Been there. Done that. Mind you, it was the previous owners who attempted to network into SA.
If Hutchy properly did SEN-SA on 1323AM then it’d stand a better chance than 1629AM right now.
The only losers in all this are the listeners who’ll experience format changes galore across everything (except the top rating KIIS106.5).
Yeah it’s just that in a press release it did call out that the Gold stations would go to ACP - probably mainly because it’s only a 2 station FM network (excluding Cruise). If it was me I would rebrand FM104, 96FM and 104.7 in Adelaide as Pure Gold, but that’s not how it reads.
I would as well. I just can’t see ARN giving up high rating (in Melbourne’s case, number 1) stations, for the sake of securing an underperforming network brand. Surely they would pillage the best talent from the Pure Gold stations before handing them over…
That’s what I’m thinking… Jonesy & Amanda and Christian O’Connell to Triple M brekkie in Syd/Melb to help promote the football coverage without going too sport heavy.
If that is the plan, they would want to heavily invest in marketing the changes. Otherwise, why not just rebrand the current Pure Gold stations to Triple M and call the old Triple M stations something else (in places that have both Pure Gold and Triple M)?
Up til now, Triple M stations have been rock stations, but a lot of the appeal of Pure Gold and WSFM (IMO) is the music format, combined with the personalities. If they plan on changing the Triple M music to be more “pure gold style”, then as I said above, why not just rebrand their current stations and keep the audience on the same frequencies with the same music and personalities, rather than going through the process of buying out SCA and cherry picking what they need.
Surely they could buy out SCA, keep the stations they currently have that are succeeding, cherry pick the ones they want (where they only have one FM station, either combined with an AM station, like Adelaide and Brisbane, or standalone like in Perth), and then offload anything they’re not using…
Probably cheaper/easier to leave Triple M on 104.9/105.1 than move to those brands to 101.7/104.3 and redo all the logos of which many pre-existing ones would still exist too?
Probably also easier to say/promote eg." Jonesy and Amanda are moving to Triple M" than say “101.7 is now Triple M”.
Triple m on 101.7 that feels wrong 
. But understand the logic. Whats on 104.9 FM? 2WS hits and memories?
Probably Gold 104.9?
Yeah it can skew to an older audience. Maybe like Smooth Vintage but on FM. Sydney should have a station like that on FM. 2ue serves the older easy market.
Remember that ACP are a somewhat equal “partner” in the takeover. The deal is that ARN get some and ACP get some. ACP don’t want to be left with complete duds that they can’t do anything with so compromises need to be made.
If ARN wanted to give ACP “duds”, they’d give up both Hit and Triple M! So they’re only keeping one dud and giving up the other
The 2 Station per Limit in Sydney & Melbourne is outdated, We need the Restriction lifted in those cities to get the Rock on Triple M back to were it was before it went Pearshaped.
They’re waiting to buy them from receivers and managers appointed if SCA drowns in debt
I can’t believe talent haven’t become involved. Surely someone would want to secure the likes of Hamish & Andy.
I wonder whether there will be a division of talent that’s not necessarily consistent with how they are now. That said, I doubt that Anchorage would be that happy about ARN pillaging all the talent.
I’d support broadcasters owning additional stations, but only if there were a lot more commercial FM stations in any one place, like in New Zealand or the US. Currently there are only 6 commercial FM stations in Sydney and Melbourne and four in the other mainland state capitals. Unfortunately that’s not going to change much because a lot of the FM band is occupied by community broadcasters and low power stations.
The introduction of DAB+ would have been perfect for this. License 2 or 3 digital only (ie, DAB+ & Streaming only - NO FM) commercial players in each city. Would be an incentive for people to buy digital radios and for the new broadcasters to really push the medium.
Could have also pulled all of visions metro licences and put them on DAB on the proviso that no other broadcaster will get the same, vacating a ton of frequencies. Should also have a full parliament MUX on DAB+ that carried both the house of reps, the senate, any committee hearings and state parliament.
On well a man can dream.
Wonder what they will do with the Hit stations? Will they go more towards a mid of the road station like Mix 94.5 and have the KIIS station as CHR format.
Will Triple M go to more of a active rock format so they can move more away from the Gold format?
Time will tell I guess.
Yes so many possibilities!
It’s quite an exciting time really, watching how this will all unfold.
Here’s a history of new commercial stations in the state capitals
Late 1970’s one outer suburbs station in Sydney and Melbourne
(they both serve the whole of the city)
1980: Two commercial FM stations for Sydney and Melbourne, one for Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth
2000’s: Two more commercial FM stations for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, one for Adelaide and Perth
It’s now another 20 years later. Perhaps it’s time for two more commercial stations in Sydney/Melbourne, 1/2 in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. They might have to be DAB+ only.