WSFM rebrands to GOLD101.7 in 2025

Mike Byrne takes the place to number one and is retrenched.

Radio. What a time to be someone who lives and breathes it.

Not the worst idea! But also rebrand Cruise.

Bring back 4KQ!!!!!

Well 96fm in Perth under ARN was trying to connect with younger audience but it didn’t work it out… they had to went back to original sound of “old” 96fm…. And it’s working….
Weird decision, great ratings in Sydney and now name change?!
Not sure about new logo….

To be honest I’m surprised it took this long to rebrand. You can sense networking will become the commonplace and hence radio stations sounding and looking the same. I won’t surprised if Mix in SA becomes a Kiss and 96Fm In Perth becomes a Gold

Bit early for April Fools’ Day?

How this will help “connect with a younger 25-54 audience” is beyond me.

Gold, but the logo is yellow?

Bit early for April Fools’ Day?

Why is it yellow then? And not just the same Gold as GOLD104

GOLD101.7 may be it’s publically marketed callsign.

The ACMA-registered callsign is 2UUS reflecting it’s legacy and historical callsign 2WS.

Thanks

Few thing-
1. So Mike Byrne has been made redundant? Wow. Got the number 1 station in town and shafted. This is a new low for commercial radio.
2. After 50 years and being the number 1 station you are trashing the brand name? Surely DC and DB watched Golf Coast change their name and then change it back from Triple M. Did they not learn anything.
3. Sorry they made Mike Byrne redundant? There is no loyalty in radio.

Why on earth don’t they roll out Gold on DAB in Brisbane?

Haven’t listened to WSFM for years and have no intention of going back .

Used to be a great station back in the day even when they were called 2WS “outa the west” and did attend their 20TH celebrations at their seven hills studio

Community radio i fing is the best none of this syndicated B S on main stream radio

Maybe there’s something I’m missing here but to me, it doesn’t make sense to make sweeping changes to a radio station which has just made it to #1 overall in the ratings.

At last check, the WS brand has just over 46 years of heritage (as both 2WS and WSFM, of course) and a reasonable amount of goodwill that would likely be envied by other Sydney broadcasters.

In addition, it seems the daytime announcers who helped WSFM get to #1 during Survey #7 will not be part of the relaunched station in 2025. Taking away 101.7’s strongest point of difference I think, will likely cause long-term damage and just might be the factor that allows Smooth 95.3 to become Sydney’s overall #1 radio station (perhaps with a share somewhere around 12-15% if the recent trend away from talkback continues) in 2025.

Now sure, Jonesy & Amanda (albeit with a new panel operator replacing Gen Y Ry, another contributor to WS’ rise in recent years) are still going to be part of the new Gold 101.7 – however I don’t think it’d be a major surprise if 2025 turns out to be J&A’s final year on breakfast before we get another K&JO-like situation with Christian O’Connell relayed up here in 2026.

With all that in mind, hopefully ACE Radio will be smart enough to reposition 2UE in 2025 with some ex-WS talent & music backed up by a strong ad campaign (January’s 100th birthday of 2UE being a good starting point) although I’m not exactly confident that will happen!

WSFM trying to appeal to a 25-54 demographic sounds too much like what Smoothfm are doing, especially Smoothfm Perth. Playing generic, unimaginative music that “most people would like”, yet we’ve all heard these songs thousands of times before.

Surely ARN wouldn’t be silly enough to rebrand 96FM, Perth’s historic first FM radio station, to GOLD96.1? Having thought about it, these are the same people who seem so interested in networking Kyle and Jackie O into every metro breakfast shift nationwide. If Perth ever got a KIIS station with K&J for brekky, The West Australian newspaper would absolutely go to town on them with unflattering photoshops and headlines. Then the people of Perth would know what Melburnians have been going through for the past year.

That new Gold branding is hideous. And learn from SCA’s mistake rebranding iconic callsigns with network names. It doesn’t work.

It’s a little bit MMM, and a little bit Smooth?

Will River949 become Gold next? And assuming the regional networks will then align to either KIIS or Gold?

@Damien.. I’d argue that ARN have better success at rebranding heritage stations than SCA. Just look at their Melbourne stations.. before Gold 104.3, it was KZFM and before that 3KZ (very long standing successful heritage name). Same applies for KIIS 101.1, was Mix 101.1, before that TTFM, 3TT and 3DB. Like others have said, I’m surprised it took this long for WSFM to rebrand to Gold 101.7. It won’t be the name that derails their success, but the sound – hopefully they don’t fiddle too much.

Terrible decision by WS or is the gold with the yellow sign and what was there music tag….just ?….Smooth will be cheering!!

I remember when 2WS first began broadcasting from a house in Seven Hills. Seems not much of the original community heart & soul left now…

They are the current historic number one station in Sydney. Monumental achievement. Nows the time to change everything. What a disaster. The only time 25 year olds listen to the radio is when their Bluetooth hasn’t connected to the car stereo yet. But you’re right, some powder finger will fix that.

Is there a reason why Duncan didn’t announce/get quoted on this for such a big change?

Is there a long term contract for Jonesy and Amanda that will carry the launch of this brand over coming years, or is it the 12month run-up rebrand before CO’C goes into the market?

Have they truly abandoned their pursuit for Triple M and now building their own national network to be added to?

Have they now started talking about 25-54 because they’ve finally realised their main competitor SCA is smashing them and winning most big money briefs?

So many questions.
So little educated opinions on this website.
Stop talking about the colours people and have more interesting thoughts.

Looks for younger audience, rebrands to gOLD

Genius

@PJC, KZFM rebranded to Gold 104 back in 1981, long before ARN around. In fact it was owned by Austereo at some time after being branded Gold.

I would also argue that the TTFM rebrands to Mix and later to KIIS were not really successful, nor received well by their audience.

Honestly, if ARN were to rebrand them both to KZ and TT, I think it would immediately improve their standing in Melbourne.

Did high pants come up with that slogan?

The first I heard of this was this morning on WSFM with an advert announcement. To say I was shocked was an understatement. Just as Kyle and Jackie O are Sydney, GOLD is Melbourne.

I hope they dont mess with the sound too much. Its nice to listen to songs that dont have swearing in them or undertones. I tend to listen to HOPE 103.2 more now days, but from time to time change to WSFM.

Im sad that they are removing the last link to the original station, the on air identity. Although they will remain 2UUS, thats now only a paper call sign. Network Radio sucks.

Haha, take the station to Number 1 and get the sack, what a way to ruin the reputation of a commercial radio station.

Sydneysiders know the station as WSFM, but I reckon this name change won’t get much positive feedback from their listeners.

And if they’re gonna skew younger then they may as well ditch 70s tracks if they’ve still got them in their playlist, and do 80s to now, with more of a focus on 2000s, 2010s and today.

And how much Yellow in that new logo is too much Yellow? Honestly, it looks like something that someone could easily make on PowerPoint.

What a joke. Should’ve kept the current coloured Gold.

So it’s

Breakfast: OC

Drive: J&A

in 2026

Listening via I Heart radio fromLake Grace WA
Great music
Keep it coming

The radio station is known as wsfm for a long time should stay as that no happy about change