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A New Trend In Naming Radio Stations: Two Different Names
June 4, 2019
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. But, radio rarely has these type of large brands - particularly if you're launching a new service. One way to get around that - as TripleM's owners have done - is to use the strength of the main brand to launch sub-brands: TripleM Aussie, as one example, is a station that just plays Australian rock music. Still obviously a radio station to most people. However, what happens if you don't have access to this heritage?
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A while ago, I worked on a radio station called "The Groove," which was a Soul music station in London. It didn't have frequencies, since it was just online and through DAB broadcasting, which doesn't use them; so it was just called "The Groove."
It became quite obvious that nobody knew, from its name, that it was a radio station. On its website, its social media, and other places, we had to work quite hard to educate people that "The Groove is a radio station that..." and all this seemed to be a waste of time.
It's certainly true that some radio stations have enough recognition that people would know they're a radio station. "TripleM" is a good example of a station which has existed for some time now in Australia, and most people in its target market would, you'd think, know that it's a Rock radio station.
But, radio rarely has these type of large brands - particularly if you're launching a new service. One way to get around that - as TripleM's owners have done - is to use the strength of the main brand to launch sub-brands: TripleM Aussie, as one example, is a station that just plays Australian rock music. Still obviously a radio station to most people.
However, what happens if you don't have access to this heritage?
There is a new branding trend I'm beginning to spot for radio - a trend which makes a whole lot of sense: a different brand on-air than to everywhere else.
One example is Magic Radio, a station in the U.K. that's called Magic Radio in its advertising, its press releases, its Twitter handle, but is called simply "Magic" on-air. You know it's a radio station when you're listening to the thing: but otherwise, "Magic" could mean anything at all.
The beginning of this year saw ABC Classic FM, a classical music station in Australia, change its name to "ABC Classic" - reflecting the multi-platform nature of radio. But this week, I saw a very clever (and sadly, YouTube-unavailable) TV ad for it that called it "ABC Classic Radio". A perfect name for it off-air, but the "radio" bit is superfluous on-air.
Does it make sense to have a simple, snappy name for a radio station on-air... and then a longer, more descriptive station name in marketing material?
It seems an interesting new trend that might work well.
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