Vega radio replaced by rock stations

DMG Radio Australia is shutting down Vega in Melbourne and Sydney after four and a
half years, and replacing it with classic rock stations from Friday.

The two Vega stations on 95.3FM in Sydney and 91.5FM in Melbourne have been
rebranded Sydney's Classic Rock and Melbourne's Classic Rock.
The stations will do away with playing broad-based music, and instead have a focus
on pure rock music from the late 60s, 70s and 80s featuring the likes of AC/DC, Cold
Chisel and INXS, DMG announced on Thursday.
DMG Radio Australia assistant program director Dan Bradley admitted that Vega had
not attracted the audiences they had hoped for, and this move has been six months in
the making.
"Vega was a broad radio station, playing a variety of eras and a variety of genres.
In theory that was very appealing," Bradley told AAP.
"(But) before anybody will make a decision to use a brand they need to know very
clearly what that brand stands for.
"The issue with Vega was people by and large were unclear what it stood for.
"So the decision we've taken is to move to a specialist position, where people have
no doubt as to what we stand for."
Vega was launched in 2005 to target the baby boomer audience.
It originally attracted modest audiences but had reached a 5.5 per cent audience
share in Sydney by the end of 2008.
Ratings have since dipped, with the first survey of 2010 showing Vega had a 3.4 per
cent audience share in Sydney, and a 3.7 per cent share in Melbourne.
Vega saw a raft of on-air personalities come and go, among them Angela Catterns,
Wendy Harmer, Tony Squires, Mikey Robbins and Rebecca Wilson.
Bradley said the new stations would be very different to Vega, and would be the only
stations dedicated to pure rock in Sydney and Melbourne.
On-air talent including Sydney breakfast host Anthony Maroon, and Melbourne's Ian
`Dicko' Dickson and Dave O'Neil would remain, he said.
From Friday night, the stations will also broadcast Alice Cooper's radio show.
Bradley said they expected to attract a much bigger audience with the new stations.
"The ratings we achieved in the old position were not good enough, frankly," he said.
"We need to do better and make sure we are a more robust brand."