I agree with you on this. It makes some regional commercial radio stations that are not owned by SCA a bit more interesting.
Going down the Hume to Melbourne earlier this year on the way to Tassie made me think of what regional commercial radio along the way used to be when I first went to VIC (based in Ballarat) back in December 2003/January 2004. In those days, DMG owned regional stations in Young (now owned by BOG), Wagga, Albury & Bendigo, which all shared the same music logs. Star FM was a good listen with its mix of music from the 80s to Today (now covered by the heritage station), whilst its Heritage stations (2LF, 2WG, 2AY & 3BO) had the “Best Songs of All Time” format from the 60s to Today.
Albury & Shepparton had stations that were owned by RG Capital, with The River in the former market having an AC format covering the 70s to Today, whilst over in the latter market, 3SR had a Classic Hits format, whilst Sun FM had a pop/rock format. Of course, in between those two markets, there’s 3NE & Edge in Wangaratta, which were independently-owned.
A little over 13 years later in 2017, all of the commercial stations are mostly owned by SCA, with the Wagga, Albury, Shepparton & Bendigo stations all carrying the same branding of Triple M & Hit with the same music logs (of those Triple M stations mentioned, only Wagga has a Classic Hits format, whilst the others have the “Greatest Hits from the 70s to Now” format), whilst 2AY, 3NE & Edge are now owned by ACE.
It was quite a relieve when I started to receive Melbourne radio past Seymour & likewise on the way back, when I started to receive Canberra radio near Yass. 