UPDATE: $56 million sale price revealed.
Tomorrow morning Friday January 30, Nine Entertainment CEO Matt Stanton is expected to announce the sale of Nine’s radio assets 2GB Sydney, 3AW Melbourne, 4BC Brisbane and 6PR Perth.
Everyone has been looking at the front runners including Craig Hutchison, John Singleton, Australian Digital Holdings, Global Traffic Network and even 2GB breakfast announcer Ben Fordham and his brother Nick. While all quibbled about the state of the books and the price, a new party has swept past them all to seize the prize. And that appears to be, based on several media reports tonight, a consortium funded by billionaire pub owner Arthur Laundy.
I doubt that was even on the betting card.
It was estimated that the sale was going to be somewhere in the vicinity of $25-50million, which to this layperson radio enthusiast seemed like pittance for the top rating radio stations in Sydney and Melbourne, plus more if we also include Nine’s lease agreements with the ACE Radio Network for 2CH, 4BH and Magic 1278.
But what does the 84 year old billionaire owner of at least 40 NSW drinking holes get out of it?
My guess is that the answer will come from the other members of this group, when they are made available. Arthur’s son Craig successfully ran for parliament, becoming the member for Reid for six years, until he retired. Back in the day Craig wasn’t the fan of Alan Jones, Ray Hadley and their influence on both voters and his fellow party members.
In 2024, Arthur did a couple of long format interviews, both an insight into the man and his values. One with Mark Bouris for his podcast Straight Talk and the other was when he, funnily enough, popped into 2GB for a chat with Ben Fordham.
What was evident from the above was that Ben and Arthur know each other beyond a superficial level and, Arthur’s grandson Charlie, the son of Craig, did work experience at 2GB. Craig, post politics, has had a weekly segment on Clinton Maynard‘s 2GB Drive Show for 12 months and the family are long time advertisers with their venues used for OBs and the like.
The outcome of the sale is unlikely to outline the state of play for all the stations involved going forward immediately, there should be some clarity around the motives. The integrity and work ethic of Arthur, evident in those who have worked with and for him after the chat with Mark Bouris, makes me hopeful this is a decision for talk radio and its value.
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Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Email: [email protected]. Arthur Laundy image from Linkedin.