Yes, considering HT&E paid over $70M for 96FM back in 2015.
To be fair, 96FM was rating very well at the time, and ARN wanted to complete their national KIIS network. Theyād been desperate to get into Perth for years. Theyād already been looking after National sales for 96FM for a while at that point too. If ARN didnāt buy it, Nova Entertainment most certainly would have.
By selling 6PR, Nine would be losing a piece of a National network, so I doubt it would happen.
6IX, on the other hand, could go either way. Perth would be the biggest market for both Capital and Grant Broadcasting. Theyād need to invest a lot of money to make it successful (marketing, rebranding, etc), but would they be up for that? The AM operation is hardly an expensive one for them, so would they be better off cutting their losses and getting out? They could make some decent money if ARN and Nova are both interested.
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Still wouldāve been APN News & Media at that point in time, although the regional papers sale + rebrand to HT&E wasnāt far off.
Compared to the chances of 6iX being sold, itās probably less likely that Nine will sell 6PR.
Having said that I wouldnāt say that itās outside the realms of possibility, especially if Nova Entertainment were to get 6PR in exchange for FiveAA Adelaide - a station which surely must be easier to integrate with East Coast stations (in terms of networked programming, etc.) than a Perth one is?
And besides, do Nine want to run a talk station on FM in Perth when their East Coast stations (of both the talk and music varieties) are on AM in the three main capitals? I guess only time will tellā¦
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Iām finding this all very interesting. While I suspect Option 1 will be taken (i.e. all ABC and 6iX/6PR convert to FM), if it does go another way that precedent will actually open up more possibilities for east coast re-planning - particularly SEQ.
If for example they only let 1 ABC station convert and not offer it to both (or either) commercials then they could look at something similar for Brisbane/SEQ. Of course the re-plan would be much harder in SEQ but as discussed it would be āpossibleā to find one or two high-powered FM services for Brisbane with a bit of shuffling around. Whether theyāre up for that or not isnāt known, but surely if the Perth re-plan goes well they have to look at Adelaide next and then finally tackle SEQ. I think Sydney and Melbourne are far less likely but who knows. AM in metro areas canāt go on forever and if DAB uptake doesnāt replace the audiences lost on AM surely there will be pressure from the AM operators on the east coast to find an FM solutionā¦ somehow.
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The only couple options I can think of.
- Expand the FM Band like Japan. Unlikely.
- Shift Suburban Community radio stations to DAB/Online (I donāt like that idea)
- Consolidate the existing community stations into a larger community stations (I also donāt like this idea).
- āRestackā have it so Sydney (& other east coast cities) FM station reduce the spacing, like for example 104.1 / 104.5 would be Sydney. This would need some analysis done. Most modern radios should be able to handle this. I think i suggested this some time back so I am repeating myself.
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The only option I can see is to convert all Am stations to fm in Sydney would be to shut down / move all suburban community stations to dab+ / online.
There is not even enough frequencies to add 1 extra community station to Sydney and SEN track would need to combine into the one station.
Here is what my Sydney restack would look like-
87.5-SEN Sports / SEN Track LPON Sydney wide
88.1- 2RN
88.9-News Radio
89.7-ABC local Radio Sydney
90.5-2GB
91.3-C91.3
92.1-2MFM
92.9-Classic
93.7-2LND Fm
94.5-2FBI
95.3-Smooth
96.1-Edge
96.9-Nova
97.7-SBS / 1107 SBS to merge
98.5-2000
99.3-2UE
100.1-Sky Sports
100.5-2RPH SFN Sydney / Wollongong/ Newcastle
100.9-2SM
101.7-WS fm
102.5-2MBS
103.3-Hope
104.1-2day
104.9-Triple M
105.7-Triple J
106.5- KIIS
107.3-2SER
500 kilohertz spacing in Sydney would mean you would have Wollongong / Newcastle / Gosford at 200 Kilohertz spacing from Sydney, and then basically Canberra / Goulburn / Orange etc would be on the same frequencies as Sydney.
400 Kilohertz spacing would work in Canberra for the Tuggeranong relays to free up frequencies for Am to fm conversions or new licences in Canberra. Tuggers would be on Orange frequencies. This could also mean that 2GN could have a clean frequency and have the same specs as Eagle fm.
Moving Canberra Tuggers relays off Canberra frequencies would be my priority restack.
Sorry off topic for Perth Fm Spectrum Replan.
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Yep, I agree.
Those consistently strong ratings for 2GB/3AW + ABC Local Radio will probably buy AM some time in Sydney and Melbourne, but nonetheless itās likely theyāll eventually have to look at finding a FM solution at some point in the future.
Either way, all ABC & commercial AM stations moving to FM in metro markets very well could be the death knell for DAB+ in Australiaā¦at least for purposes other than sticking online streaming music stations there to save cash on music royalties!
A shift to online streaming-only would surely be the end for most (if not all) suburban community radio stations?
The bigger metro-wide ones probably have a better chance of surviving, but Iām not sure if thereād even be enough room for all current Sydney commercial, ABC/SBS and metro-wide community radio stations on FM even if all the suburban ones were axed because ACMA would probably still need to leave some room for AM stations in nearby regional markets (2HD Newcastle, etc.) to have proper FM conversions.
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By shutting down the National translator services in Gosford particularly 92.5, with the high powered 702 Sydney on fm, could provide a conversion for 2HD. These restacks would only work if all suburban community stations in the capital cities shutdown or moved to Dab+ / online.
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Absolutely, thereās no harm in completing a national network from ARNs perspective, it was a good move for them to buy 96FM.
Yes, Nine wonāt sell 6PR and 6IX could go either way, but hopefully it will stay with Grant Broadcasters.
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I canāt help feeling Nova really wants to launch Smooth FM as ā¦ well ā¦ Smooth FM?
I am sure it rates well on DAB+ in Perth (I could be wrong ā¦). And converting 6iX to Smooth FM is not that big a change on format.
And who knows Grant Broadcasters may want to develop a Smooth / Wave / Adult Contemporary format. Somehow classic 60s/70s/80s as current 6iX runs it doesnāt sit well with FM (look at what happened when 6MM transitioned to the The Wave, it was more than just an AM to FM conversion).
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According to the previous ratings survey, Smooth is very popular on the DAB+ ratings in Perth, in which itās 3rd with 32,000 listeners, with only 96fm 80s (35,000) & Double J (34,000) rating higher.
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Iām sure theyād love to launch Smooth FM in Perth on the FM band as well as Adelaide if 5AA is given the chance to convert there, too.
It would be reasonable to assume that Nova and ARN/HTE could enter a bidding war for 6IX, if they convert to FM.
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Well Nova obviously would launch Smooth FM, I assume ARN/HTE would launch one of the āPure Goldā Network stations? I donāt mind. And they would also gain the DAB bandwidth now being wasted on Niche Radio, KIX Country and My Perth Digital.
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Do you know the bitrates that ARN & Nova Ent. have for their stations over here in the East? Either broadcaster gaining more DAB+ bandwidth isnāt massively likely to result in higher quality stations, just more of them.
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Yes I was thinking of the latter since the former is not on for commercial DAB agenda. If I want quality sound it is either SBS, ABC or the wide-coverage community radio stations (most still on 64 kbps). Or I place my antenna strategically towards Mandurah to pick up Coast FM and The Wave on 96 kbps.
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ARN buying 6iX will go one or two ways. Either blow 6iX up and create KIIS Perth, and align 96FM with Pure Gold, or blow up 96FM, and go full on KIIS with CHR format, and have 6iX on Pure Gold.
Honestly hoping for the former rather than the latter - 96FM would be a great Pure Gold station!
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Yeah, thatād probably be the best way to go.
Although their music mix isnāt too bad from all reports, I donāt think 6iX has the strongest branding or ratings presence in Perth. Similar deal with 2CA, except of course thereās no hope for any meaningful changes to Canberraās radio landscape anytime soon.
I agree.
From a purely branding perspective, a 96FM logo in the Pure Gold style (think something like WSFMās logo, except with ā96ā in place of the āWSā and of course no ā101.7ā) would look pretty good!
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I actually think thatās more likely. 96FM goes Pure Gold and they launch KIIS on 91.3 or 104.9 as a brand new station.
What ARN need to do though is launch a proper classic hits stream based on 4KQ and Cruise on DAB, as Pure Gold skews younger. Put 6iX on DAB only as a proper classic hits station. Do the same in Sydney and Melbourne as 2WS and 3KZ.
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I think people do have brand recognition though. I feel like it was always around a lot growing up (I can remember some jingles - still hear it signing every time I read 1080 6ix). Jukebox Saturday nights has been around for yearrrrsssss.
Maybe someone will buy 6ix and rebrand it PMFM 
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Seems the same but I forgot about brand awareness. I guess if 6iX is for sale you can use the same name for whatever format. But ARN has Pure Gold and Nova would have Smooth. I doubt Nova would rejig/rebrand Nova 93.7 so it is a case of keeping it as 6iX with the Smooth format, but I doubt it, just call it Smooth FM and dump 6iX.
Ditto with ARN except that 96fm (like Mix94.5) is a hybrid brand, its classic pop rock format is not aligned with the KIIS format although it is supposed to be a KIIS station. It would make more sense for ARN to launch a completely new KIIS station and realign 96fm to the Pure Gold Network, ensure 6iX listeners are redirected to the new 96fm and keep the existing 96fm listeners, what a bonus!
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