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A radio licence is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it, how desperately someone wants it and how quickly the owner wants to sell it. I'd speculate that DMG had become disinterested in Australian radio and their significant financial wealth contributed towards their lack of motivation to negotiate the sale of their licences at a higher price. Their true value is probably more than $240 million. The FM licence of Triple M in Adelaide was acquired for about $3.7 million I think I remember in 1993. By that time the former licence holder 5KA and KAFM had become a commercial failure. It would be worth much more than that today. The Nova 919 licence was auctioned for $26 million from memory. At auction, the licences sell for more than when sold by private negotiation. But as far as radio being a licence to print money, radio has always been a long and winding road. There are times when radio stations are very profitable and times when it's tougher. During the 80s and 90s, a station in Adelaide needed to be rating at least a 15% share to be profitable. SAFM, 5AD, 5KA and 5DN were all very profitable in the 80s. It was the most recent golden era of commercial radio. The AM to FM conversions upset the market. By the early 1990s, only SAFM and 5AD were profitable. 5AA was probably more or less breaking even at that time.