I don’t think there’s ever been any suggestion that staff have not worked extremely hard to try and make MSR and indeed TL before it work. The trouble is they can only operate within the strategy and format they’ve been given. No amount of hard work will compensate for a poor strategy and format. The buck stops with the Macquarie Board and Executives.
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I suppose this is the best thread to share this following article by Peter Saxon from Radioinfo: 2UE set adrift as 2GB sails on to greater glory
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It’s not Macquarie’s Fault their Sports Station that was once the Top Rating 2UE had plummeted to new Lows, It’s Became a Similar story in Melbourne for Many Years after 3AK split from 2UE after the Aborted CBC experiement which saw their ratings fell to new Lows on the old 1503 Frequency, Attempts to re-launch 3AK as an Italian Language Station, Beautiful Music Station, Talk with Easy Listening and after they’ve relocated to 1116, Talk with Lifestyle, None of this Worked in the End as they’'re Now SEN, which has a Niche Market just like MSR.
No, it actually is.
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Taken a few weeks to think about this but I’ve concluded both Macquarie and Pacific Star each have a station in Melbourne that’s so devalued they could easily do without it (Macquarie’s 1278 and Pacific Star’s 1377). Ratings are so low at MSR they would be better offer merging with SEN and allow 954 Sydney and 882 Brisbane, if they stick with sport, to be free from most if not all networking with Melbourne’s 1278 (which would switch format altogether, probably back to music). SEN strategically fits better as Macquarie’s Melbourne sports station. By comparison, bombarding 3AW’s ad breaks with the technically false message “Finally, Melbourne has an all sports station” seems to be a desperate attempt to pretend SEN doesn’t exist. Either Macquarie (I) takes a blended programming approach and, ARN style, applies a varied format approach in each city or (ii) keeps sport but divests 1278 as part of bringing SEN into the Macquarie fold (by doing whatever deal that requires) or (iii) simply flicks format again all all three troubled stations - 882, 954 and 1278 - either by rethinking how you do news-talk on a second niche network or going back to music (which assumes Macquarie are willing to give that format anŷ attention any more and assumes you can program a tri-city format of any type, given the two failed formats so far).
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Maybe a different approach. Is that bad if Sydney has two newstalk stations own by the same owners? With talkback stations its the person behind the mic that attracts listeners. If say 2ue discover the next Alan Jones, would it matter if the 2gb breakfast ratings drop suddenly? Its a good thing right if 2ue ratings go up? Its like television, all networks has secondary stations and often have shows that would compete with the primary station. I think MRN radio is bogged down with this. Perhaps music stations is are different, it make sense to have different formats of music, talk is about personalities.
I’m fairly sure that 2UE had success after the CBC failure? Certainly can’t compare their fortunes in the late 90s with 3AK, although there are certainly parallels now.
I guess they’re probably trying to target SEN as being an AFL-heavy brand. Now, while that certainly is the case, in Melbourne that’s not a bad thing - you wouldn’t see them with 3% and 4% shares without it.
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We need to bear in mind that when the takeover/merger was first mooted Singleton was only interested in 3AW and 4BC to create an East Coast Network. He didn’t want 2UE, 882, 1278 and 6PR was just too far away. Most of the programming with the exception of perhaps Breakfast, Mornings and Drive was to come from 2GB. Fairfax wouldn’t buy this, it was all or nothing as they claimed buyers for what was left could not be found. MRN wanted to keep 2CH and if necessary and in the short term would relay their programmes to 882 and 1278. It didn’t quite work out that way and I still think it was a shame that a buyer could not be found for 2UE.
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Obviously Singleton learnt nothing from the MTR debacle then. Talk programs from Sydney generally don’t work well in Melbourne. Steve Price only works because of his past associations with 3AW and his return having been marketed along the lines of “the prodigal son has come home”
I think it is such a shame that Macquarie sees no value whatsoever in owning Australia’s oldest commercial call sign.
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The two cities are completely different and that’s the issue. As someone who grew up in Melbourne, spent 10 years in Sydney and now lives in Brisbane I would not want to be programming across Sydney and Melbourne, let alone adding Brisbane to the mix, especially when networking a sports show across the cities.
You might get by networking Brisbane and Sydney - they are both NRL towns, but networking Melbourne and Sydney are tricky, sacrifices would need to be made.
Too much league talk and you turn off the listeners in Melbourne, and too much AFL turns off Sydney. You could talk national sports, but there is only so much Cricket and Motorsport news.
as a better solution, you’d have Melbourne on its own all day (or at least in breakfast and drive), with Sydney and Brisbane networked with local codes broadcast on weekends, but this costs money and shows commitment to the station and we can’t have that can we?
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Last time Melbourne had a Country formatted station was over 30 years ago (3UZ). Last time in Brisbane was about 25 years ago (4BC) and last time in Sydney about 20 years ago (Kick AM 1269). Country Music has moved on quite a bit from those days and notably the format has never operated in a network like KIX as Grant and Capital Radio now operates it. My suggestion of moving 1377 to Country is in a certain context - if say Grant or Capital or both (as they partner already in Perth and Canberra) were to take over both 1278 (turning it into a Forever Classic branded station) and 1377 (bringing that into KIX Country network). So you’d lose Classic Rock Radio but gain Forever Classic (currently a 60s/70s format at 2CA and more 70s/80s at Gippsland’s 3GG). My point is that if Macquarie and SEN were to merge, it allows another two-station combo to form and the right owner, if that were Grant, Capital or both, would bring the same network structure to those stations that most other commercial stations have. It suggest that unless this happens, those stations are misplaced and going nowhere.
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@ Joey 1026. Why would you ever suggest that Macquarie and Pacific Star merge? Macquarie still cannot handle their last merge with Fairfax! Pacific Star may be a smallish company but their merge with Crocmedia means they are on the up. Macquarie ruined 2UE, I don’t want them to do the same to SEN and 1377. AND I don’t want Forever Classic or country music! CRR will do me! It’s all quite simple really… Macquarie needs to stop this madness and return 1278 and 4BC to music (maybe Forever Classic or country). 
What they do with 2UE depends on the agreement they have with the buyers of 2CH. But IMO it should go music too. Just leave Pacific Star stations out of the equation. For a small company they have four really good stations.
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So that’s SEN (3AK), CRR (3MP) and what other licences? Do you mean the digital streams that are part of the allocation of the broadcast licences of 3AK and 3MP?
The other two he’s referring to are Aussie & KOOOL, which are DAB+ stations owned by Pacific Star (owners of SEN/CRR).
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actully, brisbane has 4AAA which is a station aimed at the indigenous community that has a country format and boradcats AFL
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Yeah sorry, I failed to consider 98.9 Brisbane. But now you mention it, it goes to show many major markets do have Country music, including Canberra. And yes, I can understand counterpoints as to why Pacific Star ought to be independent of Macquarie. I agree you wouldn’t want Macquarie imposing the same mindset on SEN, such as limiting live footy calls to their news talk. I’ve just spent a while exploring on this thread any number of ways you could get a better service for listeners, particularly on the AM band in Melbourne. None of those ideas are what will probably materialise anyhow so raising them at all is to point out possible alternatives to what is happening now. Because whatever the alternatives are, they are probably better than what’s happening now. MSR is a disaster and raises questions about how legitimate it was to have such low regard for Talking Lifestyle. A 3 per cent share in Sydney is still better than a less than 1 per cent. It’s horribly short term thinking for 2GB to celebrate killing off its rival when it’s now meant to be its stablemate. I doubt there’s a market for MSR at all. Moving live sports to it actually doesn’t make sense if that brings down 2GB’s ratings. The format itself and where it fits in the market just wasn’t thought through. They dumped Talking Lifestyle yet retained and entrenched the very mindset that took 2UE and Magic into such sharp decline. Now almost no one is listening,hence the ownership questions I raise. Do they really need to own those stations at all?
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Imagine if there’s some in MRN thinking about a return to TLS?
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Yes that’s what “he’s” referring to.
Macquarie should try digital stations. Oh wait, they can’t program what they’ve already got properly.
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They currently have “NTS” as a DAB+ only station, although it’s largely a waste of space IMO.
In the past, they have operated comedy station “The Crack” and may have had something like “2GB Plus” (or was it “2GB Extra”?) on the Sydney DAB trials around the Mid-Late 2000s before the current DAB+ broadcasts began.
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Yes, it was 2GB Plus, at least at some point. One idea I recall they had was a headline news channel. But Singo really had, and still has, no idea about digital. For a very successful and creative advertising guy it’s baffling that he still stuck in the distant past.
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