Radio Firesale?
October 24th, 2006 at 11:37am
It looks like Macquarie Bank are about to sell their massive Macquarie Regional Radioworks network of 85 stations. Macquarie, who have put a price of $600 million on the network, have cited new media laws and the news requirements therein as their reason for selling. Whilst hiring a few extra journalists would make a bit of a dent in Macquarie’s profits, it would hardly be a major issue. On the plus side, the stations now have the chance to be owned by people who actually care about local radio.
October 24, 2006 01:08am
Article from: AAPMACQUARIE Media Group is believed to be selling its network of radio
stations following the tightening of media laws over rural radio.Macquarie Regional Radioworks has put a sale price of $600 million on
its 85 radio licences which cover around 60 per cent of regional
Australia, The Australian reports today.The decision to sell is believed to have been prompted by the new media
laws’ stricter requirements for regional radio stations to produce more
local content, thereby preventing broadcasts from a network’s stations
from outside local areas.Macquarie has warned it would have to close at least 10 stations in
Tasmania, Western Australia and Queensland because of the new laws,
News Limited reports.It was criticised this month for hubbing news to its Western Australia
stations from the Gold Coast in Queensland.
Update 7:48PM: Macquarie are denying the story, which was published in The Australian. Macquarie issued a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange earlier today after being requested to do so.
While Macquarie Media Group (MMG) would not normally comment on media speculation, we have been requested by the ASX to respond to a media article appearing today in relation to a possible sale of Macquarie Regional Radioworks.
MMG advises it has not received any offer to buy Macquarie Regional Radioworks, nor has there been any decision to sell the business.
End Update
Samuel
Entry Filed under: TV/Radio/Media
1 Comment
1. punky_brewster | October 26th, 2006 at 10:42 am
I worked for Macquarie and I can honestly say they were the WORST company I had ever worked for. It would be a blessing to all their employees if they did sell their stations.
The place where I worked was owned by dmg regional radio when I started & that was cool… It was the place where you went to ‘cut your teeth’, and hopefully move through the company to one of their metro stations (which at that stage, was just the Nova network across the country).
Anyway, then dmg sold up to fund their latest venture Vega, and we ended up in the hands of Macquarie. It was obvious from day one, they know all about making money, but nothing about radio.
I’ve gone far more into this than I planned, so I’ll stop bitching now, but all i wanted to say was Macquarie creates a very stagnent, stale and uninspiring working environment.