I asked Sports Entertainment Network (SEN) CEO Craig ‘Hutchy’ Hutchison the most important question first up, one which I felt certain was foremost on his mind. What did he have planned for Margaret from Sunbury for her 95th birthday?
Hutchy grinned but in true journalistic fashion he refused to tell me much more lest I (or this story) ruin a surprise.
Margaret epitomizes everything truly wonderful about sports, radio and the community they bring together.
She was initially a caller to Hutchy and Liam ‘Pickers’ Pickering’s long running SEN radio program and podcast Off The Bench. She has a wicked way with words and doesn’t mince them.
Hutchy said:
“Margaret’s knowledge of sport is what makes her so different. She consumes more sport on television and radio than I do. Often, I can find myself out of my depth in a conversation with her about sport on a Saturday morning because she’s watched and has a view on a T20 game in India or a footy game on the weekend. She gives every new sport a go. It’s been incredible to watch her at the Melbourne Mavericks netball games. She’s a true sports fan. They come in all ages, all sexes and demographics. Sports are one thing that’s a glue connecting everybody, which is why it’s a great, fun business to be in.”
Chats with Margaret became a regular thing, then a weekly segment. If you read through comments on the network and page’s social media you will find many fans with comments like:
“Despite the fact that she barracks for Carlton, I wouldn’t miss Margaret for the world.”
Margaret has become part of not just SEN, but Hutchy’s family. He took her to her first Boxing Day test match (see below), he and some very high-profile mates pooled together to buy a racehorse in her honour they called Margaret’s Banter and what he would tell me about Margaret’s 95th involved all his loved ones, hers, and others at the network who have also taken her into their hearts.
On Tuesday May 13 from 2-3pm Margaret’s 95th will be a one-hour SEN network wide birthday special.
2026 will mark 20 years since Hutchy and his friend James Swanwick were playing basketball in James’s LA backyard and decided spontaneously to start a business together. It began as Crocmedia and a PR company. Crocmedia merged with Pacific Star Network and became SEN in 2017 with Hutchison becoming CEO. SEN now has nearly 30 radio stations and supplies another 100 or more across two countries with its sporting content. Hutchy also features on Channel 7 in a partnership with SEN’s TV arm Rainmaker. The audio side of the business however is not just SEN’s bread and butter but Hutchison’s heart and soul.
SEN gets around 65,000 text messages a month. Hutchison and his team use them as a gauge as to what listeners want. Repeatedly people were saying, if only I could listen to the match at home or at the ground without any annoying delay. So the SEN team set to work with the result SEN Sync and SEN Stadium.
Hutchy said:
“It’s taken four years to get it 100% perfect. Now it’s every game, everywhere, zero delay. And to my knowledge, we’re the only business in the world that are doing that at this quality or level in real time.
SEN Sync was a secondary product off that where in venue and at home were two areas that the radio industry really hasn’t been able to maximise. At home people would understandably choose the television. In venue the tech wasn’t sufficient. SEN didn’t want to just be a place where people listened in transit or in cars or when they’re out remotely. We wanted to unlock those two big locations of listenership.
We came up with SEN Sync, which really respects that you’re watching the game on television but allows you to choose our commentary to pair it to the TV. If you think we’ve got it a little bit wrong there’s a plus or minus button that you can adjust ever so subtly to line up the experience. If you want to go to the bathroom, you can pause the TV for 30 seconds. You can do the same on your phone when you go and get a cup of tea.
Radio calls the game, mostly if not always, in a different manner to television. The TV commentators understandably let the pictures tell the story. Radio is theatrically painting that picture. And that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but there’s enough people whose cup of tea it is.
We want you to be able to have that pageantry and the loud, emotive call at home and pair it to the television, should you choose. We just want to be part of the choice set. We’re not seeking to disrupt anyone’s behaviours, merely enhance the experience and be an extra option.”
Australian built technology serving a nation of sports nuts and giving you extra choice in how you consume it. I’ve long been a person who listens to the cricket and rugby league with the TV on in the background. I’d never really thought about how much I enjoy the pageantry side of sports audio before and have realised that I’m one of those people for whom this cup of tea is for. And there was nothing more frustrating than the family celebrating a wicket in front of the TV when I’m still a ball or two behind.
SEN’s broadcast rights extend to the AFL, NRL, A-League, Big Bash and Test Cricket, tennis golf, netball and even lawn bowls (with the associated delightfully named Without Bias radio show). Then there’s international events like the NFL Super Bowl, English Premier League and FIFA World Cup. This is all counterintuitive to music driven commercial radio stations where you would never offer listeners a daily smorgasbord of pop, country, classical, ambient, death metal and rock. But across multiple formats, platforms and choices, it works for SEN.
That’s not to say that there haven’t been challenges. SEN bought Classic Hits station 1170 2CH during the height of Covid times and 4KQ in Brisbane two years later. The loss of both heritage stations and their established on-air teams was tremendously unpopular especially when, during the early days of the former, most sporting action had ground to a halt. SEN tried to keep 2CH alive as a DAB+ station but was forced to pull the pin upon the 4KQ purchase saying that their core business and focus is sport. These two purchases put a huge financial strain on the business with Hutchy having to sell his NBL team interests in the Perth Wildcats to keep SEN afloat.
Hutchison too has changed. In all his responses he gave himself a moment to answer, except for one. I asked him if he missed the hustle of chasing a story and it was a swift no way. He’d woken in a panic in the middle of the night that week thinking he didn’t have anything prepared for a show the next day. He used to put a lot of pressure on himself and doesn’t miss that part at all.
To put that in context Hutchy started as a Herald Sun cadet while still a teenager. In his early 20s while at Channel 10 he broke stories like Neil Balme’s sacking as Melbourne senior coach despite the Demons CEO’s support on radio the same morning and Alistair Lynch’s drug hearing after he unwitting took a prescribed drug that he (Lynch) later realised had been prohibited by the IOC. But none have had more lasting impact than the results of an offhand comment made to Hutchy in March 2002.
That day the person who Hutchy was speaking to cryptically mentioned they were dealing with something to do with Wayne Carey, nicknamed The King and often regarded amongst the AFL’s greatest ever players.
Hutchy sensed something major was afoot and in a later article shared with his Crocmedia partner James Swanwick talked about the game itself of trying to illicit the whole story from sources, and then ensuring that he broke it first.
That he did, putting his career and reputation on the line to break into a Channel 7 program with the news of the cheating scandal in front of Carey’s North Melbourne Football Club. That seminal moment in many ways changed the boundaries around the personal and the professional in sports forever. Carey was sacked as a result.
The willingness to blow up a sporting player’s career and personal life, whether justified or not, has left Hutchison. Via SEN he has created avenues instead to work with the players and identities he likes and respects.
Towards that, he has an instinct for finding great human beings. This was my observation across his on-air and off-air talent from Margaret to Off the Bench co-host Pickers. Pickers and Hutchy’s friendship goes back such a long way that Pickers treats him like his kid brother rather than a sports network CEO. That show is an outlet for both to have fun, talk sports and catch up.
Last week that the pair had to break the news that country racing identity Darren Galley had died. Darren, like Margaret, had grown to become a regular contributor. Hearing Hutchy talk about Darren, his wife and family, I was aware how much the network offers listeners than a place to simply consume to sports.
“He was an incredibly loved person in our business.”@craighutchy & @lennyp23 reflect on the life and many beautiful memories shared with Darren Galley.
RIP to the legend of country racing. @OffTheBenchTeam pic.twitter.com/fPyRnDiEuB
— SEN 1116 (@1116sen) May 3, 2025
Hutchy said:
“Darren started out as a client of ours, became a friend in a hot second and then a special part of our lives. He was heard on our show for well over a decade and was stoic and strong to the end never losing his sense of humour.
He’d have lunch once a month with myself, Pickers and Doctor Turf who was a big part of the show till he left about five years ago and I think he reminded us that friendships are bigger than everything.
Radio is just a beautiful medium, isn’t it? It’s just a place where people can feel connected, can be connected. And I think sport in general is an environment where it’s already big in community and social cohesion. You find some wonderful people in that journey whether it be Margaret from Sunbury, John from Epping in Melbourne, Rooster Man in Sydney or Darren.
People want to feel part of something. People want to feel part of a tribe, part of a community. Hopefully we’ve been able to do that.”
That and some. Happy 95th birthday for Tuesday, Margaret. Can’t wait to see what Hutchy and SEN have in store.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Email: [email protected]
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