Southern Cross Austereo’s Central Coast stations, 2GO and Sea FM, and the Gold Coast’s Gold FM, officially rebrand today, Friday November 8.
Last month, it was announced that SCA would continue the rollout of its rebrand strategy with Gold 92.5 becoming Goldie’s 92.5 Triple M and 107.7 2GO becoming Central Coast’s 107.7 Triple M and the Central Coast’s 101.3 Sea FM rebranding to Central Coast’s Hit101.3.
To celebrate this milestone, hundreds of guests, including clients, media and friends of SCA will attend special rebrand events on the Gold and Central Coasts this evening.
Birds of Tokyo and Conrad Sewell will take the stage in the middle of Surfers Paradise to celebrate with the Gold Coast in a live listener super show, while local Central Coast artist Miniq and funny man Kabba will keep guests entertained at the picturesque Terrigal Surf Live Saving Club.
Good bye to local radio. Most are relay stations these days. No local personality now.
To "Aussiecam58",
The issue of local presence and content has been dealt with at these pages:
https://radioinfo.com.au/news/ben-fordham-now-live-4bc and
https://radioinfo.com.au/news/acma-triggers-controversy-unpopular-local-presence-draft-condition .
Despite 2GO (2GGO-fm) and SEA-FM (2CFM )changing 'brands', not necessarily the ACMA-registered callsign https://www.acma.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-10/stations_book_electronic_edition_0.pdf , they are still a regional radio station as defined by sections 43B and 43C of the Broadcast Services Act (Cth), reference Broadcast Services Act (Cth) ('BSA (Cth)'), reference https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018C00060 .
Unlike a metropolitan station s61CA, BSA (Cth), a regional stations such as 2GO and SEA-FM is not in a capital city and Gosford does not have a GPO. Thus the law still requires a local presence and content.
Stations such as 4BC, part of the MML are a capital city station and are legally allowed to have content and presence from outside Brisbane.
Thus while 2GO and SEA-FM may change to a national branding strategy, does not necessarily mean it loses its local presence and content.
It appears that the ACMA does not take an active role in monitoring for local content unless there are complainants who provide evidence contrary to the requirements of the law. An example of the complainant is in 2010 when the ABC's "Media Watch" program put to notice the lack of local content on Coffs Harbour, 2HC. See second hyperlink reference.
So listeners who live in the Gosford area who have evidence of a lack of local content and presence should contact the broadcaster and ACMA.
Thank you,
Anthony of exciting Belfield, where both 2GO and SEA-FM signals can be received.