Jackson: Fitzy and Wippa need to be smoother operators

Sarah Homewood
By Sarah Homewood | 26 August 2014
 
Michael Bublé helped launch Smooth FM in Sydney and Melbourne

Being young and smooth is paying off for Nova Entertainment, it claims. The success story of the day according to Nova's  group program director, Paul Jackson is Smooth FM, with the two year old station moving to number three in FM in Sydney.

“Smooth has just gone to number three FM and that's the first time that's happened,” Jackson said.

“I’m over the moon with Smooth's performance, we're number 1 FM in the evenings and overall number three, for such a young station it has really cracked it in Sydney, it's brilliant.”

Nova 96.9 didn't experience the same smooth sailing with the station dropping 0.8 of a percentage point, as the Fitzy and Wippa breakfast show created a drag.

Jackson highlighted that if the duo's show had improved, it would have been a better result overall for the group in Sydney.

“I would say it's a frustrating one for Nova, we accept it and we move on,” he said.

In terms of turning it around, Jackson said: “We've got variety of plans that were going to do on air at breakfast time, there's no knee jerking or any response from this, you get books like this where you just take it on the chin and accept it.”

When it comes to the Melbourne market Jackson predicts that Nova and Smooth, which remained stable this survey, will experience growth when the AFL finals are over.

“Overall it's still very close and everything can change along the way, it's all about who gets people's attention the most, all the products are pretty close,” he said.

Nova Entertainment Group, which entered a 50% partnership with music streaming service Rdio, isn't concerned that streaming will be the end of radio.

“We don't have any concern of that, really they are the modern day jukebox,” Jackson said.

“It's a different way for people to access [music], it's everything at the touch of a button, every generation has had something like that and while this is the easiest it's ever been, this is just how people access their music now.”

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