JOY appoints broadcast manager

JOY appoints broadcast manager

A new broadcast manager with a strong dance music background starts at Melbourne GLBTIQ radio station JOY 94.9FM next month.

Hailing from Bendigo commercial radio station Easy Mix 98.2FM, Nigel Slater will take up the position on January 4, bringing more than 15 years of community and commercial radio experience with him.

“I love dance music,” Slater told Southern Star. “Out of my couple of thousand CDs I’d say I’ve got about 1000 of dance. I keep up with all the Ministries, but at the end of the day, I’m a radio person, first and foremost.”

Playing a more mainstream hit list at Easy Mix, Slater said JOY listeners shouldn’t expect any great changes to the regular line-up just yet.

“I don’t want to come in and change it in a day. I’ll work slowly,” he said.

“JOY at the moment has a lot of really good aspects. It’s a very polished station and a really good base to build on.”

Slater was one of the founders of dance music station KISS FM in 1994, helping to build the station from the ground up. He moved on when the station moved to a commercial structure.

“I’ve always listened to JOY as much as [I] can… when I come back to Melbourne, and again it’s one of the only places to hear dance music so it’s probably the interest factor’s in it, but I’ve always been a supporter of what it stands for and the community it supports.”

Slater said he would like to use his commercial radio experience to shape some of the talk-driven content in a more “palatable” way.

“This may be a bad example, but the Christian radio station Live FM, they don’t tell you ‘God is good’, they do these little [segments] where they report a good deed, so in 24 hours if something nice has happened to you — one guy rang in and said McDonald’s gave him a second cup of coffee.

“They don’t blast you and if you weren’t into the Bible, they don’t tell you you have to read the Bible… [whereas] the gospel radio stations in the country areas push it down your throat.

“We realise too that the station plays a [wider] role. Everyone who listens is not of the same orientation so they’re going to say, ‘Hey, what can I learn’, which is a good opportunity. Rather than preach to the converted, preach to the people who aren’t converted.”

JOY president Stephen Duns said he was excited to have Slater start at the station.

“He will be an excellent addition to the JOY team,” Duns said.

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6 responses to “JOY appoints broadcast manager”

  1. I have moved to another position. If you like classic dance, I put together a selection on joy every Monday morning from 1 am to 6 am. In the 9 months I was in the broadcast manager position, the station did not radically change as I said in the article it wouldn’t. In fact, it was a strong year for the station with major media coverage for the Tony Abbott interview, Eddie maguire interview, Rodney Eade interview, Kylie minogue exclusive interview and the sixty minutes ruby rose segment as well as also awards and a succesful radiothon. This was all acheived with little increase in dance and 2 new breakast shows and 5 new drive shows. Please keep supporting the station that supports you. Around 300 dedicated amazing volunteers ensure the station operates smoothly to the best of their ability and I am now one too!

  2. Well 9 months later, some of you will be be pleased to learn that JOY is looking for a new Broadcast Manager to replace Nigel Slater. Reason = unknown.

  3. Where does it say in the article that Nigel is turning Joy into a dance station? He doesn’t even discuss the music content on Joy, only mentioning his own cd collection. He seems to be more into working with the talk based shows on Joy. The writer focuses on Nigel’s dance music experience. If anything this shows Nigel’s music knowledge and radio experience, which one would think is important for the role. Finally, where in the article does Nigel’s sexuality come into question? You may be assuming, have heard someone’s gossip or do you actually know him with some personal issue? Obviously Joy think he is the best person for the position, straight, gay or other! Give him a shot, before you shoot him down! If you do have a personal issue with Nigel or the station, why not put your comments to the station rather than going off “half cocked” in a public forum without the facts or the decency to comprehend the article! Read it again, all of you, before making assumptions and whining!

  4. This sounds like a BIG step backwards – JOY gets something great like QNN up and running, starts getting diverse programs that represent different aspects of the community and along comes some who is “straight” and things of us in stereotypes – gay = dance.

    Looks like I’ll stick to PBS & RRR where there are gay people on air who don’t stereotype me

  5. Funny, that’s what I was thinking. This man seems to be under the assumption that Joy is a dance music station. Has anyone told him it’s not?