Please! Try reading a few chapters about business operations, simple economics; you’ll find that’s all far too much effort for zero gain.
While ever John Singleton is still hanging around the three stations probably have no hope. His love is for 2GB.
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Why so much hate for this new station, may I ask?
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Because its probably not going to last until the end of this year due to the disasterous result that it had in survey 4 today
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For me, because Macquarie destroyed 2UE. If they had have created a new station that rated ok then fine, but they have done the opposite.
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Magic 1278 was a great station before they sacked all their regular announcers a few years back. And consistent in its ratings numbers. Should never have had the format changed.
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I’m not entirely against the idea of Macquarie Sports Radio for Sydney & Brisbane because the other “sports” station in those markets predominately covers racing.
But without a strong focus on NRL coverage in Sydney/Brisbane (and the same deal with AFL coverage in Melbourne), why bother?
Arguably MRN have not so much as put the final nail in the coffin of 2UE, but have cremated it.
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Wow at those ratings. Embarrassing.
I said this before but they need actual sport stars fronting these programs, not ‘broadcasters’ or randoms. I still don’t know who Julian King is.
Barry Hall available now? MSR should be all over him and I’d have him replace John Stanley. Breakfast with Barry and Beau would be a guaranteed ratings boost.
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Not even sure about that. I’m starting to wonder if any other city outside Melbourne has the substantial sporting culture to carry a 24/7 sports channel. This survey demonstrated how much programming can be consolidated on 2GB alone. Similarly, if you want to merge formats, you could easily incorporate the best of MSR into 4BC in Brisbane - you don’t need a separate station to cater for 1 per cent of Brisbane when 4BC consistently struggles to hold a 5 per cent share. Still, I agree that if you are going to build a tri-city sports station, better it be SEN who at least have a brand built up over a decade, but even that would only work by keeping a NSW/QLD SEN more significantly separate than the 20 hours per weekday networking of MSR. An interesting new entrant into Melbourne Radio would be Canberra’s Capital Radio - that would insert the “Forever Classics” format that fit where 1278 probably need to be. It would also give 1278 sister stations in its proximity - Gippsland’s 3GG and Canberra’s 2CA. If SEN was to be somehow merged into Macquarie (taking things full circle as 3AK was briefly 3AW’s stablemate in the mid 90s), it’s difficult to read what becomes of 1377AM (a format I think ought to go Country as it is wasting away doing what it does now).
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Does…
I suspect only Sydney has the size that a niche sports station would be viable (ignoring racing radio stations which are probably better viewed as a marketing/product distribution expense for the racing codes). SEN has fluctuated between ratings of 2.7 and 5.4 over the last 10 years. Sydney’s limit is probably slightly less - say 2.5 to 5.0 - which could make money, but not heaps given the costs involved.
Not sure SEN exists as a Brand in NRL states - maybe for a few diehard AFL supports up North, but they ain’t going to make a sports station in Sydney viable. I’d probably go for a leveraged name of 2GB Radio Sport - but I think Macquarie Sports Radio is fine enough.
Absolutely. AFL and NRL is like mixing oil and water. As for a networked 4BH, it wasn’t too successful when SEN was networked into Adelaide on 5DN (hence the launch of Cruise 1323). I agree with other posters on here and launch Smooth Music 4BH.
Personally can’t see MML and Pacific Star Network doing the station swap leading to the outcome you suggest - especially Hutchy walking away from SEN. Anyway, playing the theoreticals - worth a shot for 1278 to have a Forever Classic style format. As for 3MP playing country - 3UZ went and tried that years ago. Melbourne is not a country town.
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Because it should’ve been sold off when MRN and Fairfax Radio were merged. But no, ACMA and ACCC are useless S.O.B’s. We’ve been told that competition and free markets are good but when they allow one company owning two rivals and allow one to destroy the other, it’s hypocritical.
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In your opinion Joey, IMO Classic Rock Radio is the best station in Melbourne. Country would be a complete waste of time.
Hopefully Pacific Star will go nowhere near the dreaded Macquarie madness!
Correct, this is exactly how it’s viewed. In Melb, the racing bodies themselves own it for promotion. In Brisbane, QTAB/Unitab/Tatts and now Tabcorp have always viewed it as product distribution. In Sydney, the waters are now muddied with the wasteful idea of getting back into the survey.
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Simply because they’ve completely destroyed not one but THREE great radio stations to create this nil rating abomination!
Magic Melbourne, 2UE and Easy Listening 4BH.
FYI, 4BH was rating up where 4KQ is now in the ratings just a few years ago. Magic was consistently rating well in Melbourne.
All three stations were appropriate for their individual markets and filled a niche.
Now there’s a network of 3 stations that nobody listens to - surely that’s plenty to inspire the “hate”??
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You’d think it’d work in Melbourne, being the sporting city and all and maybe that’s why the original strategy was to have a Melbourne based focus.
But I agree, executed woefully and little if zero promotion. Look at SEN, doesn’t set the world on fire, but has lasted the distance and has a loyal following, definitely during AFL season.
So how Macquarie Radio have managed to screw up these stations THREE times is beyond me. It’s like a WTF or c’mon moment 
What’s his name must be glad he’s handed the CEO batton over now, can escape the publicity and shareholder nightmare.
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I’m honestly not sure what MRN can do with 954AM after the Macquarie Sports Radio format is inevitably ditched for something else.
Sure, the Talking Lifestyle format wasn’t a total failure in Sydney as it was in Melbourne/Brisbane but that’s only because a few “legacy” 2UE programs that were familiar to the market remained on air. Those all ended with the relaunch to Macquarie Sports Radio.
A music format is possibly not a contractually allowed option for the Sydney market (although one could question whether there’s enough room in Sydney for two competing AM music stations in 2018 anyway), so what other options are there? All-news? Something completely out of left-field like selling the airspace to a religious broadcaster?
The last I checked, Sky Sports Radio is owned by Tabcorp. Although they probably don’t need to spend money on participating in the Sydney radio surveys, I’d bet (no pun intended, of course) the amount they do spend on GFK including them is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions that Tabcorp earns in gambling revenue each year. Anyway, that’s for another topic.
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Not suggesting Pacific Star would be walking away from SEN. But I am pointing out that SEN is about 95 per cent of their business. Their music operation barely “does” anything - there’s no listener engagement to begin with. I supported Macquarie moving on from Magic 1278 only because I could see that, similarly, they are almost entirely in the talk format business - it’s where most if not all of its listener engagement is. Whatever you might brand a sports channel north of the Murray, there’s an argument that SEN could take over those two stations (882 Brisbane and 954 Sydney). One way that could happen is for Pacific Star and Macquarie to merge just as Macquarie and Fairfax merged. This survey, with 1 percent or below ratings at MSR, exposes a logic for such a merger. Capital is not the only candidate to take over possibly divested licences 3EE and 3MP that results from such a merger. There’s also the owners of 2CH that might be interested. But only Capital has two brands immediately available to fill those stations with content - Forever Classic for 1278 and KIX Country for 1377. That would instantly connect two really devalued commercial licences in Melbourne to sufficiently large and competently programmed networks, keeping in mind a reversal of structural damage needs to occur that devalued these stations in the first instance. 3MP in the 90s got broken down by Magic and then sold and resold, while Magic was forced off its 693 AM frequency and then was forced off the air altogether by Sydney-centric priorities. One can speculate about “what Macquarie should do” to fix their second network, assuming they are the right owners and managers of those licences, but maybe you don’t get to a realistic and economic solution that way - it’s about wider business considerations than format. One consideration under an umbrella of considerations is listener engagement and Classic Rock Radio simply isn’t given attention it requires. Rebel FM, the only other pure rock format there is, sounds better programmed and provides a comparable standard that CRR does not match. CRR also operates against Triple M’s greater digital capacity which sure enough has restored sub brands like Greatest Hits and Classic Rock Digital. There is also Triple M Country, but this is where Triple M most stretches it’s brand beyond recognition and is the format that could be better branded by another network.
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Bring Back Magic and have Grubby/Dee Dee For Breakky and John Blackman/Red Symons (Blackers/Red) for Drive
Easy Classics format which Melbourne doesnt have. (60s-90’s) and Let Smooth do the newer stuff
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it’s an interesting question. I’m not sure the market is there for all news unless they can out Newsradio Newsradio. NewsRadio biggest weakness is the reason they originally got the frequencies - parliment.,
selling airtime to a religious broadcaster is possible I guess (i could see vision jumping on it) but there’s not much else that i can see working
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Except that KIX is a Grant Broadcasting brand run out of Bundaberg, but I’m sure it’s not out of the question giving the myriad of Capital/Grant joint ventures floating around