And I still feel that is a better circumstance - then you can have say Mix94.5 and 96FM under one roof, with all KIIS responsibilities no longer 96’s problem, and have true powerhouses in Melbourne with Gold and Fox, like there are some advantages to cherry picking there…
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Yeah, not cherry picking would be odd. They’d own the Triple M brand, so ACP couldn’t use it on the leftovers, so they could keep Gold/WS without impacting the overall strategy.
A complication would be the joint ventures - it would be smart in Brisbane to just keep Triple M and B105 - so they’d have two full stations on FM, likewise owning all of Mix or Triple M in Perth makes more sense than half of Nova.
Otherwise, Fox/Gold, KIIS/WSFM, B105/Triple M, Mix/TripleM and Mix/96fm would be basically the ideal combo of metro stations, both through ratings and ownership stakes.
I wonder as well if ARN might keep the Hit brand as well - given it’s exclusively used in regional areas now, ARN would end up owning an awful lot of Hit branded stations.
ARN would want a 5 metro station network , and it makes sense for them to want Triple M as it’s a different demographic and gives them a male skewed rock format, unlike Hit, which is a similar format to KIIS.
I think ARN will send Triple M a bit more Classic Hits than rock, Gold under ACP might skew a bit older towards males? Nothing too major either way.
I think KIIS will stay the same, but under ACP, Hit would also skew older but towards females (a bit like how 2Day.already is now?).
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If I had my way they would do:
KIIS - Hit Music and personality based younger programming
MMM - Greatest Hits, based around 80s and 90s rock and pop hits, adult personality and football (contractual for a few more years)
Hit - 90s to Now, RnB and High School Hits
Gold - 70s to 2009, less reliant on personalities but more focused on music and timeless classics
Hit and Gold, being owned by private equity, would likely focus on costs so the big personalities would be on KIIS/MMM
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I wouldn’t be surprised if they simply try to rebuild was Austereo was back in the day… KIIS for the ladies & Triple M for the men. Just with a few tweaks here & there.
Either that, or they stick to their ARN ways & make KIIS for the youth and Triple M for the oldies.
Let’s just hope they don’t do anything too drastic like the CADA failure.
… Remember the last time Duncan Campbell had control of Triple M? …
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I don’t. What happened?
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96.1 Triple M Perth failure.
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that was over 25 years ago? Hopefully he’s learned some lessons since then 
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I would have:
KIIS - CHR - Number 1 Hit Music Station. For the under 35 year olds.
MMM - Active Rock - Melbourne / Sydneys Best Rock, base around 80’s to Now rock music, with the odd classic rock music thrown into the mix. Similar to The Rock in NZ and Power 100 Townsville. I would still have the football on this station.
Hit - Hits You Love From The 80’s to Now - This station would have more of a softer and older edge compered to KIIS. This station would cater for the 35 to 54 year old females.
Gold - Classic Hit / AC - Greatest Hits - This station would play all the greatest hits from the 60’s to now, focusing more of the timeless classics from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s.
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But you’d have to get rid of Kyle and Jackie O. They are too middle aged for that format.
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I like it. But it might be a challenge to effectively “swap” the likes of KIIS 97.3 and B105.
97.3 is AC/Hot AC and B105 has always been the hit music station.
Also as much as I’d like 4MMM to be active rock, it might be a bit too narrow in a four FM station market. Which is kinda why I’d prefer FM104, 96FM and 104.7 to go Pure Gold, but it doesn’t sound like that will happen.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if they go the other way with KIIS and have that be more Hot AC and go younger with the Hit network instead.
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ARN have done their homework and they know what they want.
Don’t forget this is about securing their advertising market. KIIS cater for their targeted female market and Triple M’s market will align ARN to their desires of a consistent male network across the entire country. The advertising pull will be enormous.
From my view point neither stations appeal to me. KIIS, I would not even consider listening to Kyle or Jackie. But it rates, people love the low brow, fail to put my brain into gear but shoot your mouth off style of breakfast. As I said it rates, its a bullseye towards their demographic.
Triple M, as bad as it is with lots of fart and dick jokes brings in the dollars advertising wise. The ARN accountants have dug deep and can see where the additional streams are. This is why ARN want it.
They are not going to tweak Triple M towards Gold, they are going to milk it. They know their cashed up male bogan audience has plenty of money to spend.
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I’ll be interested to see who gets what in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth and how that plays out. Am thinking:
Brisbane
ARN: 104.5 Triple M, KIIS97.3
ACP: B105 (Gold 105.3?)
Adelaide
ARN: 104.7 Triple M, KIIS102.3
ACP: SAFM (Gold 107.1?)
Perth
ARN: 92.9 Triple M, KIIS96.1
ACP: Mix 94.5 (Gold 94.5?)
I’ll be interested to see what ACP does in these markets, I reckon there’s a chance they’ll go Pure Gold and build their model around music without the big names (lower cost approach) and also knowing the Hot AC space is already KIIS against Nova, no real room for a 3rd station in that space.
I reckon a Pure Gold in those markets will position itself between Triple M and the likes of 4BH/the old 4KQ, Cruise 1323 and 6IX.
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I thought this would be the case (ARN would still hold Canberra and regionals). The initial bid reads this way, but someone above said ACP would take Canberra and all the regionals.
So, I wonder if Hit104.7 will become 104.7 Triple M, with Mix106.3 (which currently has KIIS style branding) becoming KIIS106.3. Or, would they lean more into their existing audiences and make 106.3 Triple M and KIIS104.7? 
ARN needs to hold onto all the provincial markets like Canberra, Newcastle, Gold Coast, Hobart, Darwin and Bunbury, at least.
We need a list of all stations currently owned by ARN and SCA. The ARN website is terrible, because it mentions stations they currently sell advertising for, almost like they own them (when they don’t).
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Why wouldn’t the metro Hit branding still exist post-deal?
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With ACP being a private equity firm, I think they’ll take a similar approach to what CVC Asia Pacific did when they bought Channel 9 from James Packer.
That is, they’ll cut costs to to the bone, make it lean, and put it back on the market in a few years - I don’t think they are in it to be a media company long term so that means spending less $$$$ … And/or maybe ARN will be hoping the 2 station rule will change in that timeframe, and then they might buy the rest from ACP?
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SCA
Metro
Sydney - 2Day/Triple M
Melbourne - Fox/Triple M
Brisbane - B105/Triple M
Adelaide - SAFM/Triple M
Perth - Mix 94.5/Triple M
Regional
NSW/ACT
Albury - Hit/Triple M
Canberra - Hit/Mix 106.3 (50%)
Coffs Harbour - Hit/Triple M
Dubbo - Triple M
Gosford - Hit/Triple M
Griffith - Hit/Triple M
Newcastle - Hit/Triple M
Orange - Hit/Triple M
Port Macquarie - Hit/Triple M
Wagga Wagga - Hit/Triple M
VIC/TAS/SA
Bendigo - Hit/Triple M
Hobart - Hit/Triple M
Mildura - Hit/Triple M
Mt Gambier - SAFM/Triple M
Shepparton - Hit/Triple M
Warragul - Triple M
QLD
Atherton - Hit
Bundaberg - Triple M
Cairns - Hit/Triple M
Emerald - Hit
Gold Coast - Sea FM/Triple M
Kingaroy - Hit
Mackay - Hit/Triple M
Maryborough - Hit/Triple M
Mt Isa - Hit
Rockhampton - Hit/Triple M
Roma - Hit
Toowoomba - Hit/Triple M
Townsville - Hit/Triple M
WA
Albany - Hit/Triple M
Bridgetown - Hit/Triple M
Broome - Hit/Triple M
Bunbury - Hit/Triple M
Carnarvon - Hit/Triple M
Esperance - Hit/Triple M
Geraldton - Hit/Triple M
Kalgoorlie - Hit/Triple M
Karratha - Hit/Triple M
Katanning - Hit/Triple M
Merredin - Hit/Triple M
Narrogin - Hit/Triple M
Northam - Hit/Triple M
Port Hedland - Hit/Triple M
Remote Western - Hit/Triple M
ARN
Metro
KIIS/WSFM - Sydney
CADA - Western Sydney
KIIS/Gold - Melbourne
KIIS - Brisbane (50%)
Mix/Cruise - Adelaide
96fm - Perth
Nova 93.7 - Perth (50%)
Regional
NSW/ACT
Bega - Power FM/2EC
Canberra - Hit/Mix 106.3 (50%)
Muswellbrook - Power FM/2NM
Nowra - Power FM/2ST
Wollongong - Wave FM
VIC/TAS
Ballarat - Power FM/3BA
Bendigo - Gold Central Victoria
Burnie - Sea FM/7BU
Devonport - Sea FM/7AD
Hobart - 7HO
Launceston - Chilli/LAFM
Mildura - River 1467
Queenstown - 7XS
Scottsdale - Chilli/7SD
QLD/NT
Bundaberg - Hitz/4BU
Cairns - Star/4CA
Darwin - Hot 100/Mix 104.9
Gold Coast - Hot Tomato
Gympie - Zinc
Ipswich - River 94.9
Mackay - Star/4MK
Rockhampton - 4CC/4RO
Sunshine Coast - 91.1 Hot FM
Townsville - Star/Power 100
SA
Power FM/5AU - Murray Bridge
Magic FM/5CC - Port Lincoln
Magic FM/5AU-5CS - Port Pirie/Port Augusta
Magic FM/5RM - Renmark
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