Ace Radio Broadcasters is an Australian media company. Formed in 1984, it operates 21 commercial radio stations in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

and southern

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, as well as the

digital marketing Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services. Its development duri ...

agency Ace Digital and ''The Weekly Advertiser'', a free newspaper distributed across the

Wimmera The Wimmera is a region of the Australian state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Austral ...

region.

History

Ace Radio Broadcasters was founded in 1984, following the acquisition of radio station 3HA in

Hamilton, Victoria Hamilton is a large town in south-western Victoria, Australia, at the intersection of the Glenelg Highway and the Henty Highway. The Hamilton Highway connects it to Geelong. Hamilton is in the federal Division of Wannon, and is in the Southern ...

by Associated Communication Enterprises, owners of the Melbourne newspaper ''Truth''. The group acquired

3CS 3CS is a radio station broadcasting in the South-West Victoria region, but based in Colac. The station is aimed at an over 40 demographic, and its format is based on classic hits, talk, sports and news. It broadcasts local content between 1- ...

Colac in 1985 and, by 1986, had control of

3SH 3SH is a commercial radio station in Swan Hill, Victoria, Australia broadcasting on the medium wave band on a frequency of 1332kHz. It was opened on 27 August 1931. It is owned by Ace Radio Ace Radio Broadcasters is an Australian media co ...

Swan Hill Swan Hill is a city in the northwest of Victoria, Australia on the Murray Valley Highway and on the south bank of the Murray River, downstream from the junction of the Loddon River. At , Swan Hill had a population of 11,508. Indigenous Peopl ...

and

3WM 3WM is a radio station based in Horsham in the Wimmera Mallee region of Victoria, Australia. It broadcasts on the AM band, at a frequency of 1089 kHz, and on the FM band around Ararat at a frequency of 96.1 MHz. The station is part ...

Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

. As of 1994, the company was in the joint control of Geoff and Helen Handbury and Rowly and Judy Paterson, and had additional interests in radio stations in

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wate ...

Shepparton Shepparton () ( Yortayorta: ''Kanny-goopna'') is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Victoria, Australia, approximately north-northeast of Melbourne. As of the 2021 census, the estimated population of Shepparton, ...

and

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...

. The company continued to expand in the late 1990s and into the 2000s. Divesting itself of 3SR and

Sun FM Sun FM is a radio station serving Sunderland and large parts of County Durham in England and owned by Nation Broadcasting. It is also available in Tyne and Wear. Sun FM broadcasts on FM, as well as online. The station plays a mix of contempor ...

and Bay FM

, in 1995 the company acquired

3TR TRFM (Callsign: 3TFM) is a commercial radio station broadcasting from Traralgon, Victoria, Australia. It is currently owned by Ace Radio & broadcasts A Contemporary Hits Radio (CHR) format. It features both locally produced content & nationally ...

Traralgon Traralgon ( ) is a town located in the east of the Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia and the most populous city of the City of Latrobe. The urban population of Traralgon at the was 26,907. It is the largest and fastes ...

and

3YB 3YB FM is a radio broadcaster based in Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia. It transmits on the frequency modulation radio band, at a frequency of 94.5 MHz. The station is part of the Ace Radio FM network. It has an adult contemporary music for ...

Warrnambool Warrnambool ( Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Warrnambool had a population of 35,743. Situated on the Princes Highway, Warrnambool (Al ...

. In 1996, Ace Radio commenced the roll-out of

FM radio FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting using frequency modulation (FM). Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is cap ...

in its markets, launching Mixx FM branded stations in Horsham, Swan Hill and Colac, with Mixx FM Hamilton and Coast FM Warrnambool launching in 2002. Also in 2002, 3TR converted to the FM band as TRFM, with 3GV launched on the former AM frequency. In September 2005, Ace Radio purchased

2AY 2AY is an Australian classic hits and talk radio formatted AM radio station, broadcasting to Albury, New South Wales and the surrounding areas of Southwest New South Wales and North East Victoria. It is owned and operated by ACE Radio. History ...

from

Macquarie Regional RadioWorks Southern Cross Media Group Limited, doing business as Southern Cross Austereo, is an Australian media company which operates broadcast radio and television stations. It is the largest radio broadcaster in Australia, operating 86 radio station ...

, which the latter was forced to divest following its acquisition of

DMG Regional Radio DMG may refer to: Organizations Entertainment * Dames Making Games, a Canadian non-profit organization that encourages the participation of women, non-binary, femme and queer people in the creation of video games * Davidson Media Group, an American ...

. In June 2016, Ace Radio's stations were added to the

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming Computing platform, platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbr ...

platform in Australia, with the ''iHeartRadio Thumbs Up Countdown'' launched across the network's six 'Hit Music' FM stations. In August 2017, it was announced that Ace Radio would acquire

2QN 2QN is a radio station based in Deniliquin, New South Wales, Australia. It broadcasts on the medium wave radio band, at a frequency of 1521 kHz. 2QN combines a 'Hits & Memories' music format with talk radio and news. The station's breakfas ...

and

Edge FM Edge FM 102.1 is a commercial radio station broadcasting from Wangaratta, Victoria, Australia. It is currently owned by Ace Radio & broadcasts an Adult Contemporary (AC) format. It features both locally produced content & nationally syndicated ...

Deniliquin Deniliquin () is a town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia, close to the border with Victoria. It is the largest town in the Edward River Council local government area. Deniliquin is located at the intersection of the Riverina ...

from Rich Rivers Radio, and

3NE 3NE is an Australian Classic hits-formatted AM radio station, broadcasting from Wangaratta, Victoria to the surrounding areas of North East Victoria. 3NE was Opened on 27 March 1954. As of 1 November 2017 the station is owned and operated by Ace ...

and

Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had an estimated urban population of 19,318 at June 2018. Wangaratta has recorded a population growth rate of almost 1% annually ...

from North East Broadcasters. In June 2018, Ace Radio ceased operation of the Radio Training Institute. Launched in 1984 as the Melbourne Radio School, the institute had been operated by Ace in

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

since 2003. From 14 January 2022, Ace Radio took over the operations of three metropolitan stations from

Nine Entertainment Nine Entertainment (registered as Nine Entertainment Co. Pty Ltd) is an Australian publicly listed media company with holdings in radio and television broadcasting, newspaper publications and digital media. It uses Nine as its corporate brandi ...

, under a lease arrangement.

Radio stations

, Ace Radio Broadcasters operates 21 radio stations. Nine of these stations form their 'Heritage' network, featuring local news, music and syndicated

talkback Talkback or talk back may refer to: *Talkback (album), ''Talkback'' (album), a 1983 album by the Canadian band the Spoons *Talk Back (Kembe X album), ''Talk Back'' (Kembe X album), 2016 *Talkback, an alternate name for Marvel Comics superhero C ...

programming targeted at a 40+ audience: * 2AY 1494 Albury-Wodonga * 2QN 1521 Deniliquin * 3CS 1134 Colac * 3HA 981 Hamilton * 3NE 1566 Wangaratta * 3SH 1332 Swan Hill * 3WM 1089 Horsham * 3YB FM 94.5 Warrnambool *

Gold 1242 Gippsland's GOLD 1242 & GOLD FM 98.3 (call sign: 3GV) is an Australian radio station operating west of Traralgon, Victoria. It is owned by Ace Radio and shares studios with sister station TRFM, formerly 3TR and 3TRFM. The station broadcasts on th ...

Traralgon Eight stations form the 'Hit Music' network, targeting an 18-39 audience with

hot adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

music and syndicated programming: * Coast FM 95.3 Warrnambool *

Edge FM 102.1 Edge FM 102.1 is a commercial radio station broadcasting from Wangaratta, Victoria, Australia. It is currently owned by Ace Radio & broadcasts an Adult Contemporary (AC) format. It features both locally produced content & nationally syndicated ...

Wangaratta *

Edge FM 102.5 Edge FM 102.5 is a commercial radio station broadcasting from Deniliquin, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently owned by ACE Radio & broadcasts an Adult Contemporary (AC) format. It features both locally produced content & network conten ...

Deniliquin * Mixx FM 88.9 Hamilton * Mixx FM 101.3 Horsham * Mixx FM 106.3 Colac *

Mixx FM 107.7 Mixx FM 107.7 is a commercial radio station broadcasting from Swan Hill, Victoria, Australia. It is currently owned by Ace Radio & broadcasts A Contemporary Hits Radio (CHR) format. It features both locally produced content & nationally synd ...

Swan Hill * TRFM 99.5 Traralgon Three stations form the 'Easy Music' network, targeting a 55+ audience: * 3MP 1377 Melbourne * 2UE 954 Sydney (leased from Nine Entertainment) * 4BH 1116 Brisbane (leased from Nine Entertainment) One station is positioned as 'Classic Hits', targeting a 55+ audience: *

Magic 1278 Magic 1278 (official callsign: 3EE) is a commercial radio station in Melbourne, Australia owned by Nine Entertainment Co, and run under a lease agreement by Ace Radio. History 1935–1991: 3XY 1935–1967 3XY began broadcasting on 8 Sept ...

Melbourne (leased from Nine Entertainment)

Programming

While programming varies in each market, both AM and FM stations broadcast a variety of locally produced, as well as nationally networked, programmes. AM stations * The Morning Rush with Sean Cullen (excludes 2AY Albury and 3NE Wangaratta) * Country Today * Mornings with Neil Mitchell (

Nine Radio Nine Radio (formerly Macquarie Media Limited) is an Australian media company, owned by parent company Nine Entertainment Co. and headquartered in North Sydney, New South Wales, the company operates radio stations nationally in the capital cit ...

syndication) * Drive with

Tom Elliott Thomas or Tom Elliott may refer to: * Thomas Elliott (footballer) (1890–?), English footballer * Thomas Elliott (Australian cricketer) (1879–1939), Australian cricketer * Thomas Elliott (New Zealand cricketer) (1867–?), New Zealand cricketer ...

(

syndication) (2AY & 3SH only) * Sportsday (

Sports Entertainment Network Sports Entertainment Network (SEN), formerly Crocmedia, is an Australian radio and television distribution company established in 2006 by journalists James Swanwick and Craig Hutchison. SEN's parent company is Sports Entertainment Group (SE ...

) * Nights with

Denis Walter Denis Walter OAM, (born 3 January 1955) is an Australian radio presenter, baritone singer, recording artist and media personality who also presented television news for 16 years. Career Walter's music career has lasted over forty years and he ...

(

syndication) (excludes 3YB & GOLD) * Australia Overnight with Tony Moclair (

syndication) (excludes 3YB & GOLD) * Reel Adventures (

) * Off The Bench (

) FM stations * The Morning Crew with Gabi and Dan (excludes Mixx FM Colac) * Fitzy & Wippa (

Nova Entertainment NOVA Entertainment is an Australian entertainment company that operates commercial radio networks (and associated digital brands) in metropolitan and regional areas of Australia. NOVA Entertainment is owned by Lachlan Murdoch's Illyria Pty Lt ...

syndication) (excludes Edge FM) *

Kate, Tim & Joel ''Kate, Tim & Joel'' is an Australian drive radio show with Kate Ritchie, Tim Blackwell and Joel Creasey. It is broadcast on Nova FM from 4pm to 6pm on weekdays. A daily podcast featuring the best bits from each show is available on iTunes ...

(

syndication)

References

External links

Ace Radio Broadcasters

Melbourne Radio School
{{Ace Radio, state=collapsed Radio broadcasting companies of Australia 1984 establishments in Australia