They were the ones to start the station - they leased it out to others before selling it to Singo.
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I doubt they were either.
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Really makes you wish they brought 2SM insteadâŚ
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Yea I wonder why SEN bought 2ch 1170 am License over the 2SM 1260am License?
I donât think BOG would want to sell 2SM. It is the hub alongside 2HD for the network stations over NSW and QLD, where 2CH was a standalone radio station not that profitable. I am not sure if Sunshine Coast Broadcasters really wanted to keep it so if the right price came along they would sell it , this is the impression I had.
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2SM wasnât for sale?
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As I said when this all happened, SEN and Nine Radio should have made a trade, 2UE for 2CH.
It makes no sense for Nine to be struggling to build up a new music station on AM at the same time that SEN just exploded one further up the dial that was rating well.
Would have been beneficial to all.
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Overall I agree SEN 954 may of made more sense. Then 2CH 1170 can play the greatest hits for Nine radio. Instead of the DAB swap frequency they should have swapped AM frequencies. ie SEN own 954/ Nine own 2CH 1170. Nine could name it 1170 2UE or instead use 2CH if SEN would let them. I donât know how hard that would of been to arrange. Maybe SEN did approach Nine Radio with this idea but rejected it. For me the swap make sense, Nine would already have a music station which rates reasonably well, SEN 954 may get some of the MSR listeners back.
I think what stops this is , there is this slight obsession with 2UE (ie 954 am) possibly being a threat to 2GB ratings if SEN failed. Wind back to 2014, there was no real logical reason why Macq radio needed to buy 2UE other than to limit competition in the talk market within Sydney as 2UE was an established talkback station. They were successful in killing off 2UE as a talkback station threat.
Fast forward to 2022 , if SEN (on 1170) decided to make 1170 a talk station like 2GB, people can tune to 1170 instead to listen to Ray Hadley (for example). Does not matter what the frequency is, these days with digital tuning radios it is easier to jump around. 2UE/2CH/2SM are all on an equal footing should someone wanted to make a new âcommercial newstalk stationâ to seriously compete with 2GB. Some would argue 2SM should (in 2020)push to compete more with 2GB.
Therefore Nine would of been better off doing a deal with SEN to swap stations, as they could of had an already established music station, to build the greatest hits format on.
Itâs hard to say what Nine Radio wouldâve done had they picked up the ex-Macquarie/Fairfax Radio stations a few years earlier. Maybe 1170AM would still be 2CH and playing music, maybe Talking Lifestyle wouldâve actually become a longterm format, weâll most likely never know for sure.
Extending what Moe said, I actually think it wouldâve been better if there were some deals done between Nine Radio, SEN and EON in which the sports station picked up 2UE, the then-owners of 2CH got 1278 Melbourne and 882 Brisbane to rebuild a three city AM music station network with while Nine focuses solely on the flagship commercial AM talk stationsâŚbut all of thatâs in the past now.
The biggest tragedy to come out of the recent 1170AM changes is that 2CH is slowly dying a DAB+ only death and will probably fade out into nothingness in a matter of months, maybe a year or two at best. Wouldâve been better if 2CH decided âOK, so weâre going away soon but before we do, a celebration of the stationâs historyâ over the October long weekend by incorporating old 2CH jingles and short segments looking back at the stationâs history during that âTop 100 Classic Hits Albums of All Timeâ countdown.
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Why would the new owners of 1170 care about legacy brands or trying to do a swap for 2UE with Nine radio?
They only ever bought 2CH to get a Sydney outlet for SEN. Nothing else. They were always going to dump the legacy music format.
2UE and 2SM were never on the market.
Too many people over thinking about all of this!
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Yeah you have a valid point. Frequency swaps do happen though like 3AW did swap with Magic.
Mostly I think reception related but sometimes can be because of position the dial. In this case 693 was closer to ABC local radio which is a perceived advantage for 3aw.
One could argue there would be a perceived âadvantageâ for Nine Music Radio to be on 1170 for gains in audience, and an advantage for SEN being on 954 because there was a sports radio station there (who still had some of the rights). Then they could run promotions, the sport is back on 954. But you are right we are overthinking this 
.
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That swap was a lot easier because both stations were under the same ownership. And youâre right. The main reason was that the reception on 693 was a lot better in most of Melbourne than 1278.
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2CH in the 1960s and 1970s was very boring to listen to. Readerâs Digest made a fortune selling LP box sets of instrumental versions of popular songs. But 2CH didnât have similar success playing instrumentals interspersed with slow original songs. It wasnât sleep inducing listening as it didnât make you relax. They never topped the ratings.
From 1976 and 1977:
Source: SMH
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I think they only did well in the early 80s! Not sure if they ever topped the ratings?
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2CH topped the Sydney radio ratings several times. According to my records, they hit the top in S4/1979, and was also the top station in S1/1981, S4/1982, S1/1983, S3/1983, S4/1983, S2/1984 & S3/1984.
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Thanks @TV-Expert Beautiful music appeared to worked in the early 80s 
. .
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While not a #1 station during this period, I thought 2CH rated alright during the 2000s and Early 2010s during that fairly dark period for the ARN stations?
But obviously after the launch of Smooth 95.3 in 2012, the ratings gradually declined for 2CH and there were at least four notable relaunches (Happy Days, Magic, Easy Classics, Classic Hits) during the course of about five years in a bid to win back listeners.
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Thatâs right. The station was generally rating around 6-7% share and was the 3rd highest rating music station in S3/2003 & S7/2007 (behind 2Day & Nova in both cases), in which they had an overall rating in the high 7s.
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No sign of Chris Kearns tonight. I can hear listener requests from time to time. They have seem to have taken over.
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Yeah Iâm pretty sure 4BH did well with the Beautiful Music format as well around that time.
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