Austereo
Austereo is a national commercial radio network in Australia.
History
The company was founded by Paul Thompson, and when commercial FM broadcasting was introduced into Australia it acquired the license for the metropolitan Adelaide area; SAFM commenced transmission in late 1980. The next station to join the network was FOX FM in Melbourne in 1986, eventually to be followed by Sydney's 2Day FM and Brisbane's B105.
1996 saw a complicated arrangement in which Austereo purchased the Hoyts owned Triple M network, and Village Roadshow in turn purchased Austereo to form a single umbrella company. The purchases were part of a single deal that was unpopular due to the fierce rivalry between the two radio networks, and the fact that Village Roadshow and Hoyts were also direct competitors in the film industry.
As of 2005 the network broadcasts in each mainland Australian state capital, Canberra and the major regional city of Newcastle. Its stations are regular rating winners in their individual markets which focus on the demographic aged less than 40 years. The network claims to have more than 6 million listeners per week, nearly one third of the Australian population.
Corporate
Austereo was partially floated in 2001 on the Australian Stock Exchange. Its stock code is AEO.
As of July 2005 the upper management were:
- Peter Harvie, Chairman
- Michael Anderson, Chief Executive Officer
- Guy Dobson, Group Program Director
Stations
- 2Day FM 104.1 Sydney
- Triple M FM 104.9 Sydney
- FOX FM 101.9 Melbourne
- Triple M FM 105.1 Melbourne
- B105 FM 105.3 Brisbane
- Triple M FM 104.5 Brisbane
- SAFM 107.1 Adelaide
- Triple M FM 104.7 Adelaide
- 92.9 FM Perth
- Mix 94.5 FM Perth
- NXFM 106.9 Newcastle (joint venture with RGCapital)
- KOFM 102.9 Newcastle (joint venture with RGCapital)
- FM 104.7 Canberra (joint venture with Australian Radio Network)
Austereo had a monopoly on the FM Commercial audience in Brisbane until the launch of Australian Radio Network/DMG Radio Australia joint venture 97.3 FM in 2004.
The joint venture with RGCapital is a 50/50 ownership of both stations, although in practice Austereo manages NXFM and RGCapital manages KOFM.
See also