SEN sports radio to replace 2CH easy listening in Sydney

Pacific Star Network will announce the move on Wednesday, including Andrew Voss hosting its breakfast show.

Craig Hutchison. Picture: Jay Town

Craig Hutchison’s Pacific Star Network will on Wednesday announce its sports radio foray into Sydney with the launch of its SEN brand into the nation’s biggest market.

The move will rebrand the existing 2CH as 1170 SEN, though the classic hits station will be maintained with its own digital radio channel when the new sports-focused channel starts later this year to coincide with the NRL grand final, the State of Origin series and then Test cricket and Big Bash in the summer.

Pacific Star will also unveil Fox Sports’ high-profile rugby league commentator Andrew Voss as 1170 SEN’s new breakfast slot host for a station that will carry the tagline “Sydney’s new Home of Sport.”

While the move has mooted since the ASX-listed Pacific Star struck a $11.2m deal for 2CH in early June, Mr Hutchison said the opportunity to roll out a sports format in Sydney was “too compelling” given the amount of high-level sport to be played in the last three months of the year.

“It is both a challenge and opportunity. We’ll have a real commitment to talent-led radio and SEN stands for ‘sports and entertainment network’, so we will be both. It is really exciting.”

He also played down concerns of entering a competitive market that already features Tabcorp’s Sky Sports Radio and where the Macquarie Sports Network was axed last year.

“I wouldn’t pitch us as better or worse, we are our own people with our own way. We are not here to compete or walk in the footsteps of those that went before us, we just want to be part of the puzzle. We just hope people give us a go.”

Voss said he was looking forward to hosting the breakfast show, which he said would “be a bit like reading the paper from back to front — there will be plenty of sport, but we’ll also cover what is making news.

“As someone who likes his poker, I’ll put it this way: we’ll be pushing our chips all-in to make a great breakfast show like no other in the market.”

The new station, which adds to existing SEN stations in Pacific Star’s hometown of Melbourne and Adelaide will also carry Melbourne sports host Gerard Whateley’s morning show.

It also comes as Pacific Star launches the SENTrack horse racing network in several markets across the country, all of which Mr Hutchison said should appeal to advertisers.

“We feel really confident that for the brands we work with, and those we are yet to work with, that we can provide a tailored solution in every capital city and also for local and national advertisers in a unique way.

“We are trying to be scalable and local. We were built to be a national business and this is another example to extend that.”

He said it was also important to keep 2CH as a digital network, as it already had 20,000 weekly digital listeners.

“We are hugely respectful of 2CH’s loyal and dedicated audience — which is why we plan to retain the brand and secure its future on the fastest-growing audio platform — digital radio.”