Is ARN’s The Edge rebranding to Cada?

The rumour mill is spinning about ARN’s plans for its new radio station, set to replace The Edge.

TMN has seen some evidence the radio network could be set to rebrand the station as ‘Cada’.

ARN has applied for a trademark of the name, while Cada.com.au takes you to a landing page replete with its logo.

The website’s branding is consistent with the logo applied on a leaked image of what could be the new station’s line-up.

Could this be Cada’s new line-up?

The apparent new line-up features the likes of Flex Mami (Lillian Ahenkan) who has been dubbed “one of the most charismatic Australians of the internet”. The Ghanaian-Australian is an entrepreneur, author, DJ, TV presenter, social commentator, podcaster and influencer.

She appears to be paired up with Froomes (Lucinda Price). Froomes is a writer, presenter, podcaster, comedian and content creator, who was previously ‘The Face’ of Pedestrian.TV.

The new station also appears to have recruited Canberra TikTok star Avneesha. The emerging musician has already worked with ARN as a presenter on its iHeartRadio station TikTok Trending.

Musicians B-Wise (James Iheakanwa), Kian (Kian Maxwell Bytyci Brownfield) and Yaz (Yaz Haddad) also appear on the leaked line-up.

Yaz is a recording artist with King Kyle and previously worked as an announcer at The Edge back in 2015 to 2018. He went on to work for Grant Broadcasters, which has subsequently been snapped up by ARN.

Another potential program is K-Sera & The Dirty Dozen, which currently plays on The Edge Monday to Thursday from 8pm to 10pm.

ARN has been contacted for comment and has not confirmed the plans to TMN, however it did recently reveal the station would be relaunched as a ‘national youth brand’ targeting the 15 to 29-year-old demographic.

The new station, it said in its annual report, would be “anchored in hip hop and RnB” and “driven by content, and reflective of an under-serviced genre of youth culture in commercial radio”.

ARN said its plans for The Edge were a “multi-year investment”, and flagged spending of $8 million to $9 million as it relaunches the station and accelerates its original podcast content creation.

“We will work with the Australian music industry to create a platform to support artists, labels and promoters, while building a community of passionate music fans,” the report said of its plans for The Edge.

Just over six months ago, The Edge hired former FBi Radio managing director Emily Copeland as general manager in a bid to “inject some fresh, strategic energy into the brand”.

At the time, ARN said Copeland already had a “ton of exciting things planned” for the radio and DAB+ outputs of the product.

Copeland went on to hire music industry veterans Marty Doyle as head of content, and Andy Walsh as head of commercial strategy.

More recently, long-time Breakfast hosts on The Edge, Mike E and Emma, departed and subsequently popped up on a new RnB Fridays digital station at SCA’s LiSTNR.