You know what 2GB Plus or 4BC Plus on digital is probably a good idea. They could try to monetise DAB the same way SCA has done with the MMM and Hit digital stations by aggregating the analogue and digital audiences. Several UK stations seem to do this too - Heart, Smooth and Magic for example.
As for the AM stations for me the choice is still obvious. Easy Listening on 882 and “4KQ” clone on 1278, supplemented with DAB of course. As for 2UE a hybrid lifestyle talk/music combo.
NTS IS a waste of space much like MSR! Macquarie need to be a lot more creative. 2GB Plus, 3AW Plus or 4BC Plus are all bad ideas. They rely on the “oldies” and right wingers keeping them up there with 2GB and 3AW. As an “oldie” and non right winger I wouldn’t be caught dead listening to either! 
We don’t need more of the same.
I sent him a personal message about this but no response.
Come to think of it, it’s begs the question, when TL took over from Magic on the AM band, why couldn’t they have (like Pacific Star did with MTR and 3MP) moved Magic to (just) Digital Radio (in replacement of NTS)?
Well…why not? Well before Talking Lifestyle, circa 1999 Fusion Media in Melbourne operated a very decent talk/music hybrid “1503 3AK - for your lifestyle”, lead by John Blackman and component co-hosts, magazine features-type features all day and gradual shift into music by the PM. Talking Lifestyle, by comparison, so hot and cold. Terrific presenters and segments much of the time, then suddenly you get dragged into a whole hour of motor cars or gardening or stain removal (geeez!). Like that just threw the concept of quarterly hour management out the window. The stigma of “Talking Infomercials” an exaggeration. The real problem was execution and not managing change (like just dumping Magic in 2017 just as they just dumped the long standing 2UE shows thus year)
Should have read - “competent” co-hosts
Yeah alright, I work on my grammar and spacing should I add further comments 
Because it’s too smaller deal with them to bother with. To be fair to Macquarie, 4KQ a part of a strong national music network. A 4KQ or 2CA or Breeze FM inspired format on 1278 would not be, even if it rates higher than 1278. So maybe…divest the licence, let someone else do it. Pursue a deal with SEN. Not to compromise its independence (I can see that could be bad). But to ensure a strong sports network perhaps better managed by the heavily sports focused Crocmedia
Should read - even if it rates higher than 1278 does now
Brad Hardie currently filling in for David Schwarz.
I totally agree @Tejas57 The synergies between Sydney and Brisbane in sporting and more general talk programming terms are much greater than between Sydney and Melbourne. There’s nothing particularly new about talk programming being networked from Sydney into Brisbane. Long before 2GB was networked on 4BC for all but 3 hours a day, 4BC would routinely take a lot of 2UE’s shows, especially overnights and weekend evenings (and John Laws back in the day), as well as Continuous Call from 2GB. The difference back then of course was that 4BC remained local for key shifts like breakfast and weekend mornings.
The best answer to the conundrum would be to have totally separate stations on 954, 1278 and 882. Each city requires a different solution. Unfortunately this is Macquarie we’re talking about, so as they openly admit they don’t want their ‘second’ stations to be too successful and a threat to 2GB or 3AW, you end up with a one size doesn’t fit all solution, run on a shoestring and with minimal investment and marketing and scant TLC.
one of the big problems MacQuarie will have is what happens when people start tuning out from the main stations = they have nothing in house to offer an alternative. it’s like apple - the entire company is built on one product (iphone) and when people stop buying them they are stuffed
Very true. I’m also not clear what the succession strategy is for when a key player like Alan Jones gives up his daily show - his extended absence last year impacted adversely on the ratings and it seems that advertisers were not that keen on Chris Smith covering for too long, hence they ended up with the bizarre arrangement of Ray Hadley starting at 5.30 and going through until 11.00. Again a case of putting all your eggs in one basket, relying on a small number of people to deliver your success.
Please no, not you too. 
And 3AW+ that started in 2009 and ended when NTS started in around 2012 or 2013?
That is so very true! No thought for longer term sustainability or even basic risk management.
Uh oh, here we go again. @Tejas57, the Jason virus hasn’t got into you too?
Because MRN don’t hire proper radio leaders with any autonomy. The Clark Kent lookalike is there to implement what Singo and the other old man shareholders tell him to do.
A radio type like Graham Mott would not last. John Brennan and his son did not keep going either in programming.
This is what happens when inexperienced types with money but no knowledge create problems for themselves and their employees. Invest your money into management with autonomy and vision. Such fundamental failures of succession planning and risk reduction would reduce.
And so maybe the only solution is to encourage other networks to “manage” these troubled stations whether Macquarie sell them or not (and don’t count on them to sell - every network prefers two stations in their stable and it mostly works out that way)
If Sport is a worthy format (and that seems to be a big IF at the moment re: Syd and Bris), bring in SEN to make it happen. In Melbourne, it’s a case of being a worthy format already, yet one that’s already taken by SEN and “all sport” has limited appeal however you sustain it (as sport is sliced and diced across news talk, ABC Grandstand and Triple M. So bring in Capital Radio and design a “Forever Classic” branded station and format on 1278 (Capital currently not in Melbourne but close to it, with owning 3GG Gippsland). Macquarie can then just hold meetings with the managers from time to time and share the profits.
40 years ago you had powerful networks that were actually no greater than affiliated, independent stations - think 3XY/2SM/4IP. Now stations are integrated by ownership and with that you now get dull corporate brands instead of call-signs (What was once 3XY is now Macquarie Sports Radio).
Stations do gain advantages of being in a network, no doubt, but some of the old branding discipline of radio got lost in the corporate culture of that. My working title for 1278 is BIG 1278. That’s because you can teeline shorthand such a name into a call-sign - consider 3BG. Names like Coca-Cola and Google apply great brevity in terms of numbers of letters used and other discipline such as alliteration or visual aid. Call-signs in Los Angles radio such as KROQ (K Rock) and KPWR (Power 106) achieve similar. In Melbourne, FOX FM, before it’s brand was hijacked by the corporate culture, was actually a Fox. The best name for a radio station is one that actually sounds like a radio call sign.
I think Breeze still would work fine for 3EE if having a connection to the call letters matters. Not that it generally does - though I think they should have called the Sydney station ‘2UE - Talking Lifestyle’ the whole time - and ‘2UE Sports’ now. Heritage value is about the only strength left in call signs - reviving 4BH would likely still work with their target audience, but they need to hurry up with it.