@blackbox Let’s say your theory proves correct—that these names do sign on and KIIS flips to a talkback format…
Would that make ARN a more attractive acquisition target for Nine Entertainment, given they’ve divested their previous talk assets? or do you think Gold and KIIS, in their current formats, would be more valuable to them as-is?
Today all the news we got is a court hearing scheduled. Nothing more.
There was a sudden crash in the final 20 minutes though. So this is what we ended up with.
Not sure whether the stock is even above .01 by the time we reach said hearing.
Mumbrella noted that today is the first time SEN has a higher market cap.
Full on FM talk would work and top the ratings in Sydney. They won’t do it, but it would work.
Vega were trying to be ABC with ads, but 2GB without the AM baggage and sports would land right where a bunch of listeners are.
The big question is what rates well among people who will listen to linear radio. I think Kyle himself has made the point that people who want music will just go to Spotify at this point.
Make your radio station a podcast factory.
And yet we have the likes of music-based Smooth, Nova and the Hit network still rating their asses off. I just don’t buy that Spotify has killed music-based radio - it just hasn’t. Take a look at the cumes of the top rating FM stations in the US, 90% of them are AC, classic hits or CHR. There’s a couple of traditional talk stations on FM there bringing in good results, but they are the exception.
It has always suited Kyle to say that people wanting music will go to Spotify, but the reality doesn’t tally.
Yes. It’s boring just listening to the tracks on your Spotify.
I listen to the radio to hear undiscovered new music, latest news and pop culture chat.
I think both things are true, music can still rate, but similar to why I think stations need to at least voice track and ideally have live hosted shifts, the human connection is key for radio.
Talk radio is that to the extreme, but AM radio is dying or has the barrier of people thinking it’s the place for old people, so FM talk brings new people in to the Talk format and could drag some people back to traditional radio.
The ABC will probably get a bump in Perth from that, as much as it isn’t pure talk, and certainly not “hot” talk.
Basically radio needs to use radio’s strengths to distinguish it from streaming music, a well programmed music station with strong hosts can do that, but I think FM talk can too.
I definitely agree FM talk can work. I also think ABC on FM in Perth will give them a bump. Also it would benefit the other metros. Regional areas are a different matter though - having ABC Local and RN on FM doesn’t seem to help them there at all. BBC R4 and BBC Local on FM rates very well in the UK, as does commercial LBC in London.
There were also some further revelations from Jackie’s case today. I guess the market thinks this further details may point towards ARN losing.
ARN’s market cap is down 50% YTD alone. Holy f*ck.
that is horrific. They have halved the value of the entire company in 4 months and 8 days.
Southern Cross not much better
The allegations put forward in her statement of claim as part of a wrongful termination claim against Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a subsidiary of ARN Media, allege she was subject to “offensive and degrading” comments made about her personal and dating life during a broadcast in August 2025.
“I am worried about you on another note, that you’ll never find anyone because there is all of these requirements that you have,” Sandilands said to Henderson during the broadcast.
“… don’t attack me,” Henderson said.
When Henderson walked off air, Sandilands told the audience she was on her “period time”.In a separate incident in September 2025, Henderson alleges Sandilands made more comments, but they were “dumped” by the censor provided by the network.
“… Just checking in. All OK today?” KIIS’s head of network Derek Bargwanna sent in a text message to Henderson a day after the show.
“Yeah, it’s fine today,” Henderson responded.
“We are getting a lot of complaints from listeners, calling it an abusive relationship, women especially. I can send you though [SIC] some [of] the examples.”
Gold would certainly have value in terms of cross promotion, but if KIIS went talkback that wouldn’t suit Nine. The big issue with 2GB etc was that those radio stations didn’t really align with Nine as a brand, despite the best efforts of everyone.
its gotta be a new DAB talk network, i cant see them blowing up kiis and moving to talk. thats virtual company suicide
Would a new brand as talk back have a big enough core audience to facilitate talk back though?
The number of people listening and then also actively wanting to call in, I’d imagine it would be low.
Who knows what they’re thinking, if anything at all. But perhaps they’d launch a sub brand like KIIS Talk or Gold Talk. Include some of the content on the FM stations as well. Not sure. It seems a risky move for a company that seems to be struggling for survival, unless it’s part of the strategy for Nine to acquire them.
its the only thing that makes a small amount of sense. moving kiis to talk will end in tears, the company will be in a worse state than it is and it will be remnered with other failued formsts in radio
Must admit I don’t think I’ve ever watched more than snippets of Karl, but is he even the right demographic anymore for a station like KIIS? Would have thought he was already too old. I know Kyle is older but he had the legacy audience in Sydney. Wouldn’t they want younger for KIIS now, even if they were looking for personality talk?
Even in talk Karl really isn’t that interesting. He’s done previous stints at 2GB in summer and it was ok but not great.
Here’s my armchair expert thoughts as strategy:
Gold becomes the main network. 97.3 Brisbane and 102.3 Adelaide are transferred into the Gold Network. Gold is primarily networked content.
This leaves KIIS Melbourne and Sydney. I would run these as primarily local stations, as these cities are large enough to fund localism. I would ditch the KIIS name in Melbourne, for something like NRG/Energy or if you really wanted to emphasise that it is clearly local like 3MLB (and no I would not resurrect TTfm - too long gone), For Sydney, I would probably leave the name. Appreciating that there would be a need for agency sales across NRG/KIIS, a degree of positioning similarity would be required - and I would mimic that music format cross over with Triple J that Nova originally went for.
Cruise Adelaide I would tweak the logo and pipe it nationally on DAB. Keep it a low cost older classic hits operation.
CADA - relaunch as a pilot of TalkFM, then pipe it through DAB. I am not convinced there is a market, but it is worth trying. Consider moving Jonesy & Amanda from Gold drive to TalkFM breakfast. I wouldn’t however blow up KIIS to do so - downside risk too high.
That provides one national network (Gold), one younger focussed local brand (NRG/KIIS) and two niche options (Cruise and TalkFM). If TalkFM skyrockets, you could then flip it to NRG/KIIS.
Anyway, just thoughts, which are hopefully more coherent than what we have seen to date from ARN!
That’s actually a good idea. It’s just a shame that the KIIS brands are still relatively new in Brisbane & Adelaide. But if they really want to make something of it, I too agree that’s a brilliant suggestion.
Keep it KIIS - but as discretely as possible.
