Hit 92.9 looks to get in the groove

This week’s rebrand to Hit 92.9 and new dance-focused format is a deliberately “aggressive manoeuvre” to shake up the Perth radio market for listeners and advertisers, says content director Todd Campbell.

The station rebadged on Monday to coincide with the first ratings survey period of the year.

It was part of a national rollout across Southern Cross Austereo’s Today network of “contemporary hit radio” format stations, which began with Adelaide’s SAFM late last year.

The change includes a move away from an almost solely pop playlist to a focus on dance music artists like Calvin Harris, Avici and DJ Tiesto.

“Great brands can’t sit still and radio is as much about the ‘next move on the chessboard’ as anything,” Mr Campbell said.

“This is for us an aggressive manoeuver, but it is actually about our listeners and what we think they want, and growing that new audience.”

Mr Campbell said the target, or archetypal Hit 92.9 listener, was a 27-year-old female, but “without alienating everybody else”.

“Perth is a market at the moment that has a lot of radio stations that are very broad and they’re probably programming to give everyone a little bit of everything,” he said.

“We’re creating a sound where if you’re 45 or 55 and you want to feel young, you want that energy hit, you’ll leave that conservative space where the other stations are and come into our space and have more fun.”

Hit 92.9 had a “cooler, fresher look”, featuring “more, younger voices”, and a conversational style,” Mr Campbell said.

SCA Perth general manager Linda Wayman said for advertisers, Hit 92.9 would still be an under-40 age demographic radio station “like we always have been — but our strength will be under 35”.

She said that was a “perfect match” for advertisers because sister station MIX94.5 targeted the over 35s.

“So we’re in a position to offer our clients a chance to reach everyone from 10 years up to about 65 years with a duopoly buy,” she said.

“It’ll make the client’s life easy because they have a one-stop shop.”

Mr Campbell said with Nova 937’s target listenership getting older, Hit 92.9 was in a good position to bring some diversity to the market, which was good news for advertisers.

SCA recorded a full-year loss of $296 million last financial year.

In Perth, the ratings for breakfast team Heidi, Will and Woody remain sluggish. They finished 2014 the seventh most popular breakfast program, with just 7.5 per cent of audience share.

Ms Wayman said she believed the breakfast team was a good fit for the younger target demographic. Overall, the station was sixth, with 8.2 per cent of the overall audience (aged over 10), well behind MIX94.5 on 13.8 and Nova on 12.6. The network’s star duo, Hamish and Andy, will return in survey period five.