“Biggest format change in decades.” 2Day FM launches new sound and promise

How do we say “Our radio station is targeting people who don’t listen to radio” without that sounding ridiculous ?

“Younger music lovers and creators have been left behind”
They haven’t.
Young people who love music have literally never had it better.

Not sure if SCA’s pet project of the last few years can be considered “exciting new voices”.

I love Hit104.1 2DayFM

I mean, at least it’s a better idea that rolling ‘famous people’ out people who aren’t good at radio or are too old in the radio game they lack any cut through .. but young people especially now don’t work 9-5 jobs and listen to live radio to/from the office. So if they are making a podcast product around music, that cant be heard in the podcast I’m confused again what they are doing ..

This is one of the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard in 40 years in this industry. This is the final nail for 2day fm. Song familiarity is everything. And when you play tons of songs that no one knows you will lose tons of listeners. No matter who the artist is. It’s like a Dj that plays a song no one knows will clear the dance floor in a club. JJJ plays a lot of unknown songs and look where that is on GFK. Mis management at it’s best. 2day fm – Dumb, dumb and dumber.

Is there anyone on reality tv who could be the next big thing for radio

What about the bloke on MAFS with tattoos on his throat?

In a world full of Spotify playlists and fragmentation, let’s introduce a format with unfamiliar music.
Yeah, that’ll be a success

Would they consider bringing back Rove

Does anyone still listen to 2 day fm?

LOL which person under 25 is up before 8.00 am….and all the new music from those so called Artists are lack lastre noise. Nothing positive nothing to say hey we are changing attitudes and lives turn on the Radio. 2Day you need revenue and you need an Audience.

So they are now Hot CHR station? To be honest they are more CHR than Nova and KIIS now. It’s just a little too late…

Good start from Jimmy & Nath adding Emma to the name. It’s a shame they still aren’t funny though.

Very disappointed. I thought they might go the other way and play music of the 30s, 40s & 50s like Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Frankie Laine etc.

So, this is pretty much a copy of a format since dumped by Nova. “New Music First”.
In a market where classic hits and easy listening are winning audiences, I can’t see this working.

Lol

I assume by “old voices playing the same old songs” Dave means people like Kyle and Jackie O playing Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter?

Yeah, sounds like a real ratings disaster.

Keep up the good work Dave! Good things happen to good people.

CADA #2?

Either most comments are stuck in their music decade when they were young, or they completely trust their algorithms to recommend all their new music.

hahahaha.. haha

@Bennie Gee

More the old Edge radio…but anyway , nothing screams young than “FM”….

This is really sad. Nobody listens to that station and it has zero cultural impact or impression on youth culture. I am Gen Z and no disrespect but none of those names in this press release have any impact on my generation. The music ‘show’ at night is especially poor. This will never work.

Like seriously, how do they get this over the line at a board level?

It really is no surprise SXL has dropped out of the All Ordinaries index. It’s a long, slippery and ugly ride down from here for shareholders.

Oh this is just delightful. Intentionally targeting the demographic with the least amount of disposable income, who are least likely to listen to radio. Does SCA even know how to find these people in order to get them to listen? Doesn’t matter I guess, as they never will. I give this crap 6 months tops.

You really have to wonder how poorly 2DayFM rated during Survey #1 for this change to be made at the time it has been. I for one, won’t be shocked if come March 27, we’re reading that 104.1 (and 104.9) have fallen behind Classic Hits 2UE…and that station certainly isn’t without its faults!

Something had to be done about relaunching/repositioning 2DayFM but once again, I’m not sure if they’ve got the right strategy. I’d suggest they needed all their cards in place at the very start of 2025, preferably backed up by a new station logo if not a new station name.

Also: The “Today AF” tagline. Can’t help but think it would’ve been much wiser to go for a more “family friendly” approach, especially at brekky. Surely there’s some value in pitching 104.1 Sydney to potential listeners (think Mums with kids in the car on their way to school…) and advertisers as a safer alternative to the smut/dodgy content on certain competitors?

If l was at 2Day l would have music that is uplifting, toe tapping, funky, has a good beat to it, gets me moving music. I don’t mean dance or hip hop just songs that make u feel alive.

Has Dave Cameron ever been to Sydney. Looking at both SCA stations low ratings, probably not.
This new “ initiative “ is just shuffling the chairs around on the titanic.

@Simon

I reckon you’re spot on. Playing the same stuff over and over again on the radio is an annoying and outdated approach that only works with the over-40s. Commercial radio needs to be more inventive to compete with Spotify if it wants to attract youth listeners.

Wow this forum is full of grumpybums! This is the first “new” format on a major radio station since Nova launched, and at least 2Day are trying something different with an intelligent music mix appealing to a different audience. Radio can’t just give up on people under 30, and you’re not going to attract them with Ed Sheeran or Katy Perry.

Of course it might not work, but 2Day was rating dismally anyway… why not try something different? Back it in with a savvy digital-only marketing campaign targeting listeners under 30 and see what happens.

If you were going to go pure CHR, why sack Mike E? Sure, 96ONE was more rythemic then the new 2day, but they were big with the youth.

As someone already mentioned this is Cada no2 and well know what happened to Cada No 1.
This is what happens when you cull the role of a regional PD, the no idea brigade get hired , no decent jocks , jocks who cant read a commercial ! No decent news readers ! No decent copy writers . Welcome to radio 2025

@RadioRealist
Have you been following 2DayFm changes? They already tried something different. They tried to be more modern Smooth version….. playing new hits bit of oldskool with easy listening song like “Africa,,” Toto…. Then was another change with music from 90s and 00s…. even they branded themselves “new 2Day FM”… Personally I think they should be like WSFM/Gold is focusing on 80s, they should focus on ,90s00s but with better playlist,like KIIS90s not just some random songs like on their Oldskool Hits radio…. Or go all the way with name change and be CHR dance station.

Not sure if you should be discouraging this change in format.

I’m old enough to remember when radio took it’s last major pivot into new music.

That was about 1993 to 2003. Sydney in particular had test broadcasts of WILD followed by launch of NOVA.

Over the years,

Not sure if anyone should be discouraging this change in format.

I’m old enough to remember when radio took it’s last major pivot into new music.

That was about 1993 to 2003. Sydney in particular had test broadcasts of WILD followed by launch of NOVA.

Over the years, other commercial imperatives, notably at Nova, pivotes radio stations to as middle-of-road as possible, which is surely the antithesis of positioning or repositioning a station’s brand.

So, I sense there may be a cyclical nature to such commercial imperatives.

Besides, it never really made sense for a station called 2Day (which, in case you missed it the first 45 years, is pronounced “Today”) to play a mix of 80s & 90s classics all day while you work.

Though I would have gone with an easier-to-comprehend positioner, borrowing from an old Pepsi slogan: Music For A New Generation

Because that is truly the challenge.

Consider SYN in Melbourne nearly went broke not long ago. There could be many reasons for that but I am willing to speculate the major reason is ACMA awarded that community broadcast licence to the wrong aspirant.

Effectively, failure-by-design. As ACMA did not see Spotify coming & decided what filling the spectrum required was more conservative, short-term decisions. How’s that working out now?

People forget Nova intially “sounded different” because a raft of innovative radio formats (that ACMA went out of their way NOT to make permanent) unleashed a lot of innovation & result is an audience that was already waiting for Nova’s arrival.

But that momentum gradually gets overtaken by new commercial imperatives (as distinct from community stations that stick by a ‘community-of-interest’).

After 10 years of 2Day clashing with Nova & Kiis with essentially the same offering, the latest commercial imperative is to do the obvious: stop chasing a diminishing number of already familiar audience over 30. Life does not begin with you in control of a shopping trolley.

Radio must be more courageous than that or new generations might give radio a wide berth & rely on other technologies and media even more so than now.

So, suck it and see 2Day. Yes, see what happens.

As a young listener I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this change. I grew up listening to The Edge 96.1, and respectfully to the people at ARN, CADA was a failure for me and didn’t hit the same. TikTok talent did not make for interesting radio.

It’s still very early days and I imagine the format will continue to evolve, but over the weekend I was tuned to 2Day for the first time in a long time, and I loved what I was hearing.

The only improvement that could’ve been made with this new format – keeping Mike E & Emma on air, either in Breakfast or Nights – at a timeslot that’s actually accessible (not 9-11am).