Hope its collapses for Hutchy’s sake. He has ruined a once great station. Hutchy is nothing more than an arrogant, self centred goose.
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Although I think SEN as a whole have had the rights to the VRC carnival, their only race commentary rights for SEN Track are for Victorian harness and greyhound racing, through individual deals with those codes (some of which definitely involve contra as they tend to produce the shows for them that now appear on Racing.com TV, and previously on Seven’s other multichannels in the case of the dogs).
They’re not going to get Victorian gallops rights again (Flemington carnival aside) now Racing Victoria owns RSN outright, which used to be what carried SEN throughout the summer on a Saturday afternoon.
I guess these days you could argue that Sky Racing is free to stream now (it’s not like they charge $20 a month to get it online now without Foxtel, even if you’re not a TAB account holder) and you can do the “mute the TV and listen to SEN Track” thing, but that seems far-fetched to me.
Interesting the comment in there about SEN Track being such a cashcow. I’d have thought it would have 10 listeners combined across the country, clearly I know bugger all about the racing/betting industry…
I guess it’s the only place on radio where any bookie outside the relevant TAB can get nationwide exposure - they can’t put certain types of inducements (bonus bet ads for instance) on normal SEN outside Victoria because of state laws against it, but most will let it slide for racing radio stations.
It does get a bit ridiculous with the small size of some of the bookie advertisers though, some of which potentially expanded from on-track licenses (a necessary thing during Covid). I’m not saying any of the ad deals would be that big beyond the giants, but it’s a foot in the door that they would only otherwise have with Racing.com TV right now.
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If 2CH and 4KQ make a comeback, I wonder what it’ll mean for 2UE and 4BH?
If they did and if I were ACE, I’d terminate the leases with Nine Radio and purchase the old stations outright (potentially for much less than what SEN paid for the licenses).
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I don’t think that would happen. The sale price of 4KQ and 2CH alone would not be worth it for SEN to get back in the black. Plus losing those potential revenue streams after selling those licenses at a time like this would not be sensible.
They’ll cut costs short term and be back to sustainable levels of revenue within 6 months. Nothing to see here really.
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Industry talk isn’t as confident.
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Although I am no fan of SEN, I am sure Craig speaks highly of all the knockers here.
There seems to be a lot of bitterness regarding the former ARN’s 4KQ being sucked into the vortex that is SEN .
ARN accepted the money for 4KQ from SEN and by doing so they threw the staff and format on the scrap heap.
SEN waved the biggest cheque in front of ARN and from that moment 4KQ was detonated.
SEN are only guilty of stupidity for paying the amount they did for 4KQ.
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I don’t care what he thinks of me! 
I don’t like Craig because he ruined SEN Melbourne, the original and made it a station to employ his cronies.
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I second this. Evenings with Mark Fine was must listen to radio and that disapeared to now not even having anything on an evening just replays. SEN is terrible now.
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As someone who enjoys listening to live sports radio commentaries, it would be a bit of a shame for SEN to go completely. Having said that though, they’ve made some questionable decisions, especially when it comes to the acquisition of sports teams.
In some ways I’m surprised to hear SEN Track makes money especially with competition from RSN/Sky/RadioTAB etc. but at the same time gambling and horse racing is always a big money industry so I can see how. Feel like it’s an industry with a questionable future though as horse racing declines in popularity and I expect an inevitable crackdown on sports gambling.
Having two competing horse racing stations in some areas feels like a total waste of spectrum too (but that’s as much on ACMA as it is anyone else with their interesting interpretation of narrowcast).
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News Corp reports this afternoon that the interest bill on Sports Entertainment Group’s $28 million Commonwealth Bank debt will double from August next year, and the bank has the right to call in the total debt at any time. SEG (which owns SEN) was paying 4.71% on the CBA loan, which was signed in 2021, and the new interest rate could be as high as 15%.
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If I were SEN, I’d cut down massively and go back to just focusing on 1116SEN and maybe keep SEN Track.
Offload all the other rubbish.
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Not sure I’d agree with this sentiment. They may get a brief sugar hit from cutting costs short term, but the question has to be sustaining the ‘empire’ longer term with cash flow.
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The ratings of SEN 1170 and SENQ are just not sustainable in the longer term.
If ACE were to buy these licenses and convert them to Magic or 4KQ/2CH then they’ll have the benefit of 2 stations in each market, on a low cost music format, which would most certainly rate higher than what it is currently plus some extra DAB capacity to use if they wished.
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The right leaning Finey loves nothing better than to have a crack at the left. Apparently he used to give it to self confessed lefty Rohan Connolly.
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It would be nice to have the 2x AM/DAB music stations in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne.
I would go:
4KQ - Classic Hits
4BH - go back to Easy Listening
2UE - Classic Hits
2CH - Easy Listening
And leave Melbourne as is:
Magic - Classic Hits
3MP - Easy Listening
I know it’s a bit of a flip for 4BH and 2UE/2CH but I think the audience still thinks of 4BH and 2CH as more easy listening, and 4KQ as Classic Hits. 4KQ wouldn’t work as Easy Listening.
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Not sure they have the money to do this. I guess it all comes down to the asking price.
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Agree with that. The audience will return to classic hits 4KQ and easy listening 2CH if it were to eventuate.
They could even be cheeky and put the Edge playlist on DAB on the 2 markets.
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That depends what the price is and if administrators are called in.
I would. Particularly given the Cada rebrand of Edge in Sydney.
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Think it’s way too early to predict SEN’s demise. There’s also a lot of people who work there and work hard. Probably hundreds of people these days, awful to wish for them to lose their jobs.
SEN has had a rocky road but it’s nearly 20 years old now. It’s not going anywhere any time soon.
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