With the announcement that John Dean is going to step back from his breakfast and morning duties on Adelaide’s Cruise 1323 on Friday March 7, there was an additional comment in the media release worthy of further exploration:
“John’s departure comes as part of a broader change in direction for Cruise 1323 and the GOLD Network.”
ARN changed Sydney’s WSFM to Gold branding alongside Melbourne’s existing Gold 104.3 and added Cruise 1323 into a brand new GOLD Network, “made with the aim of connecting with a younger 25-54 audience while still appealing to the station’s loyal fan base.”
Sue Carter became the network’s Head of Content and Jason Staveley the Music Director.
Cruise literally does what it says in the call sign in Adelaide. Unlike other ARN metro stations its social pages are only intermittently updated and the website’s news page features stories from mid last year. Their ratings in Adelaide, 5th overall in Survey 8 with an 8.8% audience share for all audiences 10+, but third in mornings and 4th in afternoons, is due to the two local announcers covering most of the day, John from 7am till midday and Craig Huggins from 1-5pm.
Cruise also has no classic hits radio competitors in the market. There is smooth fm Adelaide which is usually No 1 in a fairly tightly packed DAB+ listening field, but even there most of the other DAB+ stations are tending towards what GOLD is aiming to become.
It would seem that this little Adelaide AM station, chugging along very nicely all things considered, is about to get a makeover. Not only with the music, but also a new presence on breakfast.
Might Jonesy and Amanda become a Sydney and South Australian breakfast show?
ARN only has one station in Brisbane and Perth. This was part of why they investigated buying SCA and Chairman Hamish McLennan‘s recent comments about an interest in Nine Radio assets. Brisbane is a KIIS station, which makes sense with its music and flavour, Perth’s 96FM, often at or near the top of the ratings and dominant in people aged 55-64, was also included in the KIIS Network, not the GOLD, where it certainly would appear to be better suited. Interesting to note that Perth takes both KIIS’s Kyle and Jackie O’s Hour of Power and GOLD’s Christian O’Connell highlights.
ARN says that John Dean “will remain part of the Cruise family as a standby announcer”. An announcement regarding his replacement, local or networked, will be made soon.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Email: [email protected]