DMG Radio’s CEO, Paul Thompson, told AMT about the priorities for his company in 1999. From a regional station point of view, he is happy with the amount of locally generated revenue in regional areas, but would like to get a bigger share of national advertising into the bush.

According to Thompson, DMG is at this stage of its development, overwhelmingly a regional radio company. Looking from that point of view, he sees two great challenges which faced regional radio in 1998 and will need to be overcome in 1999.

Thompson says those challenges are “firstly, the effect of competition in markets which have historically been considered too small to support multi-ownership and secondly, how to bring national revenue up to the excellent level being generated from local district advertisers.” DMG is working on strategies which will “provide higher standards of programming on a more cost-effective basis.”

As for national advertiser requirements, Thompson says there is a need for “a single entry point and single invoice” so that ad agencies have ease of access. He believes that the “creation of a single market encompassing all of regional Australia” is necessary to achieve success with national advertisers. DMG will work on both these issues as a high priority and will also push ahead with more regional research and “rate integrity” which is crucial to keep national and local advertisers happy with the value of the product they are paying for.