I heard Lucky Lips by Cliff Richard and the Shadows on the Capital Radio Network‘s new station Forever Classic 60’s today. While I know it is as daggy as all get out, by the end I was belting out:
‘Don’t need a four-leaf cloverRabbit’s foot or good luck charmWith lucky lips you’ll always haveA baby in your arms’
I also heard:
Green River / Creedence Clearwater Revival
Cinnamon / Derek
People Got To Be Free / The Rascals
and Ooby Dooby by Roy Orbison was on as I arrived home and I now cannot get it out of my head.
There are very few places where you can get your radio fill of 60s music now. For those of us in the area with a Capital Radio Network station, that is Perth WA, Canberra ACT, Goulburn in NSW plus Cooma and Jindabyne( the latter two early next year, but not for their Gippsland station in Victoria), this new station, available on a narrowcast FM frequency and DAB+, is the result of CRN and Grant Broadcasters sharing ownership of those formerly KIX Country stations.
KIX Country went national in 2015 and was sold at the end of 2021, alongside all other fully owned Grant Broadcaster stations (except 95.5 KROCK and Bay939) to the Australian Radio Network (ARN). With the announcement last week of a new national iHeart Country Australia, the five non ARN owned KIX stations were left to continue independently, or pivot in a new direction, choosing the latter.
The decision by ARN to create a national DAB+ country platform, with KIX incorporated with ‘dedicated regional programming’ and familiar talent like Steve Fitton on Breakfast, Justin Thomson in the Afternoons and Kristof (Chris Sandilands) on Drive, as well as podcasts and curated shows, indicates the interest in the genre in Australia. The KIX Country Facebook page has 57,000 followers. With 2GB‘s Ray Hadley, a champion of Australian country music, retiring and with it his involvement in a Sunday night Country Music Countdown, which rated very nicely for Nine Entertainment, and was networked, ARN have seized an opportunity.
But not one without existing competition. The ABC have long been active in the promotion of country music too with a DAB+ channel ABC Country and Beccy Cole hosting a national Saturday night program. Then there are other regional stations, and community, that incorporate country and offshoots of the genre into regular rotation.
Which leads me back to the four FM and five DAB+ stations owned by the Capital Radio station that are no longer KIX and instead now are Forever Classic 60’s. If you’re passing through NSW the FM frequencies are below:
- 97.5FM Canberra
- 87.6FM Cooma (coming next year)
- 100.7FM Goulburn
- 88.0FM Jindabyne (coming next year)
Plus DAB+ for all, including Perth additionally.
As radio networks like ARN look to specifically target 25-55 year age group, those older than that who love their 60s might just tune in to stations that are offering something that they cannot hear anywhere else. Community station Sunshine FM on the QLD Sunshine Coast has been doing it very successfully. Then there’s Vintage FM based in Penrith and regular Radioinfo contributor Brian Crabbe on 2RRR with his There Goes That Song Again as just three other examples off the top of my head.
For some of those younger than 55, every single song played on Forever Classic 60’s might be new to them. So while I can vividly picture my own Gen Z laughing hysterically at me singing to Lucky Lips, one is already a Creedence fan and I plan to test the groovy 60s waters of Forever Classic on a long road trip we have planned over the Christmas break. The station sounds great and whoever has put it together, at short notice according to the new General Manager of Capital Radio Network stations GN FM and Eagle FM in Goulburn, Ray Kington, has done a great job.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo