Speaking with ARN’s Chief Content Officer, Duncan Campbell following Tuesday’s survey results, I asked how much ARN’s recent acquisition of Grant Broadcasters regional network of some 46 stations would add to his already heavy workload.
He doesn’t expect it will add much, he confides, “It means I get to work closely with Ryan Rathbone, who’s the Group Content Director of Grant’s at the moment – and will be when we complete the sale. And I look forward to that.”
Campbell goes on to emphasise that there’s no plan to shake things up. “The purchase of Grant’s was not as a synergistic play in terms of efficiencies, et cetera. It’s really a revenue play.
We’re not in this business to slash shows. We believe in live and local. So, those breakfast shows will remain. We will do a swap out of some syndicated shows, that are currently there, but there’s no plans to massively network Grant’s and decimate jobs at all.
“The whole business model is based on revenue and not cost savings. It’s a very efficient, well-run family business and a credit to Janet Cameron and the family. It’s lean and there’s not a lot of savings to be made even if you wanted to make them.”
The purchase also provides ARN with a giant talent bank.
“Ryan and I have talked about that at length since this decision was announced,“ says Campbell. “We really want to make sure that there’s a pipeline, if that’s the right word, that exists between the regional and the metro markets at ARN. And that we demonstrate that it works, and it works both ways.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to be able to demonstrate to teams in the regions that, yes, you can progress to a metro station within this network and we will prioritise people in the network wherever we can.
“Also, back the other way… people who want to improve, expand their announcing career for example, we might place them from a casual announcer from a metro network to go into the regions and get some more experience and develop and then come back to the metro market again.
“While it’s easy to talk about that sort of thing, we want to make sure that we demonstrate that it actually happens and people have confidence in the network that, yes, I can work here and I can progress. And I’ll be considered for that job and I can potentially work in Brisbane, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth in the one business,” says Duncan Campbell.
Peter Saxon