Yeah, I don’t understand why this trend even if the format is skewed to becoming more modern there are plenty of songs that fit the format. Understand having some songs that can be repeated from time to time. You could have a wsfm with a larger playlist like 4kq.
Having say this, somehow being on FM means tighter playlists. Being on AM you have a licence to be more broader.
Will be interesting to see what happens with Geelong, perhaps Ace might have a look. They could potentially use as a bigger hub for their networked content with a strong presence in Western Vic
Grants are keeping Geelong.
Ace wouldn’t be allowed to buy the Geelong stations because of the overlap with Melbourne (3MP) and Colac (3CS).
Ace couldn’t buy Geelong for the same reasons ARN can’t, due to the overlap with Melbourne
If HT&E ever expands it’s Signal for River in the Northern Suburbs, They Could Relocate their Transmitter to Mount Cootha & Maintain their 94.9 Frequency, or Set up an in-fill Moreton Bay Region on 500 Watts which shall broadcast on 89.9 or 90.7 just like WSFM in Outer Western Sydney on 88.3.
If they were ever allowed to. One of the previous owners of River (then Star 106.9) tried to get the ACMA to agree to move the transmitter to Mt Nebo, but was knocked back. Perhaps ARN has more influence…
Finally ARN can put to rest the 4MIX saga.
They can finally launch Mix97.3 haha (I doubt they will).
There is no way in hell the ACMA will let them move to Mt Cootha. it’s not even in River’s Licence area. River is a regional licence (Ipswitch RA1 ) that has overspill into the City. They have been taken to task by the ACMA before for pretending to be a Brisbane station.
IN regards to 4KQ - if it moves to FM it would be a positive as long as the playlist does not change, changing to Smooth 693 or even worse SEN would be an absolute joke. KQ is a heritage brand up here. If it gets blown up it is a massive loss to the Brisbane Market
Merging 4KQ with 97.3 FM is their only bet now.
Maddie Jarosz from Power FM Ballarat has announced this will be her last week at the station. since Josh Arthurs departure Lachie Kilby has been joining Maddie to do 6am to 9am
Alison Cameron said in the interview that her mother and former MD and current board member Janet Cameron was not “exactly thrilled” with the sale to HT&E, but also understood it was a fabulous opportunity for the family and the radio stations.
In the same article, HT&E CEO Ciaran Davis revealed that ARN doesn’t intend, at least initially, to roll out the KIIS or Pure Gold brands to regional areas.
also during maddies announcement about her leaving Lachie also confirmed there will be a whole new breaky show on Power FM Ballarat that will be announced as well
Interesting wording:
the stations would retain ownership ties with the Cameron family
I’m going to guess that while staying in a family member, it is structured so that different family members control different entities and therefore no are in control of both Melbourne and Geelong.
Hopefully being independent means more flexibility in the music logs and we will see it improve. I assume KIX is still going to be part of Grants as they haven’t been mentioned at all?
grant Cameron will oversee krock and bayfm
Can you explain B for me? Same rules, if not more relaxed are in place as at the time SCA had to divest them all those years ago. No one has said anything…
With Grant Cameron taking over Bay and Krock, and Alison resigning from Grant to join the board of ARN, what way will ACMA view this???
Either way they could let it slide, or they could find a conflict of interest with a sibling on the board of ARN and the other running Bay / Krock, with the overlap with the other ARN Melbourne stations. If ACMA go them it will certainly end up with Grant suing ACMA like what happened with SCA and ACMA over the Sunshine Coast overlap issue which resulted in SCA loosing their Sunshine Coast stations.
It could even break up the ARN / SCA partnership in Canberra with the Grant and Capital Radio JV in place for the other two stations.
I have no legal knowledge or experience my comments are pure speculation based on what happened on the Sunshine Coast.
Interesting times ahead.
It just comes down to how the purchase is structured, as to whether the change of ownership causes the end of what at the moment is an overlap that’s grandfathered in.
I’m sure smart lawyers are working on exactly what that structure is, but generally in practice basically the only time an overlap is disallowed seems to be when there’s existing ownership in a market that creates a new breach, not just carries forward a previous one.
That’s not to say the ACMA can’t try and push the point, but they haven’t had much luck.