What about all those shock jocks who have been on air for fifty years? Why aren’t you calling for them to give it away?
What about Kyle & Jackie O? Should they give it away and let radio stations to develop new talent?
I’d love for them to give it away. They only find audience in the 55+ crowd anyway so 
If you’re still doing great content, then sure keep going as long as the content is good. Sounds like the Grubby & Dee Dee content isn’t particularly good.
It’s a sad indictment if people would rather listen to a personality simply because they’re a personality rather than listen to what the best content is. I don’t think personality for the sake of it works - as evidenced by the procession of ‘talent’ at 2DAY FM. On a weekend AM talkback show though, all that really matters is whether enough advertisers are paying the bills.
Horses for courses. That’s exactly why they’re still around.
It’s not all about the teeny boppers. 
1 Like
3XY in the news today over what happened to funds from its sale in 1988.
4 Likes
It’s an amazing story, here’s more of it:
The Australian July 24, 2017
PAMELA WILLIAMS
Investigative journalist, SydneyIt was May 1987 when staunch libertarian and former Liberal senator Sir Magnus Cormack, 82, opened his front door to usher stockbroker and Liberal Party official John Calvert-Jones, then 50, into his South Yarra home.
This meeting between the two men would start to lay the groundwork for a rich stream of money flowing to the Liberal Party for decades. But it also planted the seeds for an explosive fight 30 years later over control of the funds — a battle which has split the party’s Victorian royalty, laying bare the treasure trove.
Calvert-Jones, a brother-in- law to News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch, was the honorary Victorian Liberal treasurer when he called on Sir Magnus at Caroline Street, just a short walk from Melbourne’s beloved Yarra River.
He wanted to persuade Sir Magnus to direct some significant funds he controlled — the proceeds of the sale of radio station 3XY — into Liberal Party coffers.
Sir Magnus had had a long parliamentary career in the Liberal Party but there had been the occasional falling-out — at one point, a member of his own party had cast a vote which prevented, for a time, his re-election. He had been beaten in a preselection by Malcolm Fraser. But he had returned to enjoy stellar years, until he left politics in 1978.
Sir Magnus was also the chairman of 3XY, an unusual company which was linked to the Liberal Party and its predecessors, but legally structured in such a way that it was also wholly under the control of Sir Magnus and his tiny board of directors.
When it came to distributing the proceeds of the radio licence sale, directors had the whip hand.
The station had provided a platform for anti-communist broadcasts and a regular “Liberal hour”. Its sympathies could hardly be mistaken. The articles of 3XY’s association made it clear the object was “to maintain liberty of speech, religion and association”, and “to promote and preserve the elements of individual enterprise as an integral part of the structure of society’’. There was no reference to the Liberal Party.
Under the articles, in the event that 3XY was wound up or the company dissolved, any property left over after debts should not be paid or distributed to members of the company. Rather, it should be “given or transferred to some institution or institutions having objects similar to the objects of the company”.
This would apparently weigh on Sir Magnus’s mind.
The radio licence was sold in 1986 to promoter Paul Dainty for $15 million.
The Liberal Party, believing the money should come to the party, was soon alert to Sir Magnus’s intention to channel the funds to libertarian causes by dividing it three ways: $5m to the Institute of Public Affairs, $5m to the Centre for Independent Studies, and the last $5m to other think tanks with a like mind.
The Liberals attempted to create an entity to receive the money, but the plan ran into hurdles because under the 3XY constitution the directors had the power to distribute the money as they saw fit.
Calvert-Jones resolved to prevent the funds vanishing entirely, and eternally, into the IPA.
He proposed, over a series of meetings with Sir Magnus, that the capital be preserved with only dividends flowing out.
It was a persuasive argument, with the cherry on top the suggestion that it be named in honour of Sir Magnus as “the Cormack Foundation”.
The new constitution would reflect the old 3XY articles. The objects were to promote the private sector, self-endeavour, liberty of speech, religion and association, and to promote individual enterprise as an integral part of society.
The new foundation could grant donations “for any public purpose or for any object of the company”.
Calvert-Jones would join Stan Guilfoyle (husband of senator Dame Margaret Guilfoyle, a close ally of Sir Magnus and a 3XY director), and Hugh Morgan as the first directors of the Cormack Foundation on March 10, 1988. Stockbroker Charles Goode joined the board a few years later.
Calvert-Jones and Morgan, stalwarts of the party, signed undertakings to use their best endeavours to ensure income from Cormack was used for the benefit of the Liberal Party; and that future directors would sign similar undertakings.
2 Likes
Just checked the latest broadcaster list from ACMA.
There are more than 50 temp FM licences for various locations in Queensland on 61.2, 62.0 and 62.7 MHz for the Games. Looks like a set of 19 locations each with 3 frequencies.
1 Like
Maybe that will be for Sports Ears type services?
Certainly not for BSB services.
Sounddec licenses?
at a guess i’d say sporrtsears type coverage - perhaps ABC radio, 7 tv and a commercial radio broadcaster (or an onsite broadcast) similar to the cricket one they sell
1 Like
Interesting report popping up in different places regarding the lack of Australian music on commercial radio.
There’s plenty of Australian music out there, is it people don’t want to listen to it or the stations don’t want to play it? Bit of a what came first scenario.
If it originates from a reality show, its likely to be rubbish and that’s all that receives high rotation.
1 Like
It seems to me it’s the radio stations that don’t want to play them. If you look at the charts, the Aussie singles and albums are selling just as much, if not more, than their overseas counterparts, yet they don’t get airplay. They are awarded Gold and Platinum for sales but the stations will play other artists on high rotation who sell nothing and therefore artificially push them up the charts.
For example, Vance Joy has Gold for We’re Going Home and gets hardly any airplay, meanwhile Rita Ora/Liam Payne with For You have not sold as much and are low on the chart, yet they get played every two hours. Same with Troye Sivan who gets Platinum sales but does not get high rotation for his music.
Sheppard with Coming Home is another one. It has been in the chart for 15 weeks and has gone Platinum but apart from a couple of weeks when it was first released, it has had no airplay.
3 Likes
It’s actually quite shocking when you look at the Nova 96.9 playlist online. It’s quite clear that they target their Australian content for the hours when no one is listening.
Look at the 10pm-12am time period on evenings from Monday to Thursday and compare it with the playlist Monday to Friday from 6am to 10pm. It’s like night and day.
They also put a lot more local content on Sunday from around 4am onwards than any other day of the week.
Friday and Saturday nights seem to feature very little Australian content, which I guess makes sense due to higher listening figures at those times (people with parties using Nova as a backing track?).
And even with this obvious, blatant fudging of their quota they still don’t make the quota amount.
1 Like
I have noticed that and KIIS do exactly the same as do 2Day to some extent. I think it’s disgusting that they do that with Australian content just to meet quotas.
There’s so much emphasis on international artists and the locals get ignored. The only time local artists get a chance is when they make it overseas but it’s a catch 22. If they don’t get a chance to make it big in Australia, it’s so much harder to make it big overseas.
Perhaps ACMA needs to make the radio stations air a certain amount of Australian music during peak listening periods.
Wishful thinking. I can see them whinging to Senator Fifi-eld saying their ability to make money is impacted by the requirement to air Australian music when (to them) it’s better to air the latest ode to Tay Tay’s inability to find someone she actually loves.
1 Like
I’m sure these radio stations are being influenced by these multinational record companies who get the overseas artists played with all sorts of incentives. How else do you explain certain songs getting put on high rotation when they fail to chart or have any record sales?
Something needs to be done. Australian music along with television and movies is copping a beating from overseas conglomerates who push their wares above everything else. The politicians are blind to what is happening and how our culture is being eroded in the process.
They’re pouring billions of dollars into Sport in Australia but Culture in the form of Music, Television, Movies is a poor cousin.
3 Likes
I think Tay Tay is fishing in the wrong pond… just saying Hiddleston looked like a beard to me 
Read an interesting report about the bankruptcy of iHeart and Cumulus in the US. Basically the blame was put squarely at both companies over-leveraging (ie too much debt) and over expansion at the wrong time. The underlying radio assets are mostly still profitable, and some very profitable. The companies had just borrowed too much based on a premise of increasing profitability… Lessons for Australian operators?
2 Likes
He’s English. It’s easy to make that incorrect assumption. 