With regular announcers currently on holidays, who is your favourite Summer fill-in Sydney radio presenter?

Are any stations in fact sounding better during the holiday season as opposed to their regular line-up?

Let’s face it – now is a good time for stations to ‘try new things’.

Also, 96FM Perth looks to have increased its figures in Ugly Phil’s final weeks on air.

As for MTR… let’s wait and see what excuse they use this time. Still problems with the transmitter? If it’s that important then why not fix it ASAP?

Click here to see the latest Nielsen survey results.

The once dominant – almost revolutionary – station dipped 1.3 points putting it equal sixth to Mix 106.5.

Is it the changing formats? From pop & alternate last year, to new music ‘Triple J’ style, to Ministry of Sound-sounding over summer, back to … sounding like 2DayFM?

Or is it due to the fact they cannot gain a ‘brand’ from their radio shows? Unlike the success of Merrick & Rosso, Merrick Dools & Monty (which will now be known as Merrick & Dools due to Monty’s departure), it is somewhat confusing for the listeners. Not to mention the very blokey sound of Fitzy & Wippa – which is something you’d expect to hear on a young sounding Triple M.

Nova 96.9 must do something before it’s too late. The station has never seemed to have been a real threat to 2DayFM ever since Kyle & Jackie O moved from drive to breakfast. Before then, it was looking as if Nova would ever be beaten again by an Austereo station.

There is still hopefully some life left to live in the not-so-old Novaboy.

Click here to view the latest Nielsen ratings.

The MixFM network have launched a new logo. But does it really suit the Mix image?

The ARN station believes it’s an ‘easy-going’ logo, however, it does have some striking similarities to ‘other’ Sydney stations.

The revamped former ‘butterfly’ icon has been tilted a bit too much that it looks like a Cross like the one on Christian radio station Hope103.2′s logo. The fact that it’s a blue cross makes it look a little like community station 2SER’s logo.

Analysing it a bit too much? Probably so. But it just needs time to grow on people.

Sydney’s 2UE with its new look line up can be put in the same basket as MTR 1377 in Melbourne. Reason being, both have a new sound to their listeners, and both are struggling to gain new listeners (or in MTR’s case, gain any listeners).

In fact, for MTR the only increase was 0.1 per cent for its drive show with Channel Nine’s Martin King. The station currently sits just above NewsRadio at 1.8.

How long can a station really say things like, “We just need more time” or “This survey was affected because…” The reality is, when it comes to talkback stations many listeners simply refuse to switch. You either love a talk radio station or hate it… or don’t even know about it!

2UE’s recent ‘generational shift’ hasn’t really resulted in any big increases. In Survey #3 the station climbed by 0.1 per cent to 6.1. Could this be due to all the ‘older’ listeners flicking to 2SM for John Laws? Or is their problem that you can’t beat 2GB by becoming 2GB?

Everyday Alan Jones is away, the next best alternative is probably 2UE’s Jason Morrison. But what happens if Andrew Moore filling in on 2GB agrees 100% with everything Jones says? Then there is no point of differentiation in the market.

Click here to view the latest survey results.

95.3 is the new name for the station formerly known as Classic Rock, formerly known as Vega.

There are several reasons (other than poor ratings) why this change has come into play. Critics have said the DMG owned station never really promoted its frequency enough… well now it does. Another, is the fact that the station has once again broadened its playlist to not only play ‘classic rock’ but now plays most other classics.

The name Classic Rock has now been shifted and is part of their positioner, “Sydney’s 95.3… Classic Songs, Classic Rock”.

But why the change?

Wasn’t the reason DMG dumped the Vega format due to the fact it had no real identity or point of differentiation? If so, then why make the station sound even more like WSFM?

To sum it up, 95.3 is now simply Classic Rock + WSFM’s playlist + Triple M’s sport focus.

The station is already suffering the same syndrome as WSFM – playing bands as recent as Jet!

And by renaming to 95.3 it puts the station back in the same situation it was with the name Vega. That is, it says absolutely nothing about the station. At least with the name Classic Rock, you knew what you were going to hear.

Once again DMG have timed this change very well. With the next survey due to be released shortly, it’ll buy them time to make up yet another excuse why 95.3 is still struggling to make any impact in the Sydney market (with the same going for Melbourne’s 91.5).

Why do all companies feel the need to have an ‘older persons’ station and a ‘younger persons’ station? Instead, just focus on a niche and leave the rest of it to the others.

With help from the new breakfast and evening shows, as well as a ‘softer’ mix of music, the station is bound to increase further throughout the coming surveys.

One man who cannot go unmentioned is 2GB’s night time announcer Brian Wilshire. He is up a whopping 5.3 per cent to 18.7. That’s almost 10 points ahead of his nearest rival 702 ABC.

The opposition at 2UE are yet to see the full figures since their new line up changes and it is sure to be an interesting year ahead for the AM talkback station. With the return of John Laws to 2SM and the constant absence of 2GB’s Alan Jones, 2UE could lose its older audience, yet at the same time dominate with the younger-middle age AM radio listeners… If there in fact are any.

There has been much talk about Hamish & Andy’s new replacement team of Fifi Box & Jules Lund across the Today Network. Unfortunately, most of it has not been positive feedback.

It must be said that Austereo have had a near impossible task of replacing one of the country’s most successful talents in radio… And this looks to have come at a cost.

What does this mean?

Well, Triple M have cut down Roy & HG from Monday to only Fridays (the same time as Hamish & Andy’s new Friday-only show) and have also stopped networking it into Melbourne & Brisbane. Paul & Rach have been replaced with what can be described as a ‘C-grade Hamish & Andy’ (with Ant & Becks on Mix being the B-grade version).

Austereo’s mistreatment of the Triple M Network in order to help keep its Today stations afloat will prove to be a poor move in 2011.

Maybe it’s just time for the Today Network to give things a rest? Maybe if Triple M had recruited Tim ‘Rosso’ Ross to replace Paul Murray (who defected to 2UE) and kept Rosso & Rach, as well as Roy & HG (Mon & Fri), then maybe Austereo could still stand a chance. A dominant Friday-only show for the two networks will not be enough to keep the stations performing strong.

Either way, no matter what Austereo has done with one station in order to help another station, listeners need to understand that Fifi & Jules are not meant to be a Hamish & Andy replacement. Maybe the show is meant to be something ‘different’?

Surely if Austereo wanted to hire another two A-grade comedians they could have easily done so.

But instead, we have Fifi & Jules… who are not trying to be Hamish & Andy.