hit107 – 7 days in – part ii

Irene Hulme, SCA Group Content Director in Adelaide and her team got to not only blow up a heritage brand in SAFM, they also launched a new one to the market.

8 days ago today, SCA took the wraps off and hit107 launched into the Adelaide market. You can view part I of our chat yesterday here. 

In part ii with Irene, we talk about hit107’s daytime tactics and talent. Cover off the imaging elements and we also confirm if she is in fact Amos & Dani’s real boss.  And we find out their marketing plans so far for hit107.

Blair Sullivan:  Just looking across the workday and the music, I noticed you are playing a number of different remixes, how often are you hitting those up?

Irene Hulme:  It comes down to what’s around to be honest. We have got some really great features and again it gives us a really nice point of difference and flavour with hit music. We’ve got great mashups coming from DJ Konsky.

Again it was about the evolution of hit music from where it was with SAFM to the new hit107.

And creating some features, some exciting variations on how we present hit music, and in doing so we have created a much fresher and younger feel.

BS:  You have also been hammering the Shazam Hot 20 guys across the day as well – setting up songs etc…

IH:  Yeah that was another important touch point for the brand, and obviously the alignment with the world’s biggest music app is a pretty big selling point.

BS: So “English Chris”, he is pulling a fairly long shift? Where did you find him?

IH:  Gosford, he has been working there on the Central Coast for a few years. He sent through an Aircheck, I mean his timing was beautiful – we knew our plans for hit107 and again, coming back to wanting something new and something fresh, it was an obvious move with Chris.

He sounds like nothing else in the market and is an incredible statement jock from that point of view. He sounds amazing.

Really, really pleased with what Chris has done this week, he sounds great.

BS: The production values for Hit107… obviously way different to past stuff on-air – who produced those up for you?

IH:  Well imaging was probably the biggest challenge from the On-Air point of view. Again, it needed to be different and something that fitted the Playful, Social and Colourful tone.

We were faced with the challenge of launching a new brand, we were really forced into thinking differently.

So we had clarity around what we didn’t want, but it was quite a challenge to get to the point where we did.

Dom Evans and I got together on one day and talked about radio as it currently stands and where we felt we needed to get too.

We came up with the framework in 2 or 3 hours, it was extraordinary to be honest. We threw around some ideas, and there it was.

Once we had the framework we had two weeks to get everything done, but it was pretty easy from that point.

It was Dominic Evans, an absolute genius out of Melbourne. We had help from Tony Nat Lawson who works here in Adelaide and also Brendan Tacey.

So a team effort, led by Dom.. those guys.

I mean the imaging has been the most talked about element in terms of creating a new sound.

Hear a scoped hour of hit107 prod elements here:

https://radiotoday.com.au/music/hit 107 demo 141014.mp3

BS: Now I just wanted to check… You are Amos and Dani’s REAL boss right? … I loved the way you delivered that line in the launch audio last Monday.

IH:  (laughs) I was in two minds about saying that, I thought what the hell? It got a few laughs in the office, so we went with it in the end. But that is correct, I am Amos and Dani’s real boss. I can confirm…

Hear Irene's you've got 3 months here:

https://radiotoday.com.au/music/irene_hulme_bit i need.mp3

BS: How are they settling in?

IH:  They have been terrific. They are a Content Directors dream team to be honest.

Both super talented, really different people, but coming together beautifully on the air.

Amos, Adelaide boy who has an incredible wit and just a creative genius.

With Dani, what you see is what you get with her. She is gorgeous, she is fun, and she is warm. She has got a really, really wonderful transparency and honesty.

There really is a lovely level of excitement for the guys and you don’t always see that with talent. And they have fresh ideas and a new approach along with a young enthusiasm and they want to win.

And they have an extraordinary team behind them lead by Max Dudley.

So it’s just a dream team.

BS: In industry social media circles… Dani got a fair whack of comments.. some pretty ordinary stuff being posted…. this hasn’t been an overnight run into breakfast for her… she seems to have worked bloody hard to get where she is?

IH:  She has worked really hard. She was in Perth, she worked in Albury for a year, and she went to Gosford.

Been in radio for 6 years, it’s not some sort of fast track and she is absolutely ready for a metro breakfast show. She is absolutely extraordinary and I have got nothing but good things to say about Dani.

She is a great talent and she has worked really hard to get to where she is and she’s got the right attitude – she will go all the way.

BS: And Amos.. how did you come by him?

IH:  Well Craig Bruce found him through someone who worked here, a fella by the name of Steven Dennis.

Craig saw him do stand-up in Adelaide, caught up with him 3 or 4 times since then, that was 12 months ago.

As soon as he meet him once he walked away thinking this kid is an absolute star. An incredible story teller, funny, just engaging, confident.

And then he demo’d  Amos with Joel Creasy,  Em Rusciano about six months ago.

We all heard the audio and the level of maturity in his demo considering he had never done radio was pretty phenomenal.

He has been great in the last week. He has got this extraordinary tenacity to make great radio. It was five o’clock the other afternoon and I had to send him home. He had been here all day working through content. So a pretty phenominal kid.

BS: The Marketing side, have you started to ramp that side up? I noticed leading into the launch period the street art that was out there – what have you got planned?

IH:  Marketing a new brand is always thwart with danger. Everyone involved was really confident, we knew what hit107 was. And therefore there was a massive marketing push from the get go. Mainly outdoor and ad shells.

There is extensive marketing planned for the brand and the breakfast show.

It’s also about owning the streets, we’ve not done a very good job with that in the past.

Hit107 is all about being accessible and getting out there and it is a big focus for us.  Owning those streets. And being as accessible as we can with the new brand.

We owned Miley and we had our first Laneway Gig Friday night with Jessica Mauboy. Free gigs, free food with Amos and Dani.