Austereo History
The company was founded by Paul Thompson, and when commercial FM broadcasting was introduced into Australia it acquired the licence 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 4BK Brisbane for which the company was successful in converting to the FM band in 1990. Austereo also purchased Perth AM radio station 6IX with the intention of converting the station to FM. 6IX, which had been re-launched by Austereo as The Eagle 1080 AM, was consequently sold off after being outbid for either of the two new FM licences by rivals 6KY and 6PM, which Austereo now own.
1992 saw a monopolistic arrangement take place whereby 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.
Read more about this topic: Southern Cross Austereo
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