Ok, to be fair no one actually told us it would be easy.

I am a radio student at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) and for our final simulation broadcast we have been entrusted with creating our very own radio station. From top to bottom.

Day One

The only thing we know about the station is that it’s called Next FM.

The target demographic, music policy, brand values and everything in between are all up to us and what we think the gap in the Sydney market is. We have three weeks to put the entire broadcast together, create the brand, sell it and be ready to broadcast self-sufficiently for two weeks.

Today it took us three hours to decide on a positioning statement. Three Hours!

I’m not entirely sure who the marketing geniuses are who came up with ‘Live. Life. Nova’ and ‘Good Times and Great Classic Hits’ but in that room I hated them for taking all the good ones. How do you sum up an entire station and everything you stand for in so little words? It’s such a small thing and yet it brands your entire station. I have never been on Thesaurus.com for such an extended period of time.

What’s a word that means ‘cool’ but isn’t ‘cool’? What are the young kids saying these days? Funky? Is Funky still a thing?  Do 18- 24 year olds say YOLO ironically or is it really a value they live by?

After going through all of the synonyms (in the world), we did eventually decide on a positioner that we think will connect with our audience and introduce what we stand for. It’s really good too! But you’ll just have to listen in to find out what it is.

Ashleigh Blucher is an AFTRS Radio student and the Integration Manager of Next FM which will be on air from October 11, in time for the upcoming RadioFest.
She and two of her colleagues will be radioinfo’s reporters at the ACRAs