One of our regular readers, the sharp eyed Marcus Fitz-Gerald, noticed something strange in our recent article about Steve Jacobs’ new breakfast show on the Nine Radio network.
The article said: Stevie Jacobs is returning to radio as the breakfast host on Nine’s newly launched music stations 2UE 954, Magic 1278, 4BH 882 and 6GT DAB+.
So he wrote to us on twitter, asking:
Curious to read of the mention of ‘6GT DAB+’ in your article on Steve Jacobs’ breakfast show.Searching the latest ‘ACMA Radio and television broadcasting stations’ edition, no such listing exists.
So who invented this callsign and why?
Good question. We have found out the answer from Greg Byrnes, Nine Radio’s Head of Content.
They invented it. 6GT DAB+ stands for ‘Good Times,’ Greg Byrnes told us.
“While it’s a digital channel we wanted to include ‘6’to highlight WA in our national footprint. The music playlist evolves around the best songs and ‘good times’ we lived in the 70s, 80s and 90s.
“6GT also sits nicely among the heritage brands of 2UE, 4BH and Magic 1278.”
So there you have it.
Initially the network’s Perth DAB+ channel was branded MagicDAB+ to coincide with other branding, but now that Byrnes is in the chair, it looks like there is more strategizing going on for the network’s second stations, which includes the once proud heritage brands 2UE and 4BH, as well as the Magic brand in Melbourne.
Byrnes says he is getting good feedback about the new music format. “We’ve had a great response, many listeners simply happy to have these stations back on the air with others loving Stevie and the commercial free music.”
In last week’s survey, with the former Macquarie Sports Radio stations now returned to their old callsigns, 2UE returned to the ratings at the same figure as when it went into hibernation (0.7%), with Magic and 4BH came back lower than they finished at the end of last year. Byrnes strategy will presumably to grow audience slowly until there is enough momentum to entice a few advertisers back to the stations, then promotions and live shifts will likely follow.
Perhaps the phrase ‘good times’ is a hint as to the branding or slogan that will eventually be adopted as the stations evolve.
@radioinfo Curious to read of the mention of '6GT DAB+' in your article on Steve Jacobs' breakfast show. Searching the latest 'ACMA Radio and television broadcasting stations' edition, no such listing exists.
So who invented this callsign and why?
— Marcus Fitz-Gerald (@marcusdsfacts) April 21, 2020
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