Southern Cross Media Group Limited

And she said she hoped, and I quote, "...compassion and the Aussie spirit..." is extended to Ben and his family.

We've had a situation where both Stokes and Reinhardt have come out publicly in support of Robert Smith, and they've both got an interest in Southern Cross Media, which owns the Seven Network.

Stokes as a direct shareholder and Reinhardt as a proxy.

So they're in a powerful position to go on pushing this agenda.

We've got ARNs up front in November, so we'll see what they've got to say.

But I think just as a final note on what now is the end of an era, And, you know, I think it deserves a little bit in the spotlight to talk about the fact that Austereo as a brand is now gone.

Obviously founded in Adelaide in 1980 with SAFM as the lead station, you know, big hometown call for me growing up, listening to that station and wanting to work for Austereo.

And I think that's been a through line to many people's career who listen to this podcast.

You know, there are a time where you would go, Who do you want to work for? Probably pre-Nova days.

I'm not a diehard stick in the mud, I'll keep old thing for old thing's sakes.

But I do think it is a bit of a sad day when it probably just gets put out to pasture without much recognition.

And if I was at SCA, Right now, I would make sure you find a way, even if it's off air, internally on a podcast, honor the Austereo name that's going.

The ABC struts its stuff at its 2027 content upfront and the War the West won.

Southern Cross Austereo is no more.

Say hello to the Seven Media Group.

With me today are Hal Crawford.

But no, I didn't pick up on anything to do with radio outside of, you know, Triple J and Double J.

After the

break, rest in peace, Southern Cross Austereo.

Mumbrella is going on the road in November.

I know Carrie and Tommy very well.

I worked with them at SCA and I was the head of music at the time and worked with the team in that capacity.

So across music activity, we had some amazing junkets together.

And yeah, it's a really big move.

They've got a large audience, big profiles, been with the network for some time.

The previous or the current contract was four years and seven West Media have decided not to extend that contract, not to renew the contract.

And I recall only, I'd say five, six years ago, SCA threw everything at them to do Today FM Breakfast and tried a number of times.

It's quite a substantial move because for radio, the peak day parts are breakfast and drive and workday tends to be vulnerable.

So is this a countdown or is this purely a data harvest?

Uh, it's probably both, but I mean, uh, you'd have to say, uh, if they're clever, which they are in there, um, at SCA, uh, it, it's gonna be a data drive.

Like, uh, I think it's...

It would be unusual, I think, in the year 2026 that someone's sitting back and going, "You know what? I think we should just do a countdown just because." There's gonna be a reason.

And I'll, I'll tell you a little story from my time at Triple M, which actually crystallized this in my mind.

So not long after I joined Triple M, I went to a barbecue, and there was someone I'd never met before, and we got talking about work.

And I said, "Oh, I just started work at," what was then SCA.

Um, and, "Oh, yeah, what's SCA?" "Oh, it's Fox FM and Triple M." "Oh, Triple M." Now this woman, she would've been in her 40s.

Trev on X, "Hutchy, I'm a big fan of Mark Howard's cricket commentary, but unfortunately he's only calling for the television broadcast and not SEN as well.

Surely as a prominent employee of Seven/SCA you have the clout to pull him from his Triple M contract as a one-off." [chuckles]

Well, there's a lot of things to deal with in that sentence, Trev.

First of all, the, I'm not an employee of Seven or SCA.

You run Seven.

[chuckles]

Triple M.

This is the fact.

It doesn't have a sales team of its own.

It's sold by SCA, the owners of B105 and Triple M.

It doesn't have any studios of its own.

The "Breakfast Show" is either presented from a rented studio at SCA in Brisbane or from 'Barbecue' Bob Gallagher's house.

It doesn't have its own news team.

It buys that from Tapped Media.