101.3 Sea FM - Establishment and Ownership

Establishment and Ownership

Gosford Communications first submitted an application for a broadcast licence in August 1987. The Australian Broadcasting Tribunal(ABT) granted a commercial FM broadcast licence to Gosford Communications LTD, a wholly owned subsidiary of Country Television Services; a private company owned by Ted and Miriam Rodgers, in August 1988. Within a month of being awarded the broadcast licence, Wesgo Communications PTY LTD (who owned the only other commercial station in the market at the time - AM station 2GO) launched an appeal against the ABT for granting a second commercial licence, and their appeal was upheld. A second appeal was launched by the ABT against the judges decision to uphold Wesgo's appeal. After time in front of the Full Bench of the Federal Court, Gosford Communications were finally given the go-ahead. Initially, Gosford Communications owned 60% of the station, the other 40% was publicly floated; with shares offered to the local community and employees.

On the 01/11/1989 Country Television Services was delisted from the ASX when it was taken over by Roslyndale Securities Pty Limited.

Coast Rock FM was first broadcast from newly renovated studios located in Mann Street, Gosford on 15 September 1990. The first song officially broadcast was Start Me Up by The Rolling Stones.

Sometime in the early 1990s, Coast Rock FM was purchased by Queensland TV operators, and owners of rival station 2GOFM; The Sunshine Television Network/STQ. In 1995 STQ was purchased by the Seven Network. Due to broadcast regulations at the time, Channel 7 was restricted to owning just one "type" of media outlet in any given area. As the Central Coast is considered part of the Sydney Metropolitan area, controversially, the Central Coast and Sydney's broadcast area overlap quite significantly - this factor forced Channel 7 to divest Coast Rock FM to another operator.

Sea FM LTD purchased Coast Rock FM and 2GO FM from the 7 Network in January 1996. The company changed its name from Sea FM Limited to RG Capital Radio Pty Limited in 1996, due to the acquisition of 2GO FM - future plans would be to change Coast Rock FM to Sea FM, but in order to maintain a point of difference between the new Sea FM and 2GO FM, the parent company's name would have to change.

Later that year, Coast Rock underwent significant changes. In the space of one night, Coast Rock was essentially "switched off" at its Mann Street studios, and moved to join former rival 2GO in their studio complex in Henry Parry Drive. Previous Sea FM Program Director, Allan Cameron, was the last announcer to do a live shift from the old studios in Gosford. A few months later, Coast Rock was re-branded as Sea FM (to match RG Capitals' other radio properties - 90.9 Sea FM (Gold Coast) and 91.9 Sea FM (Sunshine Coast). The first song to be played by the new Sea FM was Things Can Only Get Better (D:Ream song) by D:Ream.

RG Capital Radio PTY LTD was floated on the ASX in October 2000, and subsequently changed its name to RG Capital Radio Limited.

In 2002, RG Capital entered into negotiations to sell 101.3 Sea FM to DMG Radio Australia. The deal would have been a trade-off for the joint acquisition of a new FM broadcast license for the Central Coast, along with the purchase of number of existing radio licenses in regional Victoria. A full agreement could never be reached, however - and this saw the proposed venture fall through by December 2002. DMG eventually went on to successfully bid for the new FM license, thus paving the way for the birth of the Central Coast's third FM commercial radio station, Star 104.5.

In June 2004, Sea FM's parent company, RG Capital Radio LTD was acquired by Macquarie Bank for a reported A$173 m. The newly formed Macquarie Media Group (MMG) then purchased DMG Radio Australia's regional portfolio in September of the same year for A$193 m. Macquarie Regional Radioworks was formed to oversee the radio operations, and maintained a similar management structure to that of RG Capital LTD. November 2006 saw MMG purchase a 13.8 per cent stake in rival radio operator, Southern Cross Broadcasting, which put a number of Australian Television stations under the MMG umbrella. In December 2009, MMG security holders voted in favour of a conversion from a triple-stapled structure to a single ASX-listed company. MMG was renamed Southern Cross Media Group with former RG Capital Radio CEO Rhys Holleran as the Chief Executive Officer.