Sydney golden oldies station WSFM — the home of good times and great classic hits — has decided to play 100% Aussie music on January 26th in honour of Australia Day.
It comes after rival FM station Triple M got totally savaged (by both punters and its own jocks) for a decision to cash-in on the removal of Triple J’s Hottest 100 from the contentious date with its own ‘Ozzest 100’, after the ABC youth station made the decision to shift the segment to a less politically charged day that all Aussies can enjoy.
The long-awaited decision by triple j was made following a long public consultation process and marked a landmark show of support for Indigenous Australians, who’ve long associated January 26th with the trauma of the British invasion and the massacres and cultural genocide it engendered, but the M’s still nonetheless mocked the J’s for robbing ‘Straya of its annual BBQ soundtrack.
“So, the taxpayer funded FM has decided that there’ll be no soundtrack for Australia Day,” they wrote.
“Let’s face it, that’s usually full of hipsters or kids making music on a Mac. At Triple M, we’re going to give you what you’ve asked for. The perfect Australia Day soundtrack.”
Now WSFM has also announced plans to blast an “all Aussie playlist” on January 26th, with a post on its website encouraging listeners to “tell us your favourite Aussie track and why … then, be listening on Australia Day as we go all Aussie, all day on Sydney’s Pure Gold, 101.7 WSFM”.
A spokesperson from the stations higher-ups commented on the decision to News Corp, saying: “WSFM has a long history of running music specials, including on Australia Day, designed to enhance the music offering for our audiences by playing even more of the songs they love.”
It should be noted that despite changing the date of the Hottest 100, Triple J, too, has promised a solid day of all-Aussie music for January 26th, along with “programming that focuses on diversity”.
But professional facepalm-inducer Mark Latham has since fired off a tweet praising WSFM and Triple M for their programming decisions, while lambasting JJJ for “losing the plot”.
Go figure.
Congrats Radio WSFM: deciding to play Aussie classics on Australia Day, 26 January, selected by listeners.
MMM doing something similar, despite protests by wacky Wil Anderson, Mick Molloy, Jane Kennedy.
JJJ lost the plot, moved to 27 Jan: Holocaust Remembrance Day.
ABC imbeciles! pic.twitter.com/T4GlstXfrW— Real Mark Latham (@RealMarkLatham) January 2, 2018
