Nine Radio (Music)

John and Garry were told before Lifestyle started that their program would be going national this year, so unless Macquarie have changed their minds there will be no local breakfast shows in Melbourne and Brisbane.

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I think John and Garry will be heard in all 3 cities at breakfast. Melbourne and Brisbane don’t have separate breakfast shows now as Magic (although I realise Sydney does but I think given the context of the 2CH sale, there are reasons why that has been the case), so I can’t see that changing with the switch to Talking Lifestyle.

As these are metro not regional licences, I don’t think there will be any compliance issues when it comes to whether they are talking about specific cities or have local content. Of course Macquarie may choose to have specific slots presented from Melbourne or Brisbane for a variety of reasons, including for the convenience of the contributor/presenter (and as discussed in the Macquarie thread, it is quite possible that overnights will come from Melbourne as is currently the case on “2UE Talking Lifestyle”), but there is no obligation on them to do so. The whole lot could come from Sydney 24/7 and ACMA would have no interest.

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The news will be local from 3AW and 4BC (you would assume) so there will be at least a few minutes of local content each hour.

That only applies to regional stations. There’s no requirement for metro stations to have any local content.
I guess when the law was introduced it was to limit networking on regional stations, and no one thought it would ever be an issue for the metros.

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Nor does the Comms Minister. He was asked this question live on 612 ABC last year and has no plans to add LCLCs to metro licences.

Put simply, the pollies don’t care.

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Which is sensible. In regional areas with fewer stations (and politicians) the importance of local media is far more significant, and the protections on its content less able to be guaranteed by national radio networks, hence the regulation. In metro areas the variety is much more present so regulation should, in theory, not be required to maintain local content

It’s up to the power of the listener and the effect of the free market to tell radio management that their networked dross stinks and needs changing. I suspect it will likely succeed here too given what appears to be in store

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It’s more that the public don’t care.

The city slickers are not as parochial as their country cousins about their town.

If Melbournians had an issue with radio being piped out of Sydney (or vice versa etc), the pollies could easily implement a similar licence conditions on metro stations.

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According to today’s Herald Sun, Macquarie will launch Talking Lifestyle at South Melbourne Market this Wednesday, so let’s see what programming it has planned for Melbourne.

I wonder where the supposedly hard working Donna Lynch will launch the 4BH advertorial in Brisbane?

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Here is Brad Smart’s opinion piece about Magic in Melbourne & Brisbane switching to Talking Lifestyle from next Monday: https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/‘magic’-not-lifestyle

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Brad is great writer, his opinion pieces are spot on.

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Cough cough … sorry something caught in my throat :stuck_out_tongue:

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Exactly :stuck_out_tongue:

Dave Ferguson is still filling in for Glenn Ridge this week on Magic Breakfast. Which I think is very strange since Talking Lifesyle starts next Monday

I think it’s an excellent article.

It has always been Macquarie’s intention to roll out Talking Lifestyle to Melbourne and Brisbane. The only question has ever been how early in 2017 it would happen. As Talking Lifestyle only launched in Sydney in September, there clearly hasn’t been sufficient time to allow it to bed in and to do a proper analysis of its performance. New formats really need at least a year to settle down. The jury is still very much out on its performance in Sydney - the last ratings survey of 2016 showed a distinct drop in listeners to 2UE since the format change. The decision to take the format to Melbourne and Brisbane this early in 2017 must have been made as early as November if the stories that Magic staff were given redundancy notices at the end of November are true. Somehow Directors have been persuaded to take a leap of faith and accept that Talking Lifestyle is the answer to whatever the question was.

Macquarie seems to be content to see a drop in listeners if financial growth and savings still increase as a result of the new format. However, as noted previously, ratings can only go so low before advertisers and sponsors start to question the wisdom of investing in the product.

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I think the planned programming for Melbourne will be everything networked in from Sydney! Anyone expecting local shows will be very disappointed

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With the exception of overnights (sigh). Interesting that Dee Dee from Melbourne whom I have never heard of did Tim Webster’s show from Melbourne one day last week and has since become a semi-regular. I don’t think it will make all that much difference whether out of Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane. I do hope that Donna Lynch is kept (somewhere) not like poor Mardi Cole reduced to doing traffic reports each morning.

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While that might be all that’s heard of her on air, she’s actually now the NSW Operations Manager at the Australian Traffic Network.

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Why doesn’t TL keep local breakfast shows and utilise Grubby and Dee Dee in Melbourne and somehow have Glenn Ridge on air (maybe weekend afternoons?).

So much potential. Such a wasted network.

Then again, at least TL has (sort of) regular daily programs which makes it less community radio like than before.

Also interesting that TL often sells on air that its shows also has “a bit of music too” maybe to transition those staying on board from Magic (and to somewhat compete with 2CH).

I don’t really think any listeners would be staying on board from Magic. Why would they? They are listening to Magic for music. If they wanted talk they’d already be listening to 3AW/4BC or the ABC.

The Brisbane listeners will go to 4KQ and the Melbourne ones will go to Smooth.

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