1620 2KM sold

As predicted here on radioinfo last month, an Arabic broadcasting group has paid a record price for a Section 40 AM ‘off-band’ radio licence bought from the NSW Labor Council.

The Labor Council sold its AM station 2KM 1620 to World Media for $2.1 million last week. World Media provides ethnic content to Pay TV, including a feed of the controversial Al Jazeera TV channel.

The current music format, which plays “all time favourites” from the 1930s to the 1960s, will be dumped and replaced with Arabic programming. Three 2KM staff will be sacked.

The station operates under a Section 40 commercial radio licence and, as such, is subject to regulation by both the ABA and the ACA. The Labor Council originally paid $30,000 for the licence five years ago when Barry Unsworth spotted the licence opportunity.

The Labor Council sold racing AM station 2KY earlier this year to Sky Channel for $25.3 million.

In its 2001 annual report the Labor Council published this summary of its media interests:

Radio 2KY – Labor Media

In 2001 the Labor Council sold Radio2KY, after having owned the station for 75 years, to the New South Wales TAB. The sale of 2KY has ensured the Council is in a strong financial position to deal with the numerous challenges that confront the trade union movement in New South Wales.

The sale was part of the Council reassessing its investments to ensure the returns received and the original intentions of these investments continued to be appropriate. This was no longer the case with Radio 2KY.

The Council has however maintained a presence in radio and continues to broadcast on 2KM 1620AM. The format of all time favourites continues to prove popular and the station is being used extensively to broadcast the labor
message.

In addition Labor Council has established an internet broadcaster, Wobbly Radio which has its website at http://www.wobblyradio.com. Wobbly plays unsigned Australian bands and is also used to broadcast the labor message to a younger
audience.

2KM, Wobbly Radio and Workers Online are all now operated under the Labor Media banner, which is over seen by the Labor Council’s Wireless Committee.