‘We are very hungry and ready to go’: How Macquarie Radio Network is trying to reposition
The boss of Australia’s biggest talk radio network has acknowledged the beginning of 2015 was a ‘tough’ few months as the merger of the Macquarie and Fairfax Radio Networks saw more than 10 per cent of the workforce made redundant.
In his first media interview since the two radio networks merged Macquarie’s chief operating officer Adam Lang spoke openly about the challenges of bringing the two businesses together but noted it was now having greater sales success on the back of the new national advertising proposition.
“We are very hungry, we are almost greedy, we are impatient and we want to keep that (momentum) building,” said Lang, who noted their new focus on was shifting media agency mentalities away from 25-54 year old grocery buyers and getting them to recognise the value of older audience.
You can’t have these two stations competing in the same marketplace. Ridiculous. It’s time for 2UE to reinvent itself. How do you so that? Easy bring in some powerful, intelligent women to present the programs.
2GB is populated by far right ravers – Jones, Hadley, Bolt and Price as leaders of the pack and it’s the same old same old day after day. You have to drink the Coalition Kool-Aid to get a start there. At least 2UE is taking a middle line and acknowledging there might be a different opinion. Stanley and Linnell are actually quite listenable in the mornings which is more than can be said for Jones – most thinking grown-ups don’t want to be lectured on waking up by some old codger who reminds them as their grade three teacher.
I’m well over 60 and listen to 2GB only for a laugh. The political views of their on-air team are so extreme as to be worthy of satire. The Sydney ratings of the station are obviously high, so there’s definitely an audience out there to support their style. A lot of the ads are for cataract correction and pain relief as well as retirement advice. 2UE on the other hand – except for Saturday mornings – is far more balanced and realistic.