is a national commercial radio network in
Australia .
The company was founded by
Paul Thompson , and when commercial
FM Broadcasting was introduced into Australia it acquired the license for the metropolitan
Adelaide area;
SAFM commenced transmission in late
1980 . The next station to join the network was
FOX FM in
Melbourne in
1986 , eventually to be followed by
Sydney's 2Day FM and
Brisbane's B105 .
1996 saw a complicated arrangement in which Austereo purchased the
Hoyts owned
Triple M network, and
Village Roadshow in turn purchased Austereo to form a single umbrella company. The purchases were part of a single deal that was unpopular due to the fierce rivalry between the two radio networks, and the fact that
Village Roadshow and
Hoyts were also direct competitors in the
Film Industry .
As of 2005 the network broadcasts in each mainland Australian state capital,
Canberra and the major regional city of
Newcastle . Its stations are regular rating winners in their individual markets which focus on the demographic aged less than 40 years. The network claims to have more than 6 million listeners per week, nearly one third of the Australian population.
Austereo Radio Network's radio stations have been criticized for being left winged as supposed to Australia's newspapers
The Advertiser which is criticized for being
Left-wing . In the 2003 elections,
John Howard was constantly been called a 'liar' on the Austereo Radio Network, whereas The Advertiser endorsed him.
The radio network has also been criticized, for their pro-gay views with their leading radio station 2DayFM being nicknamed by radio jocks from their fierce competitor: Nova, owned by
DMG Radio Australia .
Austereo was partially floated in
2001 on the
Australian Stock Exchange . Its
Stock Code is .
As of July
2005 the upper management were:
1 - Austereo had a monopoly on the FM Commercial audience in
Brisbane until the launch of
Australian Radio Network /
DMG Radio Australia joint venture
97.3 FM in
2004 .
2 - The joint venture with
Macquarie Regional RadioWorks is a 50/50 ownership of both stations, although in practice Austereo manages
NXFM and
Macquarie Regional RadioWorks manages
KOFM .
