Macquarie Sports Radio was a short-lived Australian

commercial radio Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship. It was the United States′ first model of radio (an ...

network broadcasting to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

and

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

. Owned and operated by

Macquarie Media 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 ...

, the network launched on 4 April 2018, replacing Talking Lifestyle. Following the acquisition of Macquarie Media by Nine Entertainment Co., programs outside of live sports commentary were suspended in October 2019, and on 1 February 2020 the network ultimately ceased broadcasting.

History

On 2 March 2018, ''Radioinfo'' reported that Talking Lifestyle would cease broadcasting on 30 March, and be replaced by a

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on-ai ...

format. Macquarie Sports Radio launched on 4 April 2018, with live coverage of the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, bet ...

. Reflecting the geographical difference in the popularity of Australian sporting codes, the network broadcast two separate breakfast programs—hosted by John Stanley and

Beau Ryan Beau Ryan (born 11 May 1985) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer, television presenter, actor and singer who played for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and the Wests Tigers in the National Rugby League. Ryan is also well ...

in Sydney and Brisbane, and

Tony Leonard Anthony Leonard (born 19 December 1955) is an Australian radio presenter. Career In 1982, he joined the radio comedy team Coodabeen Champions, who were then on 3RRR. Following them to 3LO and 3AW he stayed with this team until 2002. He bega ...

, Tony Shaw and

Jimmy Bartel James Ross Bartel (born 4 December 1983) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). A utility, tall and weighing , Bartel contributed as a midfielder, forward, an ...

in Melbourne and Perth. Other presenters at launch included David Morrow,

Tiffany Cherry Tiffany Cherry (born 4 August 1971) is an Australian sports broadcaster, best known as the Australian Football League (AFL's) first female boundary rider on the original Fox Footy. She was the co-host of the Foxtel 2010 Winter Olympic Games in V ...

Mieke Buchan Mieke Buchan (pronounced ''me-ka'') is an Australian television and radio presenter, writer and producer, born in Brisbane (Australia). She has covered major events including: The Olympics, the US Open Tennis, 5 Super Bowls, Formula One, the Re ...

, Shane McInnes, Sam Stove, David Schwarz and Mark Allen. The network retained Macquarie Radio's

test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...

Big Bash League The Big Bash League (known as the KFC Big Bash League for sponsorship reasons, often abbreviated to BBL or Big Bash) is an Australian professional club Twenty20 cricket league, which was established in 2011 by Cricket Australia. The Big Bash Le ...

and

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

rights. Coverage of the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL) was broadcast into the northern markets—all games featuring

Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans are a professional Australian rules football club based in Sydney, New South Wales. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Swans also field a reser ...

and

Greater Western Sydney Giants The Greater Western Sydney Giants (officially the Greater Western Sydney Football Club and colloquially known as the GWS Giants or simply GWS) are a professional Australian rules football team based in Sydney Olympic Park, which represents the ...

were broadcast in Sydney, and all games featuring

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...

and

Gold Coast Suns The Gold Coast Suns is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club is based on Queensland's Gold Coast in the suburb of Carrara. The club has been playing in the AFL since th ...

were broadcast in Brisbane. In Melbourne, the network broadcast

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

(NRL) matches featuring the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm are a rugby league club based in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia that participates in the National Rugby League. The first fully professional rugby league team based in the state, the Storm entered the competition in 1998. ...

. The network's initial ratings performance was poor. In Sydney, the final GfK ratings survey for Talking Lifestyle recorded the breakfast show as reaching 4.4% of all listeners. By the second survey of Macquarie Sports Radio, this figure had fallen to 0.7%. In July, Beau Ryan had departed the Sydney and Brisbane breakfast show, replaced by

Mark Riddell Mark Robert Riddell (born 9 December 1980) is an Australian rugby league commentator and former professional player who played as a in the 2000s and 2010s. A City New South Wales rugby league team, City New South Wales representative goal-kic ...

. In January 2019, significant programming changes were announced. The two breakfast shows would be merged into one, presented by Riddell and Mark Levy. On weekends, additional AFL and NRL coverage would be added, sourced from sister stations

3AW 3AW is a talkback radio station based in Melbourne. It broadcasts on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station. The station is owned and operated by Nine Entertainment Co. Hist ...

6PR 6PR, known as 882 6PR, is a commercial radio station based in Perth, Western Australia. Owned by Nine Entertainment, its focus is on news, talk and sport, and is Perth's only commercial talkback radio station. It commenced broadcasting on 14 Oc ...

and

2GB 2GB is a commercial radio station in Sydney, Australia owned by parent company Nine Radio, a division of Nine Entertainment Co., who also own sister station 2UE. 2GB broadcasts on 873 kHz, AM. In 2010, 2GB held 14.7% of the total rad ...

. In August, Macquarie Sports Radio was named the exclusive Australian radio broadcast partner of the

English Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

, syndicating live commentary from Talksport.

Closure

Despite the changes, the network continued to rate poorly. On 29 October, Macquarie Media announced that its sports talk shows would cease production from 1 November 2019. However, the station remained on the air and continued to broadcast live cricket and the Premier League, and on 4 November Macquarie Media announced it would reinstate Schwarz and Allen's drive program. Following Nine Entertainment Co.'s acquisition of Macquarie Media, in January 2020 it was confirmed the network would cease broadcasting, with each station to revert to its pre–2016 branding. On 2 February 2020, the stations were re-launched as 2UE, 4BH and

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 ...

with a

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...

music format.

Sports coverage

Macquarie Sports Radio had exclusive and non-exclusive rights to various sports in Australia, although coverage varied by market: Australian rules football *

(Sydney & Brisbane only) Cricket *

Australian cricket team in the United Arab Emirates in 2018–19 The Australian cricket team toured the United Arab Emirates from September to October 2018 to play two Tests and three Twenty20 International (T20I) matches against Pakistan. Ahead of the Test series, there was a four-day practice match in Duba ...

ICC Women's T20 World Cup The ICC Women's T20 World Cup (known as the ICC Women's World Twenty20 until 2019) is the biennial international championship for women's Twenty20 International cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cri ...

Indian cricket team in Australia in 2018–19 The India cricket team toured Australia from November 2018 to January 2019 to play four Tests, three One Day Internationals (ODIs) and three Twenty20 International (T20I) matches. Initially, the Test match at the Adelaide Oval was planned to be ...

Football *

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

Horse racing *

Melbourne Cup The Melbourne Cup is a Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and over, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria as part of the Melbou ...

Rugby league *

(Melbourne & Perth only)

Transmitters

Macquarie Sports Radio was broadcast via three full-power AM stations. Each station was simulcast on DAB+ digital radio in their respective markets. Melbourne programming was also heard on digital radio in Perth.

References

{{Perth radio Radio stations in Sydney Radio stations in Melbourne Radio stations in Brisbane Radio stations in Perth, Western Australia Sports radio stations in Australia Defunct Australian radio networks Radio stations disestablished in 2020