The SEN Thread

[w00dy]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

i thought i read somewhere that pacific star bought it out... can't remember where though and not sure if it was a reliable source...

 

[stmookeyj]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

There was a report in the Hun saying the same thing, but I'm too lazy to find it.

 

[Russian]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

2 articles

CREDITORS of failed Melbourne radio station Sports Entertainment Network will be out of pocket after Pacific Star Network yesterday bought it for an undisclosed amount.

Pacific Star, which owns Melbourne's 3MP radio station and leased its other signal 3AK to SEN, bought the business less than a week after it went into administration.

Pacific Star is also expected to be a creditor of SEN, which was paying Pacific about $83,000 a month to lease the radio signal.

Pacific announced the purchase to the stock exchange but did not say how much it paid.

Administrator Sal Algeri said five parties had been interested but not all had submitted offers.

He said creditors included some of SEN's on-air presenters and the Australian Radio Network, which owns the 1323 AM signal in Adelaide also leased by SEN.

Mr Algeri said it was "unlikely they (the creditors) will get the full amount" owed.

Pacific, which had $548,000 in cash at the end of March and has used all its loan facilities, also announced it had appointed former 2GB and 2CH managing director George Buschmann to run 3MP and SEN.

Meanwhile, Mr Buschmann's previous employer, the Macquarie Radio Network, yesterday began its preparation for media reform by raising $14million from institutions.

The shares were placed at $1.30 each, which compares with the $1 initial offer price for Macquarie's shares in April.

MRN also said it was confident of exceeding its prospectus forecast for 2005 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $7.767 million.

MRN's major shareholder John Singleton has previously said MRN would be his preferred vehicle for further media acquisitions.

The placement will dilute star 2GB presenter Alan Jones's stake in MRN.

Mr Jones holds options over 11 million MRN shares, giving him a stake of about 12 per cent if all the options are converted into ordinary stock.

This is down slightly from a 14 per cent stake before the placement.

But with the options converting at just 22.43c each, Mr Jones is sitting on a
paper profit of $14 million at yesterday's closing price of $1.50 a share.

The Australian

---

While SEN1116 is set to continue broadcasting for the time being in Melbourne, John Singleton's Macquarie Radio Network (MRN) has confirmed it is interested in the former 3AK.

Sports Entertainment Network went into voluntary administration last week, with Deloitte appointed to decide what to do with assets.

The old 3AK licence would be a perfect target for Singleton, whose Macquarie network is confined to 2GB and 2CH in Sydney, after last year's unsuccessful FM joint venture with Virgin.

MRN Chairman, Max Donnelly, has told The Daily Telegraph's Heath Aston: "That's something we're interested in."

Macquarie is cashed up for acquisitions, after raising $14 million from investors after its listing six weeks ago (see radioinfo story on higher MRN forecasts).

Donnelly says: "[This] gives us the ability to strategically acquire assets."

Donnelly has told The Australian Financial Review's Neil Shoebridge that no acquisitions are imminent, "but, we are looking at things all the time to achieve strategic growth.

"We're not going to go and buy a car yard. We want to expand in the media industry, but the new funds haven't been earmarked for anything in particular. I guess if we can't find something to buy we'll use the money to retire debt."

While SEN Melbourne is likely to continue to broadcast for now, the owner of the 1116 licence, Pacific Star Network, has taken over the struggling SEN parent company.

In what some would regard as a direct link to John Singleton's interest, Pacific Star has appointed former 2GB General Manager, George Buschman, to sort out a business plan for the continuation of the sports' format.

Buschman has told radioinfo: "It's day one, so I can't tell you anything yet, except that I'm working on getting the receivers out and developing recommendations for the owners to pursue."

Buschman is not the General Manager of the station at this time. He is just doing the consultancy work for the new owners.

In Adelaide, SEN is gone for good and there are three suitors for the old 5DN frequency, which is owned by ARN.

The Australian Radio Network’s Adelaide General Manager, Steve Rowe, has told radioinfo SEN wrote to him terminating the lease on the 1323 licence and closed down the audio feed to the station last Wednesday at 3pm.

“The company appears to have failed. I’m not sure what is happening in Melbourne, but the contract here in Adelaide has been terminated.”

radioinfo asked Rowe if he had received approaches from other potential lessees of the licence: “We have had approaches from three parties, but no firm proposals as yet.”

Is Jeremy Cordeaux one of them?

“No comment. You would not expect me to comment on the details of any approach, would you?”

Rowe has told radioinfo that ARN is putting together a plan for the next steps, and that simulcasting Mix 102.3 is only a short term option.

ARN has “kept the ABA informed about the changes in format, as it is required to do, and we will be talking to them again next week,” says Rowe. There is no fixed timetable for new programming to be implemented on 5DN 1323 at this stage.

---

From other stuff I've seen those 3 interests in 1323 are probably Cordeaux (talk), a consortium including FiveAA's Tony Pilkington (50s/60s music) and Popplestone/Wingard which I think there's an article about in this thread (talk/sport)

 

[jmain14]

Re: SEN- Your opinion

extatic that it is still going, was shattered to hear last friday that future broadcasting was in jeopardy.

 

[w00dy]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

anyone heard the new bad cwedit expwerts ad...

did someone say... they need help...?

 

[Swifty_446]

Re: SEN- Your opinion

Perhaps they should try a kind of membership program where avid listeners contribute money to help keep the station they love alive.

 

[Roonaldo!]

Re: SEN- Your opinion

The EPL telecasts kicked ass, BBC world don't do it as well

 

[celtic_pride]

Re: SEN- Your opinion

I really like the EPL show on Thursday nights hosted by that Carlos bloke and Ed Wyatt from SBS.

 

[celtic_pride]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

.
BTW from what sounds of it, I think Dermie will be the next one to desert the sinking ship.
I hope he isn't replaced by David Schwarz, I can't stand that bloke.
I hope they replace Doran on the night slot with Bruce Eva.

 

[ben.carbonaro]

Re: SEN- Your opinion

Yeah, it is a good show.

All of the guys have a good knowledge of the game and a good outlet for the world game here in Australia.

That's my two cents worth anyway.

 

[sandeano]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

From The Herald Sun...


Brereton off the air
20 June 2005 Herald Sun



After spending the past three weeks considering his involvement with the troubled network, Brereton recently decided to sever ties.

Like many SEN on-air presenters, he had not been reimbursed for several weeks before a management reshuffle early this month.

Brereton, a key Channel 9 presenter and commentator, was one of the highest profile sports celebrities enticed to the all-sport station, which launched in January last year.

..............


There was a little snippet in yesterday's Age which stated Brereton had not been paid for 3 months and he asked the new creditors for 10c in the dollar owed to him as a payment in kind for services done.

They told him no way and for him to continue as part of the team he needed to offer more and work harder around the station.

 

[puddingfactor]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

A few weeks in certainly a short time in radio!
Here's what Dermie said on June 2:

"All I can say is I'm hanging around for my mates and the team," said Dermott Brereton, co-host of evening show The Run Home. "I know my on-air team - including Matthew Hardy, Anthony Hudson and myself - are staying."

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/TV--R...nking-SEN-radio/2005/06/01/1117568262577.html

That said, I don't blame him for leaving. There is only so much loyalty you can show - particualrly if you haven't been paid in 3 months.

It seems that Derm has tried to work out a compromise, but the new management are proving to be incompetent barely a month after getting SEN.

The new SEN management, Pacific Star, use to run 3AK - badly.

I have a bad feeling things are going to get worse before they get better.

 

[Russian]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

The new SEN management, Pacific Star, use to run 3AK - badly.

'Badly' is an improvement on the previous management

Don't think they'd be too disappointed to see Derm and his salary go

 

[puddingfactor]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

'Badly' is an improvement on the previous management

I don't know, I think Ron Hall (who is a director of Pacific Star, formerly DCL) and his mates did a hell of a job mucking up 3AK, rivalling that of SEN's previous management.

Here are a couple of articles. Firstly, by ex 3AK broadcaster Derryn Hinch:

An advertiser named Ron Hall bought lots of shares. They made him de facto programmer. He would call the breakfast program mid-morning and order them to terminate an interview, cut a joke, ban a music sting. He arbitrarily sacked a great broadcaster, John Blackman, mid-week.
'Personal personality clash,' they said.

and this

What sums them up best I think is an anecdote sparked by my sacking. Producers were ordered not to put a flood of dissenting listeners' calls to air. When a producer asked a Tellytubby what she should do with the avalanche of calls she was told: Just hang up on them '
I mean, what the hell, they are only listeners after all. This is radio. Who needs them? A radio station with listeners? At 3AK some people still dream.

Source: http://fifth.estate.rmit.edu.au/2004-06hinchext.php
And this, by another broadcaster Brett De Hoet:

Ron Hall became a DCL director in February 2002. He had no previous experience as a media owner, but plenty as a retailer (and frequent 3AW advertiser), having established discount chains Supply and Demand, Going, Going, Gone and The Reject Shop.

When Hall talks nothing is off-limits: select staff were privy to Hall talking about Kennett's desire to call in the receivers, looming sackings, contract negotiations, editorial directions and speculation about the sexual orientation of various members of staff.

Hall took to the airwaves himself late one Saturday night. He chose Craig Lovelady as his co-host; an unusual choice as, like the broadcast, he appears to be on seven-second delay. The pair's charisma didn't translate to radio and there was to be no sequel.

Hall once teamed me with business journalist and Sale of the Century champ James Dunn in drive for a week. "Make it a trial of fire for him," Hall instructed. "Get him to name capitals of the world."

It was an unusual approach to the new job that didn't win everyone's approval. "Program director is a title that needs to be earned," comments Greg Evans. "In Ron Hall's case, it seems to have been bought."

Jeff Kennett concurs. "He is a brilliant retailer but he is not a radio man." So what has the retailer learnt about radio? "In the business I've been in, if a glass doesn't sell you discount it and it sells," he says. "And the glass never turns around and calls you a dirty rat."

Hall oversaw six breakfast combinations in 2002 and is largely responsible for the current line-up. Presumably this was stock rotation.

Source: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/06/07/1054700443908.html

 

[My North]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

The Bad old days of 3AK have returned.
If SEN goes then its back to 3AW for me

 

[puddingfactor]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

I admire the loyalty of the SEN staff. There aren't too many jobs where you don't get a pay cheque for several months and keep turning up for work.
As for management, well you can go and get stuffed. If they were going to sign up 'big names' when they started, they could have at least thought out if they could pay everyone. I'm tipping the list below is just the tip of the iceberg.

SEN creditors won't see a cent
by JIM WILSON
21 June 2005
Herald-Sun

SPORT, entertainment and business heavyweights are among the creditors of radio station SEN, but it's almost certain none of them will see a cent.

The who's who includes former The Run Home presenter Dermott Brereton, who is owed more than $50,000, while the National Australia Bank is unlikely to see the $1.5 million it is owed.

Creditors are owed almost $4 million in total.

Collingwood football manager Neil Balme is owed $4000 for his regular spot on the sports network, while golfer Mark Allen, who's filling in as host of the morning program this week, is $10,000 out of pocket.

Others owed money include the Australian Taxation Office, AMP, AFL Publishing, Nielsen Media Research and former Australian fast bowler Rodney Hogg.

All are unlikely to receive a cent from the station's former management.

New station boss Peter Quattro, who's committed to rebuilding the station and is confident of its long-term survival, said last night all employees were now being paid.

"It is unfortunate, but there is little we can do about it and we are now moving forward," he said.

Quattro has offered morning presenters Billy Brownless and Tim Watson deals at a reduced rate.

Brereton's management is still speaking with SEN about a reduced role after he quit on Friday.

"I left on good terms and I was one of the people urging everyone to stay loyal and committed to the place when things weren't great," Brereton said last night.

It is understood Brereton was offered a new deal at a much reduced rate, prompting his decision to quit and concentrate on his other media and business commitments.

"I have Channel 9 and I am really hands-on at my panel beating shop, so there's enough to keep me on the go," Brereton said.

Triple M remains an option for Brereton if Sam Newman doesn't return from his suspension this month.

SEN management said the search had begun for Brereton's replacement. Former Melbourne forward David Schwarz is filling in this week.

WHO'S OWED WHAT
NAB $1.5 million
ATO $ 503,000
AMP $ 198,000
ELITE SPORTS PROPERTIES $ 124,000
DERMOTT BRERETON $50,000
AFL PURCHASING $18,700
TIM WATSON $17,000
AFL PUBLISHING $9600
MARK ALLEN $9000
TIM LANE $5500
NEIL BALME $3800
RODNEY HOGG $1100
NEALE DANIHER $300

 

[celtic_pride]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

I think now sen is all but gone, no chance to stay on the air next year.

 

[Motty]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

We better hope and pary that SEN stays - it has proved to me that there is bugger all else that caters for the sports loving public.

I have been a listener of SEN from its very first minute on-air and cannot bear to think of having no SEN. The FM stations are a disaster with their token females, crappy music and the AM stations are as boring as Eddie McGuire talking up Collingwood for an hour per week on the Footy Show.

As long as SEN stays, I'll be happy.

 

[rippedoff]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

SEN owe a member of our family alot of money well enough for us to be ********ed off about it , i am glad they continue to be closer to finsihing and where they can rip no others off any more
they have no listeners or less than they had i read that they went down in the radio ratings .

 

[ManWithNoName]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

SEN owe a member of our family alot of money well enough for us to be ********ed off about it , i am glad they continue to be closer to finsihing and where they can rip no others off any more
they have no listeners or less than they had i read that they went down in the radio ratings .

Mate those ratings should count for ********. They're surveys!! Until they find a better way of doing it, I'm ignoring radio ratings surveys.

 

[Motty]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

The new licence owner was on air after the 6pm news and reaffirmed that SEN was a going concern into the future - at least we are spared from a fate worse than death ... having to return to listening to FM radio!

 

[doodlefeatures]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

SEN owe a member of our family alot of money well enough for us to be ********ed off about it , i am glad they continue to be closer to finsihing and where they can rip no others off any more
they have no listeners or less than they had i read that they went down in the radio ratings .

it's a completely different company now, only the name is the same, they have no obligation to the previous owner's debts...not much consolation to anyone who's owed money though

 

[Rice Paper]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

In a Media industry newsletter called Mediaweek, http://mediaweek.com.au, said last week that Pacific Star brought in a radio fix it man called George Buschman to rescue both 3MP and SEN.

This guy rescued 2GB and another station in Sydney for John Singleton, and he said he did this buy creating a duopoly where they sell ads by adding the ratings for the 2 stations together and selling on that basis. So you get the same ads heard on 2 stations, they sell the ads at a higher price than usual than for just selling to 1 station. Hopefully enough revenue is generated to help out the 2 stations. He was very enthusiastic about SEN, where the Drive and Breakfast slots do better than quite a few other stations including FM ones.

 

[rippedoff]

Re: The SEN Saga - Please post opinions here

Would someone please tell Anthony Huddo Hudson that Australia play England tonight in one day cricket , he seems to be the only one around that thinks bangladesh are playing the aussies.
heard him spruiking it this morning sounded very stupid to not know that simple fact .
Huddo its Collingwood versus Sydney as well this week and Stkilda v Ess if you get confused.

 

[Tim the Toolman]

Re: SEN- Your opinion

I love to listen about sport, it's as simple as that.

Choices for Saturday and Sunday morning talk back is gardening or SEN - you go figure. I really miss the Sunday morning SEN show The Insiders though. Replacing it with netball talk for 2 hours is really scraping the barrel.