Nova was a brand new station aimed at a younger audience. 94.5 is a longstanding Perth station and it doesn’t matter how they spin it, it will be seen by its audience as a takeover from the east.
Apologies if I repeat what you already know… it’s somewhat of a long story…
Currently, Triple M Classic Rock digital is on air in Perth.
Back in September 2013, they launched a digital only station called “Triple M Perth” (Triple M comes back to Perth) - basically the idea was for it to be a fully fledged Triple M station and was chasing the 96FM audience, but was only on DAB+. By memory, this was the first digital only station to carry digital branding. Ultimiately it didn’t do so well because it was digital only and lacked any real local content.
Since then, the Triple M DAB+ stations have come and gone as the digital lineup as changed since Perth doesn’t have enough bandwidth to accommodate all the digital only stations.
The world moves on? So you’re equating re-naming a station to a lacklustre national “brand” - which is arguably not overly successful in metro markets - as “moving forward” or progress? And if they don’t then they’ll remain a “desolate hell hole”? Gee they better get with the Triple M program because nobody wants to be labelled that
Interesting perspective.
Not harsh… just factual. Companies based in Perth complain about being so far away and hard to get things done with the Eastern States because of travel times etc but they make it harder for themselves because of their inward thinking and rank parochialism. I lived there for 3 years and I joked that it was the hardest 10 years of my life. But often, that’s the way it felt. Whether 94.5 is named Mix or Triple M or Wally - if it still has the same people behind the microphone - that’s what matters.
#1 for males 25-54 which is their direct target market - how is that lacklustre and not overly successful? No-one cares about being overall #1 anymore, and it has no bearing on advertisers. If you’re hitting their sweet spot that’s all they care about.
Triple M Perth in the 90’s wasn’t actually that bad, but it was jarring if you expected something like Triple M Sydney, as Triple M Perth was Top 40. At the time PMFM was leaning slightly more rock, and 94.5 was ‘no rap, no hard rock’, basically what Smooth FM is now.
Triple M ‘failed’ because Austereo had to sell a station, as Austereo bought PMFM/94.5 off Jack Bendat as well as buying all of Triple M off I think it was Hoyts.
PMFM and 94.5 had a branding and identity crisis in the early days of the Austereo ownership. Essentially PMFM became part of the Today Network (now Hit) yet I recall 94.5 had this logo which was in line with the Today Network branding.
I always thought Mix would become the Today Network station and PMFM might become Triple M Perth version 2 but it never happened.
It’s pretty telling they decided to keep 94.5 though and not Triple M. Clearly 92.9 and 94.5 were more successful.
Similar thing in Townsville when Austereo bought out RG Capital (?) They kept 4TO FM rather than Sea FM like they did in the other NQ cities. Again because 4TO was seen as more successful and valuable - and yet they just pissed that away
4TO (along with Hot FM) were owned by DMG (and before that, Rural Press) prior to the merger with RG Capital to form Macquarie Regional Radioworks (MRR).
The ownership status in Townsville looked something like this:
DMG - 4TO & Hot FM
RG Capital - Sea FM & Mix FM (both launched in 1999)
After MRR was formed:
MRR - 4TO & Hot FM
Prime (later Grant) - Sea FM (later Zinc) & Mix FM (later 106.3fm)
As for other QLD markets:
Cairns
Before:
DMG - 4CA & Hot FM
RG Capital - Sea FM
AMI - Easy Listening
After:
MRR - Sea FM & Hot FM
Prime - 4CA/Zinc & Easy Mix/4CA
Mackay
Before:
DMG - 4MK & Hot FM
RG Capital - Sea FM
AMI - Easy Listening
After:
MRR - Sea FM & Hot FM
Prime - 4MK/Zinc & Easy Mix/4MK
Rockhampton/Gladstone
Before:
DMG - 4CC & Hot FM
RG Capital - 4RO & Sea FM