Melbourne radio station Macquarie Sports Radio to close
This AFL legend was set to return to the airwaves after parting ways with SEN earlier this year. But the Melbourne radio station has been left red-faced after announcing its shock closure.
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Macquarie Sports Radi o has gone under after just 18 months.
Staff were told this morning that the station would be scaling back after failing to find its mark in the tough local radio market.
The Herald Sun understands the station’s talk show format will finish up on Friday.
It will continue to broadcast live sport including the upcoming summer of cricket and English Premier League matches.
Macquarie Sports Radio Drive Host Mark Allen said he and co-host David Schwarz were “disappointed” but the pair was “looking forward to the next opportunity” for their popular Ox & Marko show.
“We were absolutely rapt to work at Macquarie for the time we did,” he told the Herald Sun.
“We understood that when Channel Nine bought (the station), they would want to run it how they want to run it.
“We don’t know what is next, we are exploring those opportunities. We’re looking for opportunities at 3AW, hopefully we’ll bob up in 2020.”
Allen said he and the Ox were told at 2pm on Tuesday afternoon by Macquarie Media’s executive chairman Russell Tate, before going on air at 3pm.
“We knew it was coming,” Allen said. “We’d already found out, we were prepared. (Tate) was very respectful.
“Compared to our last experience at SEN, it has been amazing.
“We’re open to everything, we’ve got a year left on our contract and that’s going to be looked after.”
Embarrassingly, the station on Monday announced AFL hall of fame legend Kevin Bartlett was joining the station.
Bartlett, who parted ways with SEN three months earlier, was to return to the airwaves with David Schwarz and Mark Allen for the spring carnival.
Schwarz and Allen, who are no strangers to being turfed, remained tight-lipped but acknowledged the disappointing news on air on Tuesday afternoon, saying it’s “how the cookie crumbles”.
All staff have been advised of a meeting on Wednesday morning, to be held at 8.30am with Macquarie Media’s executive chairman Russell Tate.
The internal email, issued to all Victorian staff said: “Please make yourselves available.”
AFL Hall of Fame legend @KevinBartlett29 joins Macquarie Sports Radiohttps://t.co/YlCOWA4XYV
— Macquarie Sports Radio (@MacquarieSport) October 28, 2019
The company had tried everything to improve ratings, broadcasting a range of sports including international cricket, AFL and rugby league, but it failed to raise the numbers.
Former SEN stars Schwarz and Allen were the big name recruits for the drive program when Macquarie Media launched the station with much fanfare in April last year.
The station chopped and changed with its talent a lot as it struggled to gain traction with the Melbourne-based breakfast show dumped.
Geelong champion Jimmy Bartel, Collingwood premiership captain Tony Shaw and Tony Leonard were in the original breakfast line-up.
It was replaced by the network’s Sydney outfit with Bartel kept on to add the local Melbourne content.
Other sports stars to feature on the station include Darren Lehmann, Ian Chapell and Andrew Gaze.
The station was among several caught up in an “illegal” broadcast drama with Indian company Sports Flashes during the cricket World Cup. After learning the Sports Flashes commentary did not comply with its rights deal with ICC, Macquarie Sports replaced the feed with coverage from Melbourne led by Lehmann and Darren Berry.
Sad to hear that Macquarie sports radio is closing. I feel for my great radio mates Marco and Ox. The only plan I had was to do 4 days of the Flemington carnival. Kb
— Kevin Bartlett (@KevinBartlett29) October 29, 2019
In August, Macquarie announced it had secured the EPL broadcast rights for three years.
There has been no announcement from management about whether it will relaunch the station.
Russell Tate, Macquarie Media Limited chairman, confirmed the news in a statement.
“Macquarie Media Limited today announced that development of its Macquarie Sports Radio stations in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane will be paused and reviewed over the summer months and that the current schedule of sport talk programs will cease as of 11pm, Friday 1 November.
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“Over the coming months, Macquarie Sports Radio will continue live sport broadcasts including all scheduled Test Match, BBL, One-Day Internationals & International T20 Cricket matches as well as its English Premier League coverage.
“The stations will draw an increased amount of content from local and international partners, including Macquarie Media’s News Talk stations and Nine, and will continue to access Macquarie National News services for constantly updated sporting news.”