SCA announces SAFM’s replacement

After announcing it was pulling the pin on an Adelaide radio icon, Southern Cross Austereo has taken the wraps off its replacement for SAFM.

Next Monday at 8am ushers in a new era with the launch of hit107. It targets young women in their 20s with a promise of ‘playful, social and colourful’ radio.

Those three words are the buzz words. New packaging with the use of a dramatic exclamation mark and sharp imaging reinforces the message.

SCA Head of Content Craig Bruce has been intensely working on the new brand with Adelaide Content Director Irene Hulme.

“In lots of ways, SAFM’s history had become an anchor for us. All of the things that it was famous for, and it’s a 34 year old brand, were for an audience and a time that had largely passed.

“We have a commitment to being the leading hit network in the country with Today network, so we wanted to keep the target audience in tact in our approach to our music”.

Driving the new brand will be the breakfast team of Amos Gill and Dani Pola. They’ve spent the past few weeks really getting to know each other. Both are keen to get behind the microphone ‘for real’.

For Gill, this is his first venture in radio. He’s a local Adelaide boy and stand-up comic with a genuine passion for radio.

“Coming from stand up, people said I’d find radio stifling. It was probably jealousy. Since I’ve been here, everyone has said to be different; to find an angle and that’s made me more creative. I couldn’t be happier or excited,” said Gill. “I’ve never done real proper radio before, I’m kinda glad we’re doing it on a whole new radio station, where my kind of radio will find a whole new audience”.

Pola has taken a different path to hit107. She’s a product of the SCA ‘pipeline’ after finding fame on Big Brother in 2007.  After stints in Perth, Albury and Gosford, she’s found herself in Adelaide.

“Oh my god. This is so exciting,” said Pola. “I’m on adrenaline. This is what I’ve been working towards for six years. I’m on top of the world.

“I think Amos is probably one of the quickest people I’ve ever met in my life.  It’s perfect.  I’m the story teller, I love telling stories, I’m an open book, I talk about my life.  He’ll balance things up”.

Bruce has high hopes for hit107 and the breakfast line up.

“It’s one thing to have a new logo, but if you don’t have anything behind it, it quickly becomes obvious. The look and the feel about the brand is sensational.

With a new breakfast line up, all of that combined, it gives us something a bit different. It’s incredibly exciting.  There’s nothing holding us back here”.

hit107 will launch next monday, the website is live now at hit107.com.

Article originally published on radiotoday.com