Changes to Triple M Adelaide will be officially announced this week, but Austereo Adelaide’s Director of Programming, Craig Bruce, speaks exclusively to radioinfo about the changes, revealing in advance what will be announced.
radioinfo: You have been building up to some big changes next week. What’s happening?
Bruce: Next week we will begin a new era. Triple M will be relaunched, and SAFM, which has been a powerful force in this town for 23 years, will broaden its music and freshen its approach with no repeat workdays and a widening of the playlist to include the best songs of its 23 year history.
It will continue to be strongly focused on 25+ listeners and will build on its history of world firsts in radio such as Sky Show and The Fugitive. We want to build TSL for SAFM.
radioinfo:
You have been changing your personalities around and recruiting some new ones haven’t you?
Bruce: Yes, we’re building a portfolio of strong personalities, tweaking SAFM and making some big changes at Triple M.
At Triple M we have snapped up an exciting new young female talent – Kate McLoughlin, who is in her first gig out of AFTRS, she will do mornings.
Dave Higgo from our station in Newcastle, NXFM, will do afternoons. Ben Dillon-Smith will do drive and Sam and Alex will be on nights.
radioinfo: Describe the Triple M format changes.
Bruce: They will be dramatic. Our core target will be 18-39. We’ve done a lot of research with the new licence coming and we’ve found a format which Adelaide has been screaming out for. To bring it to our listeners, our best option was to relaunch Triple M, which we will do next week.
Triple M was originally a rock format, and more recently swung towards pop hit songs. But there is a genre of music that went missing from the Adelaide airwaves during that time, which we are now going to let our listeners hear.
radioinfo: What artists will be in the format?
Bruce: Bands like Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Pearl Jam. Urban Dance has not been heard in Adelaide except in the Hot 30 program – we will be playing that too.
It’s no holds barred, we will be cranking out the format and everyone on air will be under 25.
radioinfo: Will you take The Cage at breakfast?
Bruce: We are still working on that. Breakfast will definitely have James Brayshaw in it. He is a great local talent and our research is showing us that there is no bigger personality in Adelaide than James. Whether he is with the Cage team or not I’m not sure at this stage.
radioinfo: I realize there are some details still being locked in, but can you say whether you will take the other network program The Whole Shebang?
Bruce: At this stage it is unlikely we will take it.
radioinfo: What about The Freq Club at night?
Bruce: Yes, we expect to have Jacqui’s program before Sam Mac and Alexis at nights.
radioinfo: Which songs will be in your high rotation categories next week?
Bruce: In current hits/rock we will be playing: Jet, Powderfinger, Evanessence, Lincoln Park, Offspring, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and a new Australian artist Jet O’Rorke.
In the urban dance category we will play artists like 50 Cent, Beyonce and Junior Senior.
radioinfo: Does it sound like Nova on purpose?
Bruce: I’m sure our research is similar to theirs. Audiences like new rock and urban/dance.
radioinfo: Are you assuming DMG will get the licence that’s being auctioned this Friday, and that they will put in a Nova format?
Bruce: If they get the licence their research would show them the same as ours.
SAFM has been all things to all people for a long time, with the new licence coming we have an opportunity to make some changes to both our stations that will bring them into the next era.
If Nova do get the licence and they want to have a crack at the same format we are doing, good luck to them. We’re taking this as a challenge we’re prepared to face.
radioinfo: You would think Paul Thompson would have to want a station in his home town.
Bruce: Yes, but don’t forget there’s Hot Tomato and some other pretty motivated bidders as well.
As far as we’re concerned, we’re rebuilding a new radio station and we’re focused on that – if Nova come into the market so be it – bring it on!
radioinfo: Will you be playing no more than two ads in a row?
Bruce: Our ads will be a bit different on Triple M, but they won’t be two ads in a row.
Listeners don’t choose their radio station that way, they choose music and attitude – and we will have both!
radioinfo: Will your advertisers be nervous about the changes?
Bruce: There may be an unsettling period for the business, but the changes to SAFM are minimal, so they will not be worried about that. Some advertisers may be a little nervous about the Triple M changes, afterall 80% of the songs we will play on Triple M from next week have never been heard in Adelaide before, but I think they will come to understand what we are doing pretty quickly. Advance bookings for both stations are strong.
radioinfo: You said the songs will not have been heard in Adelaide before, but they probably have been heard on the new community station Fresh FM. What did your research show about the impact of Fresh FM?
Bruce: It has had an impact with the under 25s, and good luck to them for it. It will be interesting to see if what we do has an impact on them.
radioinfo: How long have you been planning these changes?
Bruce: We have been thinking about this for two years, but we have seriously been doing market research and workshopping with our executive team for about six months.
These changes are about building a long term successful business model.
radioinfo: You are going to be busy – you are now part of the SAFM breakfast team and also in charge of programming both stations. How long have you been Director of Programming?
Bruce: I’ve had the role as Director of Programming for the last few weeks. I’ll be mostly focusing on Triple M at this stage. SAFM PD Jeff Ross and a great team of people are here to help me.
radioinfo: How long have you been in radio?
Bruce: 20 years. I’ve been doing breakfast here for about two years. It was meant to be a short term solution at first, but it seems to be working, so I’ll stay with it as long as I have a contribution to make. I still love the cut and thrust of a busy breakfast shift.
My first station was Port Augusta, 5AU in 1985, then I went to Melbourne’s EON FM in 1986, then to Fox in 1988, and I have been with Austereo ever since.