SM to me, not the later imitation.
4 Likes
Back in 70s and up until the 2000s 4TO FM were live and local 24/7.Looking at their show page now it’s sad to see more than half of the programmes are networked from down south 
6 Likes
Next time I’m up in Townsville I guess I’ll hear”This is Townsville’s Triple M “on the station that used to be 4TO FM, very sad😕
6 Likes
I suppose Triple M is now the Starbucks of radio. They both used to be associated with one city - Sydney and Seattle respectively - but now they’re an unwanted, generic, same-same brand found everywhere.
Mind you I do get their reasoning for the blanding of Austrian radio. Some advertisers were too stupid to advertise in Newcastle or Townsville as they did not realise that people lived there. But now there’s a Triple M…
Doug Mulray and Rod Muir must be rolling in their yachts.
4 Likes
True.
Although to be pedantic FM104 originally launched in Brisbane as 4MMM. They ID’d as 4MMM for a short while before changing to FM104. Even so they would occasionally ID as “FM104 the home of 4MMM” right up to the late 80s. So there’s a bit of history with the name in Brisbane as well as Sydney.
Mind you I completely agree they’ve trashed the brand.
5 Likes