Duncan Campbell on swirling WSFM rebrand rumours

Former Publisher

Following the sudden departure of Charlie Fox and Ron E Sparks from Australian Radio Network this week, the rumour mill has again kicked into overdrive.

Many of you are asking if WSFM will rebrand as GOLD in 2018. It is a reasonable question given the sheer volume of changes at ARN in recent months, but the short answer is “no.”

“That was talked about potentially, but there will be no name change of the station next year,” says the network’s national content director, Duncan Campell.

As for who is set to replace Ron E Sparks, the likely candidate is Mike Hammond. Although Campell was not ready to reveal any new signings when talking to Radio Today on Thursday: “The ink is still drying.”

For those eagerly awaiting any confirmation, you should expect an announcement “early next week.”

There is also some speculation that ARN will appoint a content director for the Pure Gold Network, tasked with overseeing all four stations, including 4KQ 693 Brisbane and Cruise1323 Adelaide.

The rumoured frontrunners for this gig include ARN’s current Adelaide content director, Sue Carter and WSFM Drive host and music director, Jason Staveley.

Campbell was adamant that a local CD for both Sydney and Melbourne would be appointed – but did not fully rule out a network content director either.

He also confirmed there are no plans to syndicate workdays between WSFM101.7 Sydney and GOLD104.3 Melbourne next year.

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Neil Docherty
16 Dec 2017 - 5:20 pm

Duncan confirmed no workday syndication between Gold and WS……Funny that, Craig Huggins (Gold Melbourne) was syndicated on Friday 15th Dec into WS…..so based on that we will get syndication….there goes the creditability

Chris
17 Dec 2017 - 11:53 am

Neil there was absolutely no syndication between Gold and WS. Completely separate programming.

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