Possible, but would that hand most of the market straight to i98?
The Edge is a somewhat niche format.
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What I reckon will happen with ARN’s newly-acquired Grant stations is that on evenings, the Pure Gold stations would take JAM Nation with Jonesy & Amanda at 6-7pm weeknights, followed by the Christian O’Connell Show. For the soon-to-be KIIS stations that currently take Fitzy & Wippa then Kate, Tim & Joel for drive, they would probably relay Will & Woody at 4-6pm weeknights, followed by Kyle & Jackie O’s Hour of Power. Wave FM, Hot Tomato & Hot 91 would maintain its own local drive programs.
Then there’s Power 100 in Townsville, which currently runs a rock format. I reckon it would change its format & become a Pure Gold station.
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However Grants will have to sell. They are taking a 20% stake in HT&E as part of this deal so that will still put Janet and family over the limit.
They have to sell at least one Brisbane station as there is overlap with River 94.9 as well as Hot 91.
Interesting, so who will operate K-Rock and Bay FM? Will they be sold?
If it changes at all, there’s the rock skewed 96fm format they could use.
I kinda only hope they take the network music formats because of how bad the current ones are, which makes Power100 an exception anyway.
I’d certainly hope they pick up some of the better regional formats and add them as digital stations.
I wonder what’s going to happen to KIX Country?
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Surely the station getting 10%+ in Brisbane is worth keeping over Hot/River, even on AM.
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If they keep 4KQ they have to sell both River and Hot.
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There is a regulatory factor that will also make staff breathe easy, the ACMA will consider this acquisition a ‘trigger event’ which will require the new owner of the stations to keep staffing at the same levels as it is today for two years.
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That’s the price they have to pay in becoming the largest radio company in the country.
They won’t sell Hot or River.
lol arn forget to mention 3BA in the Hot AC section of the grant broadcasters brand
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Wonder what they will do with the formats on 4RO and 4CC in Central Queensland?
It will easily be able to be a Brisbane-wide station on DAB+ (supplemented by 94.9) once ARN takeover. And I hope it does.
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I still wouldn’t think it was worth it. Especially as they only own half of 97.3.
They should talk to the ACMA about redrawing the Ipswich license area to reduce the overlap down to a permitted amount, and then sell Hot.
Unless River really does just as well into Brisbane to be worth it to ditch 4KQ, put River on DAB and hope they basically get a second Brisbane station out of the overflow from all sides, it’s a very risky move to give up such a well performing station, to end up with only half a station in Brisbane to get some regional stations.
If you could get Nova to sell them the other half of 97.3 in exchange for 4KQ, then maybe?
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thats one of the major benefit of this - they can get river on DAB
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Rare to see a Brisbane media outlet having to be offloaded. For most part, they’ve enjoyed good coverage of being part of national networks over the last three decades.
In the past, Perth has had the rough end of the stick when it comes to ownership changes and offloading stations.
Channel 9 in 1989 offloaded by Nine Network. Rejoined in 2013
Channel 10 in 1989 offloaded by Ten Network. Rejoined in 1995.
6IX sold by Austereo to RadioWest in 1991
96.1 Triple M sold by Austereo in 1997. Triple M back in Perth after 22 years on a different frequency.
Fortunately now in Perth, there’s a bit more stability.
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Interesting point from the below article:
Both HT&E and Seven now have national advertising footprints, fuelling speculation among industry executives of an eventual merger between the two companies.
“I’m not even thinking about at the moment,” Mr Davis said. “We’ve been working hard to make sure that this transaction got across the line, that it delivers value for shareholders, and now we’re focused on completing it and making sure we deliver.”
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Also to consider if 9 eventually buys out WIN and C91.3 has to be sold, Grant would be disqualified from purchasing C91.3. This would mean it would be between ACE, SRN and Capital Radio as the only available bidders.
I can see the Grant Hot AC stations switching from Nova affiliated programming to ARN.
Also will they take control of the music logs or allow Grant to continue the mess of music programming that currently exists?
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Yes it’s probably on the cards that at some point in the future, there will be a merger between Seven and HT&E.
What could happen is ARN sell 4KQ to Nova and take 100% ownership of 97.3.
Nova would most likely keep the 4KQ format, as it’s successful and Smooth is on DAB+. This would give Nova an extra 256 kbs of DAB+ spectrum in the Brisbane market.
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