2UE officially launches native-driven Talking Lifestyle format with Koch, Rowntree and Obermeder
Macquarie Media station 2UE has officially launched its new Talking Lifestyle format which will be heavily supported by branded content.
The station kicked off the new format with an interview featuring its top rating weekend presenters George and Paul and incoming talent, Sunrise host David Koch, who will present a weekend money show.
The new format has already come in for criticism from some listeners, as well as being slammed by Media Watch for its decision to pursue the branded content strategy which will see advertisers taking a native approach to shows.
On air on Saturday George and Paul described a lot of the speculation around the new format as “wrong”.
After listening to the George and Paul show on Saturday morning, I became highly frustrated at the amount of times the ‘talking lifestyle jingle’ was played. It got on my nerves so much, I ended up switching it off. Very annoying.
Too bland. Could be a massive flop. The next ratings will certainly be interesting.
Hi 2 UE
I am willing to give this a go for now.
I am not impressed so far. I dislike the annoyiing jingles already-we, the listeners, are probably not the 30-40yo target audiences with spending capacity. I am in my 60’s.
Your website is hard to follow and my times to listen in are very random but 24/7.
I switched from 2gb to avoid heavy frustrating announcers it is true.
We all have our favourite announcers and Luke Bona is one of them-especially how he was all things over all hours on 2GB!
Where and when is his ‘anchor’ slot in ‘drivetime’ as briefly mentioned in Tim Webster’s show (I think)- your website was too hard to navigate with all those white circles saying no times but just names.
Sorry to see Sharina on Sundays is still going -hope it just a brief slot as she does not appeal and I turn my radio off!
Obviously I am not a TV person but love my radio network!
Please make it work but be more informative in your advertising or I fear you will AGAIN lose audience margins despite some change being good for us!
I agree with Chris Bell (above) the new format is all over the place, thank god Sharina has gone, I turn to other stations on sunday night. Saturday arvo was just a boring 2 hrs of Cars, for god’s sake when you had the wonderful, funny & entertaining John Cadogan on board I was actually interested,this was followed up by what seemed like endless hours of superannuation talk. The only things remaining of the old 2UE that I will tune into are George & Paul on the weekends & John & Garry weekday mornings. Also Clinton Maynard was in Management, sorry but that is where he belongs, as a broadcaster he sounds like he is in church, a bit like the equally boring Kel Richards on Magic 2CH. Do you think he is up to filling any timeslot? Guess what, he is a bore. To sum up the station sounds like one long infomercial, all you need now is funeral ads & you will have buried us all !
PS why not give Dale his own movie moment, that would be welcome.
Judy Partlett
Explain how Kel Richards is boring when he presents music on 2CH. He’s not a “bore” at all, on the contrary he’s the only one with any guts on all of Sydney radio, because he is not a yes man and stands up for what is right in society on his Sunday Night program. I don’t know what you’re listening to, but he isn’t a “bore”
“native approach”
“branded content”
As if this is some kind of new idea when it’s the oldest (and lamest) concept in media: advertorial.
The value of slapping some digital buzzwords on a dowdy old AM station is it reveals just how fraudulent those buzzwords really are.
I cannot believe you did away with Mike Jeffreys..This format is going bomb big time. just hour upon hour of ads pretending to be a show..forget it
If you like misogynistic, bombastic, demented, long-past it radio announcers, then Jeffreys is your man.
As devoted 2ue listeners for the last 20 plus years, we are totally turned off by the new “talking lifestyle” format. BORING ! BORING! BORING !!!
Will give it a go for a few more days but if there is no improvement will then change to another station.
Why the hell would they change the phone number? They are going to struggle to get/keep listeners as it is — and I know the old number will redirect to the new number — but they need to keep some familiarity to keep us tuned to their station.
I’m prepared to give it a go but, as someone mentioned above, who the hell wants to listen to two hours of superannuation and stock market talk!?!?
Enjoyed immensely Sunday’s motoring show [noon – 2pm] Tried listening to the following programs, but…pass.
Yeah. Danny – I wondered the same thing myself. 131332 has been around since Lawsie – I can remember him talking about their “top line” phone number and rubbishing everyone else with digits all over the place. Like most ppl, I too will continue to listen to George and Paul on the weekends but that’s it – as soon as 12 noon comes on Sunday it’s back to the dial for me until 6am the following Saturday.
I wonder how long UE will continue to be able to AFFORD to pay George and Paul as the revenue stream must surely become a trickle in the days and weeks ahead.
2UE is famous for experimenting. CBC, Alan Jones, live crosses Top 40 and almost everything current radio is doing now was done at 2UE at one time or another. I wish her the best.
The new format brings to mind similar ventures by brave executives who took a chance.
New Coke
Windows Vista
New Shapes
And the one most closely aligned with the thinking of Macquarie Radio….
Masters.
Yes Masters….who had a wonderful idea.
Lets make the hardware store light and airy and lifestyle based.
We all know how that turned out.
For me it is the lifestyle branding that is the heart of the issue.
UE says Lifedtyle but I hear Light weight.
Like when you go to MacDonald’s on the weekend and dont want heavy derious news and slide out the LIFESTYLE Magazine.
UE is now Light Weight on Topics and the crime of it is that I bet no serious market research and focus groups were used.
Or if they were used it was not from the pool of loyal listeners who could expertly yeild up what they want…it might have been sterile data from target audiences they want to grab…at risk of losing the loyal listener base.
It seems Mike Jeffries is gone from evenings.
The nrw website is so clunky its impossible to figure out if he has noved slots or been punted.
I’ll stick with John and Garry until the clever msrketing of whstever afternoon and evening station I end up listening to convinced me to move on.
Pay Attention UE executives….this is how it works when you get a crazy idea that you have made look good on paper but in reality is a slap in the face of loyal listeners.
You have our numbers…we call all the time…an unwanted resource in the forward planning of your station.
I’m heading to Masters now to pick over the dregs of their fire sale.
I’ll do the same at UE in a few months.
Jimmy
Nothing will change for me.
George and Paul on Saturday and Sunday mornings and overnight with Tony Moclair plus Dom Knight,Trevor Chappell and Rod Quinn on ABC. (I’m a notorious dial twister.)
Tony Moclair is pretty good,but Luke Bona was the supreme overnight operator.Should have left him there by the look of it.
Good luck to 2UE,I hope it works for them-but not my(life) style.
Love Sharinas sunday nite show and fantastic its keeping on and going nation wide. I have so many friends who stream her show every sunday nite for years. We want more of her.Her show appeals to all age groups. Love 2ue lifestyle!
Not to my age group, I assure you.
Sorry but do not like this new format. My hubby and I are big fans of 2UE, Tim Webster, Luke Bona, George & Paul, John and Garry and to change the time slots for Tim & poor old Luke once again will not work for us. Radio now goes off at 12 noon Sat. Radio will not be on now from 12 noon till 5.00pm Mon-Fri. We liked Mike Jeffreys at night and he is gone such a pity. We believe people want talk back and to talk about the topics which happen day to day. Good luck with this venture will stay with some of it but you might need to think about what the listeners want. There will be so many people affected as they will not be able to talk to their special presenters on the topics they want to talk about. A good radio station getting ruined.
“National executive producer Michael Thompson said the new format was a pioneering concept that would anchor segments around lifestyle categories rather than focusing *soley on personalities”.
The word is solely, not soley, and in the last paragraph there is a transposition, the word is website.
“The relaunch has been supported with a new webiste and even a new phone number for listeners to call in”.
They can get stuffed. Mike Jeffreys is a legend and I shall not be listening to their advertorial type shows. I hope their format sinks. Bring back Mike Jeffreys, he’s the fairest talkback host on ALL stations, and he’s much better than anything 2GB has to offer except for Alan Jones, you can put Hadley, Fordham and Price in there, Jeffreys is better than those three by far as he doesn’t cut people off or dump calls.
Mike Jeffrey was great, you guy’s at the top have realy stuffed up, and I hope you know it sooner than later, been a 2ue listener for 52 year’s, like other’s, and Mike Jeffery good night, good luck, it will not work.PS ask the people that count your listener’s.
Methinks this is a ploy by 2GB management to grind 2UE into the ground so it can have the monopoly on talkback……guess what 2GB management???? It won’t work with me!!!!……I won’t be listening to Jones and Hadley grandstanding and I hope George and Paul and John and Garry hang on until new management/owners restore 2UE programs to their rightful content!!!!
Agree totally with the comments above. Macquarie Network has ruined a good station since acquiring it. I thought it was a bad move when Stuart Bocking was moved out of mornings. He now appears to be Ray Hadley’s ‘assistant’ on 2GB. Where do we go now? ABC is not an option as the terrible Wendy Harmer is there!
The removal of Tim Webster from afternoons is just stupid. How anyone could listen to ‘Great Escape’ with Bowen & The Duck (Ray Hadleys stand over man) is beyond me!
What a tragedy.
What a massive mistake.After many,many years of loyalty I switch to Lawsie as soon as John and Garry sign off , No-one is going to jam rubbish down my neck .
Getting rid of Mike Jefferey’s is a bad mistake, The whole talking Lifestyle format sounds very fake, God even 2SM sounds great now. You’ve lost me 2ue……
What a BORING format “lifestyle bull ….”
There is enough of lifestyle crappy shows on TV aren’t u aware of it or is the management just a “pack of sheep” only dummer & deadset boring. We’ve all got our own lifestyles & who the frickin hell cares to tune into some stupid trying damn hard to preach to the rest of humanity what to do & how to do it …. you know what you can do go …….. (fill in the blanks!!!!)
Sorry to see Mike Jeffreys being dumped he was the best of the lot! More entertaining by miles compared to the crap bullshit that’s playing now!!!!!
Don’t need 2ue there’s millions of radio stations on “Tunein” or haven’t management heard this name ….. Good bye
Mike Jeffrey’s always used to read my text and emails, always made fun of Ottoman Harry…His program was entertaining from start to finish.
Mike J. was the best. I loved his regular callers such as Tina, Sef or Harry and Craig E Bennett. How could they let him go?. Only Paul and George is worth listening to. I believe that this new experiment will blow up in their faces. By the way who is going to listen every day about travel or other trivia topics,
I listen to John & Garry and nothing else. The new format is ridiculous – one long BORING advertorial (you can’t tell where the ads end and commentary starts). That jingle is almost enough to make me ditch 2UE all together. It’s annoying and almost ‘patronising’ to the audience. Good bye 2UE!
Cannot believe you 2ue for saying hurrah to the wonderful
Mike Jeffery – like the majority of your loyal listeners I definitely
Do not enjoy the so called “lifestyle” concept!!! As the saying
Goes IF IT AINT BROKEN DON”T FIX IT!!!!! – am soooo
Disappointed – next thing you’ll be doing is saying goodbye to
George and Paul!!!!!?
The only good thing out of this change is that the hideous Mike Jeffreys is going. He is the poor man’s Laws and just as over the hill.
However, a station full of ‘sponsored entertainment’ won’t work. Who would listen to that?
This type of radio requires discrete listening patterns where you have to remember to tune in for the segment you want. Radio doesn’t work that way. 2UE will be hoping that the underwriting sponsors don’t know that and make up for the loss of audience with $$$. And why all the fuss about Mike Jeffreys. Time he found a nice paddock.
Totally agree. Jeffreys should be put out to pasture. He must be in his mid 70s by now. Time to let the younger talent through. However, this new format is questionable to say the least. I agree that the idea of niche programming that means you have to remember when to tune in won’t work. It’s nearly as old fashioned as Jeffreys.
Really ? But it works fine for ABC Metropolitan & Regional.
Loved Mike Jeffries -he thinks for himself, so sad he’s gone
Loved Luke on the overnight show, not interested in his shows now – won’t be listening. Sorry Luke
Can’t stand the new format or jingles.
Love John & Garry & George & Paul and that’s about it, will turn off other infomercial shows.
Please please 2ue bring back the old format!!!
Jeffreys didn’t think for himself. His show is a rehashed version of right wing commentators, including Bill O’Reilly. Telling the same old stories for years. He’s had decades to tell those stories. He’s had a good run. 2UE is so sexist. Can you imagine a woman allowed on the air in her 70s?
What utter rubbish. Do you care to support your comments with some facts. “Telling the same old stories for years” you say. He was the fairest presenter on all of radio, did not cut people off for dissenting views.
Can Mumbrella please send a copy of these comments to 2UE Management and Macquarie Radio’s CEO Russell Tate! The one’s killing a grand old radio station!!
The modern entertainment world is based on “personalities”. We creatures of habit are comforted by tuning in at regular times to listen to our favourite “personalities”. Instead it has become one long commercial. Transfer John & Garry + George & Paul to one of the other stations and shut the doors on 2UE. The ABC looks like gaining a lot of listeners. It will be interesting to see the next survey figures.
If I hear the word ‘lifestyle’ one more time I’ll go crazy!!!! Apart from George ‘n Paul, Garry ‘n John you can forget me. Banal chitchat the likes of the trashy mags I may flip through whilst at the hairdresser. It’s woeful 2ue, I can’t believe you took Mike Jeffreys off either. You haven’t given your listeners enough credit if you’re serving up this drivel.
I will guarantee that the ratings will go down in the 7pm to Midnight timeslot without Mike Jeffreys.
I do not listen to any other shows but john and garry and george and paul where is luke from overnights wake up management listening to nothing else turned off
yes I am gone it is rubbish, john and garry in the morning then I toggle to new radio and abc. This new format is a smoke screen for cheap programming. Not interested don’t watch cooking shows, dancing shows or any other reality rubbish on the box and I don’t listen to 2ue either anymore
Loved Mike Jefferys, my dial will not go on 2ue ever again,2sm and 2gb for me,and 2ch on Sunday’s to listen to Kel.
Why have you taken Mike Jeffreys off at night and have commercials for most of the day?
2UE doesn’t have me as a listener anymore.
R.I.P. 2ue Lifestyle Format
After 50years of loyalty to your station I am tuning out..Don’t need to listen to marketing programs or to learn how to improve my life. i agree with so many of your former listeners… am now on a mission to find Mike Jeffrey’s .. Luke i miss you already
anniej