Media Hunter

Media Hunter hits the radio waves

I was recently interviewed by Amy Spear for a syndicated community radio program called Insight regarding advertising and the emerging digital and social media landscapes. The interview has since played on 50 radio stations around Australia.

Maybe the most remarkable aspect of this interview is that it has been generated by community radio, not the mainstream media who still seem either oblivious or opposed to this next generation of media thinking.

Also on the interview is Josh Grace, head of Direct Marketing at Leo Burnett.       

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Wheatley banks on Stripes

Source: Bernard Zuel, Sydney Morning Herald

He brought FM to Australia. Now the music industry veteran plans to bombard listeners with radio opportunities.

Glenn Wheatley knows we are not exactly short of radio options in Sydney. You can listen to more than two dozen stations, half of them claiming to be music stations, though their bombardment of commercials, inane announcers, severely restricted playlists and risk aversion suggest music is anything but their focus.

It sounds more than enough, but Wheatley is banking on your wanting 30, 40 or even 100 more - and being happy to pay for it.

NEWFM 'dreaming' of ratings success

The second radio ratings results of 2008 have given the struggling NEWFM a shot in the arm, delivering the station a slight increase of 0.8 in the overall ratings.

Guy Ashford, now the apparent NEWFM manager, told the Newcastle Herald that the small increase was a "welcome boost" for the station after the station had recorded its lowest ever ratings in Survey One of just 5.6%.

Media Hunter hears that station management were very happy with themselves when the results were announced yesterday. Ashford claimed that, "It's a sign that we've bounced back and the tides are changing."

He told the Newcastle Herald: "NEWFM did lose its way but it's back on track, and it's going to offer NXFM some serious competition. Within 24 months we'll be on an even playing field with NX."

Pardon? Even playing field with NXFM within 2 years? In the immortal words of Daryl Kerrigan in The Castle - Tell him he's dreaming.

Austereo Group talks down digital expectations

Source: Nick Tabakoff, The Australian

AUSTRALIA'S leading radio networks, including the Austereo Group, are likely to operate just one additional station for each licence they hold when digital radio is introduced at the beginning of next year.

The revelation comes in the wake of concerns expressed last week in the industry about possible digital radio black spots in the five mainland state capital cities, which could result in more than 20 per cent of city areas being left without indoor reception.

Initial expectations were that the digital radio, scheduled for launch on January 1, 2009, would see each metropolitan radio station launch up to three new stations, along with their existing current analogue station offering, on to the digital platform.

Alan Jones has cancer

Source: LiveNews and Media Spy

Australia’s highest-rating broadcaster, Alan Jones, has announced on 2GB he is suffering from prostate cancer.

“I have long argued the need for a regular consultation and medical attention for people so that they can avoid all of this. And I had hoped that I could as well,” he told a massive media contingent that had assembled at 2GB’s studios in Pyrmont, Sydney.

“And I hope in speaking as I have today it will encourage others to be a bit more urgent and active in what they do than is currently the case.”

The 67-year-old radio veteran explained that on the Gleason Scale - which is used to plot the severity of prostate cancer - he is around the middle.

“I guess if you’re on the far right of all of that - which is where I guess some people might think I belong, but I’m talking medically - then you start giving away your scarves and your cuff links.

“I’m not in that category… I’m in the middle of all of this. I’m told I’m in the better middle than the worse middle. And in that circumstance they say that surgery will be successful.”

 

The surgery would be carried out at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital in two weeks, and Jones said he intended to be on air until the eve of the operation.

NEWFM relaunch: have your say

Is the low rating Newcastle radio station back on track or have they had a "Claytons relaunch" - the relaunch you have when you are not really having a relaunch?

Last week NEWFM began their latest crusade to turn around their ratings slide with what was labelled a "soft relaunch by management. It was a case of what was old is NEW again at the Bill Caralis-owned Sandgate station. Ex-announcers Steve St John and Don Mayo returned to the fold to spearhead the campaign as the "new" breakfast team as St John and Don. The remainder of the line-up is basically unchanged.

St John has also taken on the Program Directors role, subtly re-jigging the station playlist with a slightly more rock sound, cherry-picking hits from the 70's, 80's 90's & 00's. It sounds remarkably similar to the KOFM playlist and one can only assume they intend to try and beat KO at their own game targeting a broad 25 to 54 year audience.

The new NEWFM slogan is Maximum Music Variety as opposed to KOFM's claim of Newcastle's Widest Variety of Music

Otherwise the "relaunch" sees the station with the same name, same logo (first sited in 1989), same call sign and the same very basic website (which is has apparently been updated, but its hard to tell).

The big question now is what do the listeners think? Will the changes have an impact on NEWFM's ratings? (They currently languish on a record low 5.6 points). Have they taken the right options with the on-air line-up and sound?

Tell us what you think.

NEWFM "soft" relaunch reveals new team

The rumours were true. As reported in Media Hunter back on 29 May, NEWFM's new breakfast team in Don Mayo and Steve St. John, or Don and St. John as they are calling themselves.

The new team commenced on-air today as part of a "soft" relaunch of the low rating radio station.

The station's music appears to be a little more rock oriented than before but the playlist is very broad with 70's, 80's, 90's and 00's music all in rotation and a tag line of "Maximum Music Variety" suggesting that they will be going after a broad audience from about 25 to 54 years.

Media Hunter readers largely recommended a narrower rock focus aimed more at 18-39 year olds when it was discussed passionately back in April, however the powers-that-be seem to be going after KOFM's heartland with the new line-up and playlist, rather than trying to wedge in between KO&NXFM.

It will take a few surveys for this to shake out. Don't expect much movement in Survey 2 this year, but by Survey 3 at years end we should begin to see if Newcastle is taking to the latest version of NEWFM.

The NEWFM website still shows the old breakfast team and on-air lineup, old tag line and info. The site has been under construction most of the year, so its not a big source of information for listeners at this stage.

Back to the future at NEWFM

It seems that NEWFM will being trying to recapture some of the Fatboys magic from earlier in the decade. Half of the original Fatboys team, Steve St John, has re-joined the Sandgate station and is rumoured to be forming an on-air partnership with Don Mayo.

Mayo has worked previously at NEWFM before joining the long list of announcers shown the door by owner Bill Caralis. However all seems to have been forgiven with Mayo about to return to the fold.

It is believed that the new breakfast team of St John and Mayo will launch on 9 June.

Meanwhile noticeable changes have begun to occur to the NEWFM playlist with the music begin to rock more.

Newcastle Herald feature on NEWFM woes

by Craig Wilson

The Newcastle Herald H2 section had a 2 page piece today on the problems at NEWFM titled Rock Bottom. Herald journalist Neil Jameson interviewed me for the story for advertising industry perspective on the current commercial radio imbalance in the Hunter.

The full story can be viewed here.

Dear Bill, your ex-audience has spoken

Media Hunter has been inundated with mail this week after asking readers to suggest "How would you solve a problem like NEWFM?" The tongue-in-cheek competition offered up a chance to win a stained pair tracksuit pants and circa 1979 knitted Newtown vest to the person with the best suggestions on how to save the struggling station following its woeful results in the latest Newcastle radio survey.

Interestingly, the forum seemed to attract just as many ex-Caralis employees as it did radio listeners, many of whom took the opportunity to take pot-shots at the Supernetwork owner. The Real Bill C also waded into defense of his management tactics, although we suspect the writer of those comments may not actually reside at Pyrmont as suggested in the email address.

Despite numerous witty and catty comments, we did receive a large number of serious contributions, all of whom seemed to be genuinely concerned about the plight of the once dominant station and its effect on radio listening in Newcastle. The common theme of rescue was a return to a narrowly-focussed rock music format reminiscent of the Newcastle's Best Rock, Fatboys era at the start of this decade. Readers suggested targeting males 18-39 with a rock format and a few good announcers, then being patient and sticking with the format for a few years. Most agreed that a ratings share of around 13.0 would be possible within a few years.

Considering that this was the overwhelmingly dominant recommendation, it seems fair that the prize goes to the first person to post the comment. Congratulations Greg, your tracky dacks and vest can be collected from Radio 2SM, Level Three 8 Jones Bay Road, Pyrmont NSW 2009 (thats a joke too of course).

Meanwhile, it will be interesting to watch and listen to see if Bill Caralis and his current management take any notice of our suggestions or just continue to ignore the wishes of the market who have voted with their ears in recent years.