Regional radio network looking for buyers
A regional radio network of 11 stations across seven markets is looking for a buyer.
Resonate Broadcasting is selling off the package of stations, which reaches from Mt Isa to Kingaroy in regional Queensland. The stations for sale include 4CCC in Charleville, a relay station for Southern Cross Austereo’s Hit South Queensland, and 4GC in Charters Towers, which is part of the Triple M network. Resonate claims the stations broadcast range reaches 39% of the state.
Resonate was founded in 2008 by Rex Morris and Guy Dobson, two SCA executives.
It bought its package of Queensland stations from Macquarie Media across a number of sales in 2008, 2012, and 2015. In addition, the group owns three Hawaiian stations, which it acquired in 2012. These are not part of the sale.
Morris tells Mumbrella that he and Dobson simply decided the time was right to sell. Morris is currently content director at Triple M Sydney, while Dobson works across Sydney and Hong Kong, at Asian Radio Concepts.
“At the end of the day, we’ve been doing this for 16 years,” he says. “We just believe it’s time for us to sell, and we’ve got other stuff that we might like to look at over time. That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.”
As for potential buyers, Morris expects to be surprised. “I don’t think that there is a typical buyer. I think that we’re probably going to get interest from a range of buyers.”
Morris declines to offer up a monetary figure they’re looking for, but is keen to stress the value of regional media assets. Last year, regional media, and in particular radio, was largely shielded from the cost-of-living crisis impacting other areas of the industry.
According to Guideline SMI data, linear TV advertising spend dropped 9.5% in 2024, while regional TV fell 3.2%. Overall radio ad spend fell by 3.4%, with regional radio dropping just 0.3%.
“Radio is such an important thing to regional Australia and there’s really strong relationships with regional radio across regional Australia.”
He says the package of stations on offer are “still very much part of their communities” in regional Queensland.
“I think that’s what makes them a very attractive proposition.”
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