Isn’t that just a rumour too? That Magic staff have been told they will be redundant from Feb? I’ve only seen this reported as “unconfirmed” and “may be”. Haven’t seen anything official. And when these reports were out there the sale of 2CH wasn’t settled and looked like ACMA wouldn’t entertain a buyer who would continue the Magic format.
I would speculate the “threat” of redundancies was a bargaining chip to encourage ACMA to allow a “friendly” purchase to proceed. Just my opinion.
Well it was confirmed George and Paul were going national. It would be unusual if that’s just on dab.
A lot of jobs were lost at 2CH and the 2ue newsroom. The ACMA did not step in there to keep jobs.
The new owners should be allowed to do whatever format. They could pick a heavy metal format. Maybe the over 60s could enjoy that. According to Wikipedia heavy metal started in 1964.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_heavy_metal_and_hard_rock_music#1964 
Job losses have been happening in media for decades. I’m not sure ACMA or its predecessors can do anything about that.
The only way they could go national would be on DAB as Macquarie only have 1 station in Perth. And none in Adelaide. Did they just mean BNE, SYD, MEL?
Time will tell but I’m convinced Magic will stay on AM in BNE, SYD, MEL.
As for ACMA “stepping in” to protect jobs that wasn’t what I meant at all and they certainly wouldn’t just step in to those examples you listed. BUT that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be used as leverage in allowing or disallowing this sale. It’s a completely different scenario and one where a lot of things were on the table (hence the knockbacks of previous proposals).
Whilst I think the Magic name will disappear, I also think Talking Lifestyle will eventually gravitate towards some sort of music and talk mix. Although it’s still early days, this week’s survey results for 2UE would seem to suggest that non stop lifestyle talk isn’t going to be a winning formula for Macquarie
Spot on littlegezzybear!
Someone who is 60 in Sydney today would have been 22 when 2SM was at the top of the ratings in 1978.
In 1978 they were listening to 2SM - not 2CH.
To get that into perspective today - it’s why KIIS is No.1 for 40 - 54 year olds.
I suspect 40 - 65 year olds are quite misunderstood by today’s radio stations.
Hmm not sure I agree.
How many 60 year olds were listening to 2SM in 1978? Or even 40 - 54yo. Not many I suspect.
I do agree that 60 year olds today do like classic rock and not Doris Day, but have you listened to Magic lately? Not hearing Doris Day so much.
By the way I’m 48 and would rather listen to ANYTHING rather than KIIS 
I have started to listen to 2ch more now. It’s pretty good. The dab is the best sounding in Sydney at 128k. Maybe 40 to 60 year old people would like it. Have yet to hear Doris Day for a while. 
The mix is much better than smooth in my view.
I agree Magic is improving.
For me it’s still not as good as 4BH/Magic 882 was before the programming started coming out of Melbourne though.
I don’t think it’s going to challenge the likes of 4KQ or even WS or Smooth, but I do think it fills a gap, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne.
I would REALLY like to see them do something about the lack of music info on the text display on DAB+ for the networked shifts though.
Bring on EON Sports Radio 1170 Sydney:
With an easy listening digital channel no doubt.
I didn’t see that in the article. I think they’ll keep the music format and Magic brand. They don’t really need to broadcast EON sport on AM, it’s already on DAB
I guess that depends on what happens to Magic in MEL/BNE … If they go Lifestyle Talk as per 2UE then they’ll be on their own… Magic branding or whatever.
True. But I would be surprised if Sydney ends up as the only major city without any music stations on AM
but EON Sport on AM will give that station a good profile boost in Sydney at least. Lots of people still don’t have digital radio and I’d be surprised if EON has enough listeners on DAB to be sustainable.
Sydney isn’t as sports mad as Melbourne… where SEN seems to be doing OK.
Unless EON is prepared to invest in something like NRL rights, then I think they will struggle with a Sports format in Sydney.
I think that 1170 will remain a music-based format. It won’t be Magic though - regardless of whether the name does remain in Melbourne and Brisbane (and it seems increasingly unlikely it will), there is no way Macquarie would allow the new owner to use it in Sydney (I assume Macquarie owns the rights to the name). There isn’t a lot of goodwill in Macquarie about this sale. Macquarie’s big hope of course was that they would be able to sell to a ‘tame’ operator who would immediately franchise it back to them to continue putting out Magic on 1170. Sadly for Macquarie, ACMA had other ideas. Macquarie is now a very reluctant seller and I can’t see them co-operating with the handover any more than they have to
My understanding is the EON Broadcasting is a different entity to EON Sports in Melbourne, and just because they share the EON brand doesn’t mean that there is a strong bond between them. If my mail is correct Glenn Wheatley isn’t associated with EON sports any more, along with Danny Staffieri and a couple of other senior staff. If this is true (and hoping for a little confirmation here) then I cannot see EON sports being broadcast on 2CH. (Could be totally and utterly wrong of course…)
I’m not up to date in what Glenn’s share is, but you are 100% correct in saying that EON Sports, EON Broadcasting (Sunshine Coast) and 2CH are all separate entities with different breakdowns of ownership, despite having some common shareholders.
For example, I believe that the major shareholder in EON Sports is the founder of Aspire Learning (who they share offices with in Melbourne) with no relationship to Oceania Capital (the major shareholder of EON Broadcasting and 2CH).