ARN has decided to rebrand the station to present “a unified identity” for the network. The changes are being made to “connect with a younger 25-54 audience while still appealing to the station’s loyal fan base.”

However, some of that loyal fan base, including past presenters, have been critical of the move, which will see the ‘Western Suburbs’ identity of the station put to rest.

Former presenter Pete Graham wrote on his Facebook page:

I devoted 18 years of my life at 2WS/WSFM.
When I arrived The breakfast show Rated No 6, within a year it was in the top 2 or 3 for all of Sydney despite not having Sydney wide coverage. Mega Number 1’s in the West and South west areas. To this date my morning 9-Noon show is still the only WSfm show to be a clear number 1 on several occasions.

I worked my guts out. I was everywhere like a Politician on the campaign trail.  You name the event I hosted it. Plus publicity stunts at speedway events, Motorbikes events, Trotting events. Hosting Jukebox Saturday night Live shows to sellout audiences for 18 years… Many Hundreds of events over the years.

SO THIS IS WHY I’M PISSED OFF>>
The man in charge of WS is renaming it GOLD.. To quote Mr Campbell who feels the rebrand of Sydney’s WSFM will be a positive change.  “What that will do is re-energise that station and it will give us some top of mind awareness, which we lack with WS … and remove any baggage associated with that brand over recent years.”

BAGGAGE……….
That’s how I feel, Imagine the hurt the other team members feel. Legends Like Steve Raymond, Hans and Kayley. Steve Blander, Dave D Whitcombe and so many more hard working radio professionals at 2WS/WSFM

Responding to Pete’s post, former breakfast presenter Kayley Harris was pragmatic:

Pete Graham you were Mr Everywhere. You were always the first to put your hand up to host community events.
ARN changing the name doesn’t erase what we did. Everyone has baggage and it’s a good thing.
Baggage makes me the person I am today…that and all the fabulous friends I made at 2WS.
Those memories will never fade.

Former WSFM journalist Dominic Steele also commented on the changes:

It’s been a 20 year trajectory, but I feel very sad that radio station WS-FM is to abandon its callsign and rebrand as Gold-101.7 from 1 January 2025.

I was in year eight at school in 1978 when 2WS started with the tag line “The new sound of Sydney from out of the west. 1224 2WS.”
The radio station license was for Western Sydney. The original owners lived in Western Sydney. 2WS was number one in Western Sydney. 2WS rated 45% in the west and the southwest of the city and (being an AM station with a transmitter located out in the west) it could hardly be picked up east of Strathfield.

I think it was Steve Raymond who coined the term ‘Greater West’ and linked the radio station’s identity with that term.

By the time I was reading and editing news on 2WS in 1989-91 the line at the top of the hour was “Proudly serving Sydney’s Greater West, Your Station 2WS.” I would open news bulletins by saying “It’s 10 o’clock, good morning. I’m Dominic Steele. In Sydney’s Greater West it’s 15 degrees. On the coast it’s 19! ….” That we first read out the temperature for Western Sydney was a symbolic gesture for something real. On this radio station we put Western Sydney first in everything. We were unashamedly parochial in our programming, editorial coverage in news, in everything.

Jason Smith was our Western Sydney roundsman. Every one of our radio news bulletins had at least one ‘Westie Story.’ Jason’s role was to scour local newspapers for stories. When Jason was on holidays I had to stop in at the Cumberland Newspapers printing press at 3:45 am on my way to work and pick up the first editions of all the local western Sydney newspapers.

Hans Tõrv and Kayley Ann Harris were on breakfast with back to school Friday, broadcasting from a different public schools in Western Sydney each Friday. Even the news was read by Steve Blanda from the local school playground. If you were shopping in Blacktown or Campbelltown every shop in the shopping centre had us on the public address, and just about every shop advertised with us. The radio station made a lot of money from the rivers of gold of retail advertising in the west. (Check this 2WS news promo from 1989 https://bit.ly/4eS23zv)

The radio station didn’t just have a soul. We were the soul of Western Sydney. None of the other radio stations I’ve worked at had soul like WS…

The announcement that the station is abandoning the letters ‘WS’ from it’s name, and along with it’s geographic move to broadcast from North Sydney, really any connection to Western Sydney is lost, and now they can be part of a national network, with the same announcers all over Australia and cheaper branding.

I appreciate that it’s the owners’ radio station to do with what they will, but it does makes me feel sad, that while the dollar might triumph, Western Sydney has lost something significant.

Former News Director Steve Raymond commented on social media:

“I just don’t want to believe it. [The name change] will trash nearly fifty years of tradition, heritage – and a loyalty bond that united 2WS and WS FM with the people of the greater west.”