Yes I think that’s right. The price was lower than market value because MRN were in a forced sale position and had delayed the process. Also could it be that AM licences are starting to be worth a little more because they come with DAB spectrum and other operators are finally starting to turn their attention to utilising that.
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Yep they certainly stuffed around and the purchase price was a bargain. Understand more to the valuation than P&L, hence the purchase price. The point I was making was more around the long-term sense of retaining the 2CH status quo.
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One thing I don’t understand, is if 2CH is to become a sports station, wouldn’t SEN do their market research and learn how changing semi-mediocre performing AM music stations to sports stations can destroy ratings?
Just look at when Magic became MSR in Melbourne.
I’m sure 9Radio would much more prefer the way Magic was performing pre-MSR than to today.
Don’t make the same mistake twice.
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Brad Smart, writing for Radio Info, scoffs at suggestions it will continue to be business as usual at 2CH and that it will be SEN within 3 months
https://www.radioinfo.com.au/news/2ch-keep-music-format-’s-croc
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2CH will have more value for Pacific Star/Crocmedia as part of a national network than it has for EON, or as it would on its own.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Crocmedia’s next move is to take over RadioTAB, merge the narrowcast network into SENTrack and launch SEN Queensland on the 4TAB commercial licence.
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And then go broke in a few month time.
They’re expanding at a rapid rate ATM, & if they do what you’ve suggested (which wouldn’t surprise me), in the current economic climate they’ll go broke fast.
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Yep, I agree. One would imagine that the Italian community of Sydney are hoping Rete Italia will remain on 1539AM in the long run, but that also seems unlikely. While 2CH will still be playing Classic Hits in the immediate future, I think the smart media observers (including Brad - no pun intended) are right to predict that sooner or later, 1170 will be SEN Sydney.
Is it sad that 2CH is likely to disappear from the Sydney radio landscape? Absolutely. But at the same time, more should’ve been done to properly modernise 1170AM after the launch of Smooth 95.3 in 2012. Despite at least four major rebrands since then, 2CH still sounds pretty daggy compared to Smooth.
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Yeah, I reckon a move to SEN 1170 is all but inevitable. A loss leader like 2SM…
There is a chance that 2CH will remain on DAB+ and online, though. But given the demise of 3MP, that’s by no means a certainty.
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This has SEN1323 written all over it.
That killed off the heritage 5DN brand from Adelaide radio, only to have it be relaunched and become more successful as Cruise1323.
I sort of hope SEN1170 fails. Yes it means we lose 2CH, but who knows what success may follow?
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As mentioned previously, it is sad to lose 2CH. Ratings wise, SEN wouldn’t be too concerned. As Brad Smart’s article suggests, Crocmedia already has the clout to broadcast to Sydney and not rely so much on ratings results. They can go to a prospective national client and say "we can offer you the 5 capital cities and about 20 odd regionals to promote your business.
Compare that to MSR who only had Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and were already suffering.
I said on another thread that 2CH and 621 Bunbury could share some music programming synergies with selected sports content, but I think it’s inevitable now both stations will be blown up and will switch over to SEN.
Take a look at the US and Canada. The last remaining AM music stations over the past 10 years have all become sport or newstalk formats. I think in the next 10 years, AM music stations in Australia could be consigned to history.
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I agree for the most part, except in the US you have a LOT more commercial FM music stations in each market. Even having 6 in Sydney and Melbourne is a very small number of music choices. And 4 each in the other capitals is a complete joke. Hence stations like 4KQ and Cruise continue to be successful music stations on AM, albeit with increasing listening via DAB.
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Ten? That’s being rather generous! I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if 4KQ, Cruise and perhaps 2CA/6iX (latter may go FM though if the band in Perth/South West WA eventually gets restacked though) are the only significant AM music stations in Australia within the next five years.
Now, back to 2CH. If the station eventually stops playing Classic Hits and becomes SEN 1170, do we think 2CH will get the opportunity to do a half decent farewell to their listeners? From a purely nostalgic perspective, I reckon a “Farewell to 2CH” special similar to the 80 Years one in 2012 would be a nice way to send the station out with style! 
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Ratings wise they already are, aren’t they? 4KQ & Cruise are the only two that are actually doing really well, 2CA/2CH/6iX are doing okay - that’s it really.
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Found this on IP Australia dated 2012… did 2CH ever adopt this in their marketing?
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That would be amazing even today with their current logo.
If 2SM won’t go retro, well there’s nothing stopping anyone else from doing so.
They went with this, Who ever signed off on it needed some shock treatment, then followed by some water torture.
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I don’t think they did, although it’s a reasonably good nod to the iconic 2SM logo.
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Yes indeed. However isn’t there some debate about this zipper design. Although it’s always associated with 2SM I’ve read it was originally created for 4IP.
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I better get some stickers from 2CH while I can.
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Did anyone post in here that David Burton began as MD in April?
Working remotely from Toowoomba, his home base for his previous job at SCA looking after 4GR, CFM/Hot/Hit 100.7 and the country music format used for digital and as a HPON in Toowoomba.
When SCA decided it’d be a good idea to save money and lose centuries of experience via another round of redundancies, David’s decades of experience as a good operator were lost from them.
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