Nine Radio (Music)

At least 2SM understands the importance of building a heritage lineup.

The main reason for 2UE (and to somewhat extent 2DayFM) has been the chopping and changing of shows.

Just pick a lineup and stick to it.

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I think @tamago_otoko is absolutely right on the Barassi line issue. Assuming a bias to NRL (given Macquarie are Sydney based and two of three stations are north of the Barassi line), I think the outcomes in Sydney and Brisbane will be broadly similar and Melbourne will fail.

For Sydney, an SEN style market share with Sky (2KY) the equivalent of RSN(3UZ), this means no real change to its current ratings of 3.5 (maybe 4.0 max, not dissimilar to what SEN achieves) - just a shuffle of listeners to 2GB with a small transfer from 2MMM and Sky. On a combined basis, hard to see any significant growth for Macquarie.

For Brisbane, in theory with less stations, 4BH should rate higher, but I am expecting the networking will deter listeners. So a 3.0 share with listeners dragged from 4BC and 4MMM. On a combined basis, Macquarie should get ahead.

For Melbourne, as pointed out above SEN is established making 3EE’s task degree of difficulty high without even taking into account the Barassi line issue. Whilst it may pick up some of the listeners disappointed with Hutchy’s axing of a number of SEN commentators, Hutchy still has a fair ownership of sporting media rights that may limit what can be broadcast on 3EE. As I understand Crocmedia has already transferred a few programs from RSN to SEN, so I can’t see why he would be prepared to share any other media rights with competitor, especially given the ownership of 3MP. Bottom line, maybe 0.5 - 1.0 market share with it dragged from all stations. I do not expect a huge impact on SEN. Ultimately, I think 3EE will have to revert to a music format (“the new Magic”) if it wants to make any inroads.

Its interesting to compare the actions of the then management team at PSN when the MTR joint venture started - they transferred 3MP’s music format to MyMP on DAB, making it easier to transfer back to 3MP when MTR was terminated. If only they had contingency planning like that at Macquarie - Magic could have been operating on DAB with a recommencement on AM just a flick of the switch away…

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The Barassi line is virtually the same as the TV aggregation line.

Deniliquin is a great example. It is a reasonable distance inside NSW but would be south of the Barassi line by virtue of the fact that they have always received Victorian TV which would have had a major influence on their football tastes.

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Wagga Wagga would be the main exception. They tend to be more AFL oriented despite receiving NSW TV.

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I think Wagga Wagga is pretty equal football wise.

I think it should be noted that ABC Local Radio takes NSW Grandstand (though down the road 2CO Corowa takes the Victorian Grandstand), and Prime7 takes the Sydney based AFL programming (when there’s no reason why they couldn’t link up with the Melbourne feed for this if they wanted to).

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I once lived half way between Echuca and Deni (a town called Mathoura)

Although technically we were in NSW we considered ourselves victorian. We had a daily bus to Melbourne (Nothing to Sydney). We were 800km to Sydney but only 260 to Melbourne.

We had TV out of Melbourne (AFL Footy Show was shown first thursday nights) , radio was generally out of echucha or moama and honestly, given the choice we would have voted to move the border to put us in VIC

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Deni also is technically in Victoria because the railway out of there is BG (Broad Gauge) and controlled by Victoria. The CFA also go to Deni for major fires.

2QN gets most of their programs from 3AW and the local TV station is a Victorian station.

Deni also gets the Herald Sun and The Age from Melbourne.

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Deniliquin has always been covered by Victorian TV even before aggregation, they had a translator of GMV6 on channel 10. The ABC repeater on channel 9 was from NSW and had NSW news at 7pm. So you had the choice of NSW news on one channel and Victorian news on the other. Also if you go into the Riverina you often see signs for Victorian papers such as the Age and the Herald Sun outside newsagents, even in places such as Wagga and Narrandera.

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Somebody made a mistake and the border became the Murray.

http://www.portphillippioneersgroup.org.au/pppg5hg.htm

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I’m actually enjoying this off-topic conversation. Is there an Australian geography thread we can continue this in?

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So is this going to mean the end of 2UE weekend stalwarts like Pete Graham’s Saturday Night, Healthy Living and Sharina? Unless they relax the format at off-peak times, there’s obviously no way these shows would fit within a sports-focused format. And none of them seem likely candidates to move over to 2GB/4BC.

The fundamental flaw in all this is that they seem to have set a date upfront for the switch of format and only now - according to the internal memo and other comments I’ve seen floating around - do they appear to be thinking about the detail of the format, which presenters might be kept on etc etc. All a rush now to sort it all out in 4 weeks. The sensible thing would have been to settle on the format detail first and then set the switchover date. Needing to introduce it in time for the Commonwealth Games is a red herring in my view. They could easily have had Commonwealth Games coverage within an overall lifestyle format.

For those of you on Facebook take a look at a post Trevor Long has put on his public page about the change. Makes interesting reading, not least his replies to some of the comments on his post. You get the sense that insiders already expect the new format to fail before it has even launched.

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It makes you question even more why Macquarie are going ahead with something that seems destined to fail

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They’ve gone under the radar but presumably they have been profitable over the years, particularly Sharina and Pete Graham. It would be no surprise to Sharina what is going to happen, she will already have known.

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A question for the Sydney radio history buffs: How long has Pete Graham been at 2UE for now?

I know he was at 2WS (most notably as the longtime host of “Jukebox Saturday Night Live”) for many years before moving…but not really when he left 2WS/started at 2UE.

Ahh, I see what you did there! :wink:

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Well put mart.
If Talking Lifestyle is really going all sport I can’t understand (apart from the obvious) why the Continuous Call Team is not moving across.
2GB already has many lifestyle segments and by freeing up weekend afternoons some of the better segments(if you call it that) such as Trevor Long and the guy that ran Second Career on a Monday night and Healthy Living etc could still be heard. In other words a Magazine Style of programmes on weekends. Pete Graham could still be heard on 2GB on Saturday nights. One thing I will be glad to see the end of that physic woman on Sunday nights however I believe the programme was well sponsored.
Just my thoughts!!

Ten years this month.

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Steve Murphy is a numerologist and clairvoyant who hosted a show on Saturday nights on 2GB back in the mid 2000s. He always had a feeling in his loins when he was doing a reading - the program was unintentionally hysterical, far funnier than Sharina. Bridget who was on 2UE many years ago and appears to live in Canberra these days was actually fairly sane in comparison.

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I reckon Pete Graham would probably be a very good fit for 2CH on Saturday nights (well, it’d be considerably better than the sleep-inducing “Reminiscing with Bob Rogers” anyway IMO) if MRN decides there isn’t a place for him at their network anymore.

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It is good Trevor is the one who is very “open” with the changes. I will miss his show. I normally listen as a podcast. Just thought it was awesome how he would be hotel room across the world and still do the show. Very dedicated.

But he does have other podcasts which are good. Two guys talking tech with Stephen Fenech I highly recommend.

If they do go this sports show, I agree, the continuous call show move across and put 2ue’s show on GB. But it won’t happen :(. Clinton Maynard would be great to hear on GB with the lifestyle topics on the weekend and also Pete Graham.

It’s a short term plan, and a shit one at that. It gets investors off their back for a while, something new to show to advertisers and may cause a spike in sales. What they’re forgetting is that a second failure will have worse consequences.

I wonder if “networking” will mean that the exact same content goes to all 3 cities full time, or if there will be some local versions of shows, particularly for Melbourne. (but I’m not hopeful of that!).
It seems to me that the station with the best chance of success under this format is 2UE - which is their best rating Talking Lifestyle station, and is potentially pulling high enough numbers at the moment that it would be safe if that format wasn’t a total flop in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Brisbane may also have some success, given that much of the NRL content will be relevant up against minimal competition.

Melbourne has absolutely no hope. Even if it went with AFL content, that’s already will covered in Melbourne by SEN, 3AW, Triple M and the ABC. There’s virtually no gaps in the Melbourne sport radio market besides niche sports that won’t attract enough listeners to make any impact.

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