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Macquarie Media

This profile considers Australian radio network Macquarie Media, its predecessor RG Capital and the Grundy production house.


It covers -

  • the network
  • Reg Grundy and the production house
  • Regional Media and Macquarie
  • studies

The network

Macquarie Media, established (and, as of November 2006, 20% owned) by the Macquarie Bank private equity group, operates 85 radio stations in Australia.

It results from takeover of the RG Capital chain, which as of August 2004 operated 35 radio stations, located along Australia's eastern seaboard and in Tasmania. In 2004 the UK Daily Mail & General Trust group (DMG) announced that it had sold its 57 Australian regional radio stations to the Australian group Regional Media.

The group competes with Austereo, APN and DMG's Australian broadcast arm.

As of May 2004 it was 56% owned by former game show czar Reg Grundy. At the beginning of June 2004 the Grundy stake was sold to Macquarie Bank, known for property and infrastructure that included Australian and overseas airports and tollways. RG Capital's radio operations were rebadged as Regional Media - and subsequently as Macquarie Media - forming the centrepiece of the bank's new media fund.

The RG acquisition meant that Regional Media exceeded the maximum number of broadcast licenses per licence area. It accordingly sold 2CM Coffs Harbour (639 AM), 2PM Kempsey (521 AM) and 2EL Orange (1089 AM) to Bill Caralis' 2SM Supernetwork.

In November 2006 Macquarie Media took a 13.8% stake in rival radio operator, Southern Cross Broadcasting, for $165 million.

Reg Grundy and the production house

Grundy was born in 1923. After service in the Army from 1941-46 (mostly as a pay clerk in a Sydney-based signals unit) his media career began as a freelance sports commentator for Sydney radio station 2SM in 1947. He hosted the Wheel of Fortune game show on radio in 1957, moving with that show to television in 1959.

He founded the Grundy Enterprises production house in 1960, initially producing game shows under licence from US owners and subsequently engaging in independent development. During the 1960s and 70s the organisation was responsible for some 35 shows. In 1974 it explored drama production with the evanescent Class of 74, moving from games to soap operas such as Young Doctors, The Restless Years, Case for the Defence and Prisoner in 1977. In the following year Grundy Enterprises became the Grundy Organisation, with its owner moving to tax-friendly Bermuda in 1982.

Grundy had opened an office in Los Angeles during 1979 and by 1982 was producing dramas and game shows in the US (eg Sale of the Century for NBC, followed by Scrabble), Brunei and Hong Kong. The 1980s saw such cultural treats as Sale of the Century and Neighbours. Grundy had dabbled in feature film production - notably as co-producer in 1977 of ABBA: The Movie - and merchandise licensing. Global ambitions were reflected in renaming of the organisation as Grundy World Wide and production for a range of overseas broadcasters that included the BBC (eg Going for Gold, 1988), Portugal's SIC, Spain's Tele5, Germany's Tele 5, the Netherlands' RTL 4 (Goede Tijden, a Dutch Neighbours amid the polders), Scandinavia's TV3 and Italy's RAI.

Grundy World Wide was sold to Pearson in 1995 for an estimated $384, later passing to RTL (under the control of Bertelsmann) when Pearson offloaded its Fremantle production arm.

Grundy expanded into regional radio through the $66 million acquisition of the SEA FM radio group in 1995. SEA centred on stations onsold by Wesgo after its absorption of the Albert family's Australian Radio Network and takeover by APN.

RG Capital Radio was floated in 2000. RG Capital also took stakes, apparently on an opportunistic basis, in companies such as AWA (the moribund Australian counterpart of GE) and Photon.

Macquarie

A note on Macquarie Bank and its private equity funds is here. Interests include -

  • Macquarie Communications Infrastructure - stake in Arqiva (owns and operates over 3,000 UK television transmission towers sold by NTL in 2004 for £1.27bn) and in Broadcast Australia (600 transmitter sites across Australia used by public broadcasters including ABC and SBS)
  • 10% of Macquarie Capital Alliance - has 65% of Creative Broadcast Services Ltd, channel management and creative services arm formerly owned by BBC and known as BBC Broadcast Services. Macquarie Bank directly owns 35% of the business.

Studies

There has been no major biography of Grundy or the production house. Much of the media coverage has centred on his lifestyle, eg with a concentration on his very large yacht, rather than analysis of how the group worked.

Insights are offered by works such as Australian Television & International Mediascapes (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 1996) by Stuart Cunningham & Elizabeth Jacka.