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This article is saying that 'contests' have as little as 2% of the total audience's participation. I don't agree with the statements. Participation in a contest may come from non-participants in a contest who enjoy listening to a contestant winning a prize such as 2GB's postcode lottery, or 2CH's "What am I?" from yesteryear or even the "birthday wheel" on 2WS.
We've also enjoyed listening to quizzes with "George and Paul (RIP)" and later "John and Paul(RIP)".
Promotion may well succeed in grabbing audience share as comprehensively described by Debbie Kruger in the story of 2SM:
Source:
http://www.debbiekruger.com/broadcaster/2sm.html
In case website disappears or the link is re-arranged, here is the archived version of the site as at 22-02-2022
https://web.archive.org/web/20220111174306/http://www.debbiekruger.com/broadcaster/2sm.html
2SM was promotion-oriented with contests, stunts (jumbo under the Harbour Bridge), free gigs, promotions of albums and interviews with artists. It had the characteristics as described in this article of being bold, "bad-ass" and confident.
This characteristic is encapsulated in a 15-minute video at https://youtu.be/LM8UQHfow5o . The promotion was around Sydney, its harbour and its new studios at 186 Blues Point Rd.
At a free gig outside the Opera House, the audience was shouting "2SM, 2SM, 2SM....." like the crowds supporting a sporting team (football, soccer etc) or a political candidate at a political rally.
In addition, we saw the inner workings of its newsroom and discussions of the stories that were the 'pulse' of Sydney. In that video you can see John Brennan (RIP) discussing.
I divert. One of the 2SM presenters was Gordon O'Byrne (RIP). Observe in the video his Australian accent compared to his accent with an American twang in 1970, https://youtu.be/xAyu8GwZy9M .
But it was not necessarily a diversion because if you listen to the sound of Mr O'Byrne's voice or any other voice in the 15 minute montage, one can hear a professional sounding voices.
All the factors described that made 2SM the station that it was in the 1970s indicate that "the overall" sound was big, bold and "bad ass".
2SM was one big promotion factory that gave it an edge over other stations.
Thank you,
Anthony of history repeats itself in another form, Belfield in the land of the Wangal and Darug Peoples of the Eora Nation
WKTU likely won the market with novelty in a tired market stuck in a rut. The appeal of novelty is ephemeral. The format likely had a limited amount of mileage in it.