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.
Austereo had joint partnerships in Canberra. Australian Radio Network and Austereo have a joint partnership with 104.7 and Mix 106.3. Austereo is varied in the ratings, as of the last survey of 2009, its Hit Music stations top the FM ratings in most markets, with 2Day, Fox FM and B105 being the top FM stations in their respective markets, SAFM second in Adelaide and 92.9 coming in close behind sister station Mix 94.5 in Perth.
Conversely, Austereo's Triple M group of stations have suffered heavily from increased competition from new station Vega 95.3 and Vega 91.5 in Sydney and Melbourne respectively, with the stations in Melbourne and Sydney recording some of their lowest ratings of all time. Triple M stations currently occupy the last place among FM Commercial stations in the ratings, however in Brisbane and Adelaide they record much closer ratings results, with lower competition.
Read more about this topic: Austereo Radio Network
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