Why SCA purchased Seven West Media’s WA radio assets

Southern Cross Austereo is set to add Seven West Media’s group of radio stations to its regional radio network.

Seven West Media will offload its radio assets in Western Australia, grouped under Redwave Media, as part of a new deal in which it will purchase affiliate regional broadcaster Prime.

The merger between Seven West Media and Prime will see Seven acquire all of Prime’s shares.

On the radio side, SCA will purchase Redwave, which includes the 10 radio stations under the RedFM and Spirit Radio networks.

RedFM and Spirit broadcast to regional WA towns, plus remote mine sites. They can be heard from Wyndham in the north of the state to Bremeer Bay down south.

Reports suggest SCA will purchase Redwave for a cash consideration of $28 million.

SCA chief executive Grant Blackley told the 2019 Radio Alive conference in Brisbane on Friday that he was “delighted” with the purchase.

“It was a logical extension, that we move down [this] path,” he said.

“We believe that radio, regardless of where it is in Australia will continue to be a buoyant business.

Blackley explained that plenty of other opportunities to acquire or merge with media partners have presented themselves over the past few years, but that SCA has avoided any such deal until now.

It’s been a question of waiting, explained Blackley, until a chance to strengthen SCA’s audio base and move away from less TV-based income streams.

“87% of our income… 90% with Redwave will effectively be through audio-based products.

“We’re very comfortable in the environment we’re in; organically inveting in podcasting, addressable advertising, DAB.

“We will go further down that path over the next 12 months. We don’t see scale as the requirement to survive in the media market.

“But we want to do more within that audio spectrum.”