Southern Cross Austereo is about to go to battle with the national broadcaster Triple J with the rebranding of 30 regional stations to Triple M in 2017.
In a statement to shareholders as part of its annual report Southern Cross Austereo, the owner of the Triple M network announced, “Triple M is set to expand next year as 30 of our regional stations currently under LocalWorks radio network will be brought into the Triple M family. This will deliver cohesive impact and greater overall brand value as it takes the group of highly successful and meaningful stations to a whole new level under the Triple M banner.
LocalWorks stations include MIX 94.5 Perth, MIX 106.3 Canberra, 105.7 The River Albury, 107.7 2GO Gosford, KOFM Newcastle, 92.5 Gold Coast, SEAFM Mackay, HEART 107.3 Hobart and stations in Rockhampton, Kalgoorlie, Toowoomba, Orange, Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour as well as others.
The name-change will set up Triple M as the first nationally branded commercial radio network in Australia in both major markets and regional areas. Currently, the major networks only brand within the capital city markets.
The strategy is clever. Triple J, despite being a non-commercial, government owned “youth’ network, has done series damage to the commercial stations in the 25-39 demographic in recent years by deliberately targeted a commercial audience as it gravitated towards its current, mostly pop, playlist in recent years.
As a non-commercial network, Triple J cannot accept advertising. A commercial audiences fell ad agencies have nowhere to relocate their budgets other than away from radio.
With a national Triple M brand regionally across Australia, the name becomes more robust and will increase in value and that is something Southern Cross Austereo is counting on to increase revenues.
Southern Cross Austereo is being cautious with the announcement as regional audiences listen for localism. “The LocalWorks stations will continue to offer a wide variety of music, great shows with firmly established and adored homegrown performers remaining focused on ‘everything local’.
A date for the change is yet to be announced.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Never miss a story! Get your free Noise11.com daily music news email alert. Subscribe to the Noise11 Music Newsletter here
Listen to the Noise11 Music News channel now at iHeartRadio
Follow Noise11.com on Facebook and Twitter
