I think if they brought a lot of the ball by ball coverage of cricket in the winter from the BBC etc plus cricket in the summer, plus extend that to rugby league in Sydney and Brisbane. It would get a niche. They could add premier league soccer too. Potentially using additional channels on dab for conflicts. So you can hear league in Melbourne and AFL in Sydney.
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add talksport overnights (like eon sport did on DAB) and you have premier league coverage as well. sounds like a winner to me
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I think the main gap we have talking sports program in Sydney but we shy away from commentary (other than the main stream matches) excluding horse racing. As what Ray Hadley says it does not rate.
However if the station is the one stop location for live coverage of sport. It might work.
Personally I prefer live coverage than chat.
as of march 30 talking lifestyle will be no more according to a leaked memo obtained by new media
full text of memo below:
This is to advise that the “Talking Lifestyle” format which has run on our 954 AM Sydney station since September 2016, and on our 1278 AM Melbourne and 882 AM Brisbane stations since late February 2017, will be broadcast for the last time on Friday March 30th. It will be replaced by a Sports format, networked across the same 3 stations and featuring presenters drawn from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The new format’s launch will coincide with the Commonwealth Games which commence on the Gold Coast on April 4th.
Our decision to end the “Talking Lifestyle’ format follows a comprehensive operational review of its performance since launch, and assessment of its likely future contribution to MML Group’s ratings and earnings. In short “Talking Lifestyle” has not been able to deliver the audience numbers which were hoping it would reach, and that has been particularly so in Melbourne. Talking Lifestyle’s revenue contribution has been relatively good, but is unlikely to be sustainable on current ratings projections.
I want to thank all of the “Talking Lifestyle “ team, on-air and off-air , for what has been a huge effort to launch a new and untried format from scratch and which could be networked across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Your commitment and professionalism have been outstanding throughout, and we will be endeavouring to accommodate as many of you as possible in the new format. Each of the program teams is now being advised of broadcast plans leading up to March 30th, and the possibility of ongoing roles in the new format.
We obviously have a lot of work to do to have a new format launched in around 4 weeks, and will keep you advised of progress as we get closer to launch. In the meantime please don’t hesitate to contact me, Adam Lang or Michael Thompson for further details.
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Good luck with that. It’ll probably do better than the infomercials though
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I really can’t see a 2nd sports station in Melbourne being successful against the established player in SEN.
Not too sure how a sports station would go in Sydney & Brisbane. Maybe OK enough if they had a heavy focus on rugby league and other sports that both markets like, but I can’t see MRN wanting to do that because the main Continuous Call Team coverage is probably going to stay on 2GB and 2GB North (AKA, 4BC).
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Yeah i dont see that working either what type of sports would they brodcast on that station if its going to be rugby league and they are going to network that into Melbourne then in my opinion its going to bomb immediately because Melbourne cares about the afl more than the nrl
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Doomed to fail given the different sporting interests of people in the eastern states. I really can’t fathom the stupidity of the people at Macquarie making these decisions. If they thought the ratings were dire now, wait until they see “*” next to the station name when the first ratings results are released.
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Absolutely correct. Two sports stations if you count RSN. And if rumors are to be believed, three sports stations if Classic Rock Radio (aka 3MP) becomes a second sports outlet for SEN.
How many can even sports mad Melbourne support?!
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A little off topic I think Vintage FM shows how different adult stations can sound. http://vintagefm.com.au/ They play songs you don’t hear on 2ch/Smooth in Sydney. Its a good listen very good quality stream worth a listen. Something they could consider in Melbourne given the “different” sport tastes. Not all old music is meant to be easy.
I agree with all comments above! Now we know why George and Paul went. What about John and Garry? They can talk sports I guess… why not haha.
Well I’ll give them that they were pretty much on the money for once!
What would be wrong with a 24/7 news station? Think ABC News and Sky News but for Radio.
We already have NewsRadio.
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My understanding is that they are all off contract so they may just ride off into the sunset. To lose John Stanley though would be a tragedy.
Also noted that Stuart Bocking is working community radio in Hay would you believe.
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Have to agree, just wait and see what really happens at the end of the month.
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I wonder if a format similar to EON Sports Radio would work. EON Sports ultimately failed and went into receivership but with the financial backing of MRN and analog transmission (EON was DAB+ only) it might work.
I wonder if they’re foxing and will launch something different? Although why would they bother I guess… How can it work when Melbourne doesn’t care about NRL and already has two sports stations. Arguably Sydney doesn’t care much about any sport, and Brisbane doesn’t even like talkback!
Doesn’t sound like a recipe for success to me.
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I was going to “click heart” or like. But not appropriate. What waste. Surely he can get a gig at 2CC/2SM or something.
Exactly what I’m thinking. Surely they would have to move Rugby League across for any hope of success but there is no talk on that.
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i actully think this could work.
first, i can see sydney and brisbane subsiding melboune and also rating more.
next as long as they don’t concentrate on 1 sport (or the major sport in that state).
i think for this to work they need to cover the major sports (especilly AFL, Rugby, League and Motorsport) - if they just covered league in brisbane it won’t encourage switchers - i can get league news on every station up here.
theres enough people in brisbane to support an AFL team (and the same as NRL in melbourne) so there is definitly a market there.
i’m going to withhold judgement unitl they are on air and see what they do