I suspect Triple M will be playing a lot of Soungarden and Audioslave in the next 24 hours with the breaking news of lead singer Chris Cornell’s death filtering through.
Sad news.
RIP.
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yes, very sad news indeed!
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Yep that’s my tip, 11 - 1 is a real weird time slot, Mez Wouldnt have been pushed I don’t think.
Wouldn’t have been pushed?
He went from Merrick and Australia to just Sydney only.
He has been gradually nudged out of the Triple M family.
Triple M, at least in Melbourne, are playing non-stop Soundgarden songs tonight.
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Great ad from 1990. Terrific shots of Melbourne from 27 years ago. The ad was clearly made for a Melbourne audience.
With a radio station callsign that was made for Sydney.
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Now that Merrick is going…imagine if Triple M in Sydney decided that the Drive show should play rock music.
Imagine if they had a 3 1/2 minute ad break on the hour (with news) and on the half hour.
Imagine if Drive was just new and classic rock and a great DJ with a good voice.
Imagine finishing work and just tuning into non-stop rock in the way home.
Imagine getting your hair cut and the barbers at 5.15pm and they were tuned to non-stop rock
Imagine a radio station saving money by just playing music.
It would never work at Drive. People want more than just music in Drive.
Oh wait…smooth is the No.1 AM or FM station in Sydney in Drive. Music can work in Drive.
Imagine…
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You’re dreaming, mate. 
According to the comments on their Facebook page, they repeated songs such as Black Hole Sun and Spoonman multiple times 
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Just imagine 
Rock Radio would then be as good as it was in the 80s.
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I noticed that, after an hour and a half, they played the same songs over. Lazy radio. They should have had album tracks, rare recordings, interviews with Chris that they did over the years, Audioslave tracks etc. But no they had to play the same “safe” songs.
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oh wait! Rebel FM already has this formula! Thank God they are live streaming again!
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To play devils advocate, there are 2 FM stations playing music in drive who rate a combined 17.1, and 4 FM stations with more talk based shows which rate a combined 29.8. That gives similar average ratings for both formats.
But even still, it’s hard to draw conclusions from the figures alone.
In addition to your theory, I can think of at least following scenarios.
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More of the audience is listening to talk formats, so they are more popular, and better serviced, resulting in no station being able to get enough listeners to rate #1.
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Only people who listen to easy listening prefer listening to music in drive.
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People don’t care if there’s talk, and will go to whichever stations plays their favourite music.
In fact, history shows that ratings generally fall when a talk based show goes on holidays and music is played instead - one of the reasons those breaks are now filled with replays.
I would also argue that music isn’t cheaper. While it might have less staff, it’s harder to network, so more stations have to employ someone for that time. It’s also harder to get sales for that slot, with 100% being for 30 second ads. There’s no opportunity for show sponsors, sponsored competitions, sponsored segments, sponsored OB’s etc…
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How is a music shift more difficult to network than a talk one? If you mean by that they need different playlists for eg regional stations, they could still send out an alternate song to those markets on that feed that fits into eg the allotted 4 mins.
You could still run sponsored competitons with eg music trivia questions, and give a sponsor naming rights to the music show and include network advertising which reduce the need to sell other ad spots. But I would suggest doing an OB in either a talk or music shift will be irrelevant to listeners outside of the host city anyhow.
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A big flaw in your calculations might be the “other” station figures. I would propose that most of the “other” figure is made up of people listening to music programs on community and overspill stations, and increasingly DAB stations. Eg in Brisbane/Gold Coast it’s Breeze, Rebel, River, 99.7 and 94.1
Me personally in drive it’s DAB all the way these days - Smooth, OMG, The 80s, The 90s and Easy.
If Triple M still had Classic Rock they would feature prominently. So no it’s not just easy listeners who prefer music
The music choice for mine is the biggest and most frustrating issue, they got smashed in the ratings back when they went 90’s and only 90’s and started to improve when more classic rock was added to the playlist, now they’ve gone back to a lot of 90’s and it repetitive, more classic rock will help the ratings. For drive they either need to get big names on drive or they might as well play just music.
Absolutely, although this is typically made up of stations of limited appeal for one reason or another, so I’d argue that none of those stations have the winning formula.
My point however was that picking one figure out of the ratings is never going to paint a complete picture. The reality is the we don’t know what would happen if Triple M or one of the CHRs were to go 100% music during drive because none of them have done it for a long time.
[quote=“Radiohead, post:627, topic:95”]
How is a music shift more difficult to network than a talk one? If you mean by that they need different playlists for eg regional stations, they could still send out an alternate song to those markets on that feed that fits into eg the allotted 4 mins.
[/quote]The suggestion alone is actually much harder than it sounds. Every station I’m aware of that has the same hosts and different music does it by having all stations (except maybe the source station) recorded segments to the timing of their own music.
People expect more localism in a music shift. The case that comes to mind is Nova’s “dual” broadcasting in Sydney/Melbourne. Everyone was up in arms that the workday music hosts wouldn’t be local in Melbourne to make the station local, but no one blinks when the drive and nights show are networked around the country.
You have just suggested an element that would reduce music and increase talk. You’ll note that i also said it was HARDER, not IMPOSSIBLE, to sell these shifts. Advertisers love attaching their brand to personalities, but couldn’t give a stuff about some unknown jock that plays the music. Even the more well known jocks are just a name, with very little personality for the audience to get to know and grow attached to.
Sure, but they get done, and draw in huge money. All major shows run events outside the studio - it might not be a sausage sizzle at Harvey Norman, but things like H&A’s race that slows down the nation or KTM on The Ghan were big sales opportunities that despite being in a specific location were made to be relevant and compelling to all listeners regardless of location.
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The only announcer that could do the music shift would be Ugly Phil, he has a big knowledge of music from any era and he has a little fun with sound FX. I’d say the chaser will be on Drive, it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. Even possibly the DSL being in Drive but I like the hour program, shuts the “Triple M has to much sport” crowd up. As I’ve said the music needs to be fixed majorly.
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There’s really only one way to satisfy their audience. Triple M MUST utilise DAB to split into two. One station for people who like waffle and sport, and the other playing only music for people who like quality, broad and adventurous classic rock and cool newer rock.
It’s the only way. People like me will never put up with the talk and sport when I have so many other options to stream. Triple M were INSANE to close down Classic Rock Digital. I read an opinion piece recently saying that stations need to give up on trying to “monetize” everything straight away (eg DAB) and rather just focus on delighting and KEEPING their audience instead - because once they go, they’re not coming back in this world of abundant choice.
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Well they were seeming to head toward a classic rock playlist then backflipped and went 90’s. I honestly don’t get why they don’t listen to their audience and go with a classic rock playlist, it’ll work. I personally love the sport talk. It seems to me they are trying to create A blokes hub, sorta like a shed or the pub if you would. But I think if they went with a classic rock direction, music during the day and sport on the weekend afternoons that could work on the FM dial. And utilise the digital platforms to fill in the gaps, plus music shows like My Generation on weekend afternoons with countdowns and what not using that digital platform. There is so much they could do in a perfect world while still keeping some of the programming they have now.