ARN Regional (formerly Grant Broadcasters)

Which Australian cities would be similar musically?

We have Newcastle / Brisbane
You previously mentioned Central Coast / Adelaide

What markets would be close to Sydney, and Canberra?

3 Likes

Not sure to be honest?

2 Likes

Basically Sydney and Melbourne have been grouped together by Nova for quite a few years now.

I am thinking Perth / Canberra, before Mix 94.5 joined the Hit Network, they very briefly shared logs with Mix 106.3 in Canberra.
Mix 106.3 is now closer to 96fm in Perth with a sprinkling of new music.

Wollongong is very unique, I would not have a clue about the others.

4 Likes

I’d probably agree with Canberra & Perth, Sydney & Melbourne though I think are quite different markets, but for some reason all networks seem to link them together, but rarely with both markets be successful with the same programming, it’ll usually go well in one but not the other. Smooth for example run the same logs in both cities, but Smooth Melbourne has never been as successful as Smooth in Sydney.

5 Likes

I get what you’re saying but you’re talking 30+ years ago. The demographics have changed substantially in Brisbane due to rapid and prolonged growth over 30 - 40 years. As an example, in the early 80s Adelaide and Brisbane were close to the same size, now Brisbane is twice Adelaide’s size. The influx of people to SEQ have come from “somewhere else”, interstate or overseas. The majority of people in Brisbane today weren’t here in the 80s or even 90s. It’s the same in Perth. Believe me, I’m a local and it’s pretty hard to find people who are originally from here. That’s why I’m not sure the comparison is as relevant today.

7 Likes

Staying totally OT but I’m sure Newcastle and the regionals took 4MMMs log when we were Rocks Greatest Hits back in 2021.

8 Likes

Fair call, but then it’s the same everywhere, not just Brisbane.

2 Likes

Melbourne and Adelaide are similar to an extent music wise. Possibly Gold Coast and Perth?

1 Like

Bourke and Walgett would be similar :grinning:

7 Likes

Figured this might interest fellow Media Spy members

Interesting if this infact comes out to be true

5 Likes

Yes I saw this in the Southern Cross Austereo Company Thread. Another poster pointed out ARN won’t be able to own four stations in each market, the current media laws only allow a maximum of two per market, or 15% ownership of your competitor.

It is suggested the other licences would go to the investment company if the deal goes through to get around the two station rule.
Very interesting if the deal goes through.

If the government relaxed the two station rule we would see more consolidation of players and more formats.

7 Likes

Not sure really what markets they could gain, given the voices rule on one side and the 2 channel rule and market overlaps on the other - Grant kinda got to their extent of stations through all the ones SCB couldn’t own after all those past mergers.

A way of doing stuff like getting to two stations in Brisbane/Perth/Adelaide (on FM) I suppose, but there would be a lot they would have to sell, to the point where I don’t get why it would be worth the hassle.

I would hope the ACCC would identify and reject a takeover which results in all the crumbs ending up in some holding company that was involved in the arrangement to start with - that seems way too suss.

Though SCA being broken up and resulting in a whole bunch of independent stations as ARN leave markets with a leftover Triple M/Hit station or disjointed network might well be good for competition in the end.

6 Likes

Acquisition discussion: ARN acquisition of Southern Cross Austereo (pending approval)

3 Likes

I had a bit of a listen to Mix 104.9 when I was in Darwin this week. Talk about a station with music all over the place, but then again I actually didn’t mind it. It kept me interested what song they would play next.

8 Likes

I like stations with music all over the place - variety.

6 Likes

Especially with a name like, “Mix”.

I used to wish Mix106.5 & Mix101.1 would be more like that - and less female-skewed back in the day.

I used to find Mix102.3 had the best actual “mix”, as too did the old Mix94.5 (pre-Hit).

6 Likes
5 Likes

I still can’t see how Power isn’t rating better in Townsville…

3 Likes

People are still glued on to the legacy stations, particularly 4TO “Triple M”. I think that will wane over time. There’s even an element of that in Cairns and Mackay with Star probably benefiting from the old 4CAFM and 4MKFM frequencies.

5 Likes

Funny you should say that. When I was working in Cairns, back in 2009/10, every single job site that I was at was listening to Zinc 102.7.

4 Likes