Is 4BC’s future up in the air?

Restructure raises questions about Nine Radio’s plans in Brisbane. Plus: Tasmanians don’t know their Bris-burbs.

Is — or was — Brisbane’s Radio 4BC on the market?

That’s one of the questions being asked in radio circles after an Australian Financial Review report] about the Nine Radio network’s woes.

Nine Radio boss Tom Malone has been quoted as saying that the sale of 4BC’s Perth sister station, 6PR, was abandoned — cynics say they couldn’t find a buyer — and the decision was made to restructure it instead.

In an email to 6PR staff, Malone said: “We considered all options; sale, lease, and three different joint venture options. Ultimately we decided to pursue a reset of 6PR’s cost and programming, with a renewed focus and increased investment in sales and marketing. In many ways this was the harder road, but we did this because we believe in 6PR, and the future of Talk Radio more broadly.”

That restructure saw the departure of several staff (including the content director, who resigned), and the axing of one local show, extending the existing Monday to Friday programs by an hour (which is quite a stretch and presumably very taxing on the talent and their producers).

My question is: Was the sale of 4BC also considered, or even attempted, at the same time? Or is that to come?

4BC did have a restructure of its own a few months ago, when the lighter Breakfast with Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine was replaced by a more news-based show hosted by Peter Fegan. Around the same time, Peter Gleeson quit the Drive show to take up a job outside of radio and was replaced by Gary Hardgrave.

Hardgrave and Fegan, plus Bill McDonald in Mornings, Sofie Formica in Afternoons and Peter Psaltis on Wide World of Sports, have been retained for 2025.

On the surface, 4BC is admirably investing faith in its existing talent, hoping that they can reverse the poor ratings that continue to dog the station. (If dropping Laurel, Gary and Mark was thought to be an immediate solution, it was not.)

Or — and this could be way off-mark — maybe there’s no change because Nine has no interest in investing in an asset it wants to sell.

One of the reasons for contemplating a sale in Perth was to find a place on the analogue radio dial for Nova Entertainment’s successful Smooth FM. That could hold here, too, because as is the case in Perth, Smooth is only accessible on DAB+ and on the internet in Brisbane.

Of course, 4BC only has an AM frequency, which is traditionally not the place to play music — even though oldies-skewed 4BH is doing well here. But giving Smooth a presence on the platform many older listeners prefer could be seen as a good way to hook them in before converting them to DAB or the app.

And what of 4BH? It is owned by Nine but currently leased to ACE Radio, and the rumour mill says that, despite apparently healthy ratings, that company may not be interested in renewing when the deal comes up for renewal. (For reasons that are beyond me, radio station sales executives show little enthusiasm for selling ads on older-skewing radio stations, despite the presence in the marketplace of Boomers with money burning a hole in their pockets.)

My source says Nine will “probably” take 4BH back — which raises the question: could that be a home for Smooth? (They’d want to be pretty sure of themselves to change the current format and very competitive Breakfast host “Barbecue” Bob Gallagher.)

We’ll be hearing more about all that in good time.

First up, though, come the Survey 8 ratings results, which will be released soon. [Update: this originally said Dec 17, but it seems they’ll be out on Dec 12.]

I guess I’ll have something to say about those when they come in. My eyes will not just be on the Brisbane results but on how Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson are doing in Melbourne, which continues to inform the market up here.

Meanwhile ...

The AFR story notes: “Nine Radio also performed poorly in a recent company-wide culture review. While one in two Nine employees had witnessed or experienced abuses of power or authority in the workplace, that figure was highest in the radio division – 66 per cent. Following the review, Malone held an all-staff call in which staff members complained en masse about the behaviour of some on-air talent.”

If this is the case, what is being done about this?

Will heads roll? Have they already? And if not, why not?

How can you change a deeply ingrained culture by protecting the jobs of offenders?

P.S.

According to a report in the Hobart Mercury about Mexican food chain Guzman y Gomez, there are Brisbane suburbs called Braybrook, Box Hill and Elsternwick, and Melbourne burbs called Cannon Hill, Stafford Drive (?) and Virginia. Thanks to Winsor for pointing that out on social media.

©2024 Brett Debritz. If I’ve inadvertently used copyrighted material, failed to give credit where it’s due, written or said something you disagree with, or otherwise upset or unexpectedly delighted you, please leave a comment, email me or connect with me at @debritz on X, @brettdebritz on Threads, Mastodon and BlueSky, and @radiobert on YouTube. Links provided as a courtesy; I take no responsibility for their contents or give any warranty of their veracity. Image: Bing Create