Newcastle Radio

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Mostly due to a lack of effective competition, if i am going to be totally honest.

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Iā€™d say youā€™re right. Hit Brekkie have a great product too, of course caters to a slightly different demographic. And the only other ā€œcompetitionā€ is New Fm; and well, they donā€™t really have anything good happening for them.

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100% agree. There is no competition anymore. It probably shows my ages remembering when 2NX/2KO and 2HD were all fighting for top spot. Its now an easy job for any SCA programmer in Newcastle.

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Also the fact that Hit 106.9 and 102.9 Triple M have identical playlists to their Central Coast sister stations.

Back in the time when there was competition the Central Coast stations ran different playlists to their Newcastle stations. Now SCA are just running on autopilot in all of these markets.

The problem also is that Bill is running on autopilot with New fm / 2HD too. He has never put up a decent fight, and pays the lowest wages.

So SCA donā€™t have to do much to maintain their dominance.

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I canā€™t help wonder how wonderful the market would be if Bill pumped cash into 2HD/NewFM. It would probably be the most competitive regional market in Australia.

Someone needs to tell Bill that he would get a return 10-fold from his investment.

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I am sure a lot of people have been telling him that. I remember someone saying in the past that real estate was where he made his money and not the radio assets.

Maybe when he passes on someone like ARN or Nova ent will purchase the Newcastle stations, at least New fm, 2HD more likely to go to SEN unless they get a full fm conversion. Then there will be real competition.
His regional regionals will most likely go to SCA.

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The sad thing is by the time anyone else gets hold of BOG will be a time when regional radio will be no more than automation/networking from metro centres or regional hubs.

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That is the case now with the regional Hit Network, and metro Nova and Smooth networks, we call it voice tracking, they call it dual programming.

Eventually regional tv will ease to exist if Nine buys Win tv, the Seven Network Prime TV, can CBS / Paramont afford to buy out SCA?

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I agree. However, ARN would have to sell 2NM & Power FM if they were to get 2HD & New FM due to the 30%+ overlap between Muswellbrook & Newcastle RA1s.

That would be the most likely outcome, especially if SCA had sold off its TV assets (which could be very soon, judging by this article) when the time comes. Dubbo would be an interesting market to watch, as they already have Triple M, which would see them acquire Zoo FM & turn it into a Hit station, whilst 2DU would be sold to someone else, probably to SEN.

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I completely forgot about that overlap market.
Yes that would prevent ARN from buying the BOG stations. Really the only operator that would offer competition would be Nova Ent.

They would turn New fm into Star 105.3 and probably dual program with Star 104.5 so that may not be such a good thing. No one would want the Am 2HD licence in its present form other then SEN.

It would be great to see someone like Capital Radio come in and turn New fm into Eagle fm and 2HD take the XLfm / GNFM format, but I cannot see that happening, and Capital Radio matching SCA on marketing and promotional spend.

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Which of course they would - the difference in market sizes makes choosing Newcastle a no brainer.

Or ARN. It would likely be a hotly contested battle as the winner would be the largest radio broadcaster in the country - a title which they both want as it gives them more sales potential.

Not quite, although it is close. Almost every station still has at least one local shift (with the remaining tiny stations having a dedicated shift broadcast from a nearby market).

Thatā€™s actually not the correct comparison.
Voice tracking is a technical method, the oposite being live. Voice tracking could be done anywhere from weeks to moments before broadcast and is widely used by both local and remote talent. (Even some local, live shifts are actually voice tracked just prior to going to air). Voice tracking can be used when a presenter goes to just one or many markets.

Dual programming is more comparable to networking. The distiction being that networking tends to be when all markets get the exact same content, where dual programming is when one presenter is looking after multiple markets (using voice tracking) but the content for each market is different (albeit quite similar). This is usually limited to two or three markets due to the time required to record multiple breaks.

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If I was living in Dubbo, I would be hoping ARN over SCA. The regional ARN stations have much better Hot AC stations and I would hate if SEN got hold of 2DU. ARN would likely convert 2DU to a Talk/Classic Hits station similar to 4RO in Central Queensland.

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Haha quote of the week!

I think out of the Bill stations Newcastle and Dubbo would be interesting ones. ACE and SEN would be top pickings for 2HD/NewFM but I wouldnā€™t be surprised if Nova want to acquire some regionals in the future. Dubbo I agree SCA will want the ZooFM licence and have a duopoly. Or from my comment above. Maybe someone like Nova will buy the whole BOG network.

This of course would only happy if Billā€™s family will want to sell the stations. Iā€™m not sure how involved any of them are.

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Itā€™s interesting this talk of who would pick up the Newcastle BOG stations, Iā€™ve thought about it often & fantasised on just how good Newcastle radio could be once again, even better if I won the Powerball & could get them myself.

At this stage of the game I think ARN will get NEW & 2HD, & sell 2NM/PowerFM Muswellbrook, but the Newcastle stations could be separated & go to different owners.

Iā€™d be happy with ARN getting NEW FM & Capital Radio getting 2HD & turning it into a 2XL/2GN forever classic station, both those networks would give SCA a run for their money, especially if ARN turned NEW FM into a 97.3 Brisbane, both markets have always had similar musical tastes, though if ARN got both stations & turned 2HD into a 4KQ, itā€™d rocket up the ratings & sit in a similar position to what 4KQ currently & in recent past has done, it could probably even out-rate both Hit & Triple M Newcastle even though itā€™s AM.

In the regions (Dubbo as has been suggested) where BOG has 2 stations, Iā€™m not sure they can be separated, the FM licences are ā€œsupplementaryā€ linked to the heritage AM station, unlike Newcastle where they were 2 seperate stations, joined after the 2 per market ownership rules were introduced.

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As far as Iā€™m aware thereā€™s nothing to stop the supplementary FM licences being separated now. Zinc 96 in Gympie/Sunshine Coast was originally a supplementary licence to 4GY and they are now under separate ownership. Same for 4SB and Hit in Kingaroy.

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There are a few other examples as well too, including:

  • 4AM & Hit in Atherton
  • 4HI & Hit in Emerald
  • 4ZR & Hit in Roma
  • 4LM & Hit in Mt Isa
  • 3GG & Triple M in Warragul

Also, when 104.9 in Albury first went to air in 1993 as 2AY FM (later B104.9, then Star FM, now Hit), it was a supplementary licence of 2AY before the merger of DMG Regional & RG Capital into MRR in 2004 forced 2AY to be divested to ACE the following year. It was a similar story with 4CA in Cairns & 4MK in Mackay that was occurring at around the same time.

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Yeah there are quite a few when you think about it. Sea FM (now Hit) Maryborough was originally a supplementary to 4MB. Then 4MB was sold to 4TAB (as 4FC) when RG Capital launched Mix 103.5 alongside Sea FM.

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Actually, the launch of Mix 103.5 was considered an FM conversion of 4MB, just that it was under a new licence. Itā€™s similar to a number of other regional commercial AM stations that moved to FM under a new licence in the late 90s/early 00s, with the old AM licences being divested to a different owner.

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Agree! And proper FM stereo on 90.5 and 97.5 too!
That would be fantastic.

ARN could turn NEW FM into a KIIS1053, or even better still, GOLD 105.3

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