April 5, 2005

Sweep out your tomb

Qing Ming and the only cleaning going on is that of Easy Listening i. The four markets this station is in (Auckland, Tauranga, Rotorua & Hawkes Bay) will soon have another station on these frequencies.. "Viva".


Viva - an exclamation expressing good will, well wishing.
n. The word viva, or a shout or sound made in uttering it.

Wish it luck? What for?

Sweepers have played to introduce the "new" brand claiming to keep the "best parts of easy listening i" and "so much more". So what difference, other than a name change TRN? And why do you need to change it?

Radio i has been around since 1970 here in NZ, and it seems awfully un-necessary to change it. If you have the capability to offer "so much more" already, why not empower the Easy Listening i brand instead of writing it off (can't believe im writing this!) and pointing out that i is inferior, only to replace it with something that is pretty much the same thing. Another easy listening station.

Worst rebranding in history. Sorry guys, but the name Viva to me means something exciting, charged and reminds me of European dance festivals... not elevator music!
I feel like spewing.

Private enterprise keeping consistent: sucking ass.

Radio I first hit the Auckland airwaves in late 1970 on 1250AM, four years after Radio Hauraki opened the door to private radio, initially under a share arrangement with state-run 1YD. Eventually it was granted a full licence using 1550AM, before relocating to 1330AM in 1977. It has been a feature on the FM band for the last decade, purchased by TRN in the late '90s as part of the GWR sale, and more recently networked into Hamilton, Hawkes Bay, Rotorua and Tauranga. -medianstrip

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Personally I think the Easy Listening i brand is tired and dated and needs refreshing. But as you said, it sounds like Viva will be much of the same - but with more "intelligence, talk and information". Pffft.. so the music will be as bland as it is now and the announcers will talk more. Bring back the i98FM of the early 1990s!

-prisnz

Anonymous said...

You can hear that in Wellington already - the call it The Breeze !

Anonymous said...

Oh! And I forgot to mention that the name Viva reminds me of super-absorbent paper towels. Apparently Viva was also the name of a soft porn mag for women. Then there's the Vauxhall Viva... 'nuff said!

-prisnz

Richard said...

This was brought to light yesterday by a colleague - Since TRN are in bed with APN, the "Viva" section of the Herald may explain the blurb we see on the Viva homepage - and what audience TRN is going for.
Of course, in the eyes (and ears) of Easy Listening i listeners - there's no difference. They don't "listen" anyway as it's only purpose is for background/hold music.
Only TRN see the difference, and what will make this re-branding exercise interesting, is if they are either happy to go with a "closed-off non-responsive-to-its-audience needs" approach, or not.. ..thats where we moot.