There’s a petition to change SEN+ back to Classic Rock Radio

Former Assistant Editor

A change.org petition has been created, urging Pacific Star Network to change 3MP 1377 AM back to Classic Rock Radio.

Last week PSN announced that the Melbourne station would be rebranded to SEN+, to “drive an additional live sports agenda to further leverage the company’s rights deals and content relationships with a variety of sporting codes.”

“We have a passion for sport and feel there’s never too much of a good thing at SEN+,” said PSN managing director and Crocmedia CEO Craig Hutchison.

The move was met with a mixed response, with many questioning the merit in turning the station into Melbourne’s third dedicated sports station.

Now a petition has cropped up on change.org started by a user going by the name ‘Victorian Local News’.

“We are losing the radio war people! We cannot give ourselves into more unethical sports radio stations,” reads the petition.

“My message is simple, Change SEN+ back into 1377 AM Classic Rock Radio. More Melbournians like and prefer Classic Rock in the morning instead of sport getting jammed into your ears.

“So please get on board if you were a fan of this awesome station and the insanely awesome music it played!”

The petition can be viewed here.

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Recent comments (39)
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FFS !
13 Aug 2018 - 11:37 am

certainly hope it gets off the ground..

suzanne
13 Aug 2018 - 3:17 pm

So annoyed to hear BORING Gary Lyon this morning instead of the usual great music, I hope you will not go ahead with this change as people will stop listening in droves. If we want sport shoved down our throat 24/7 there are other ways to listen to it. Pathetic, disgusting and total disregard for your loyal listeners. Hope it fails miserably!
I will have to go back to FM now as there are no other choices on the AM dial, thanks for nothing 3MP!

Rob
13 Aug 2018 - 6:10 pm

I can get sport on one station so why do I need a second SEN….to listen to more Ads!!!
What’s wrong with some music options during the day

JASON ANDREW TOPPIN
13 Aug 2018 - 6:38 pm

MACQUARIE SPORTS RADIIO ARE RUBBING THEIR HANDS WITH GLEE TODAY SITTING BACK AND WEATCHING SEN MPLODING SEN+ WILL CAUSE SEN AND LOSE LISTENERS TO MACQUARIE SPORTS RADIO 1278 LIKE WHAT HAPPENED TO 3MP IN 1993 WHEN THE SMIMILCAST 3MP ON BOTH 693 & 1377 BWFGN\N AAND WAS STOPPED BY THE THEN NAMED ABA )NOW ACMA)

Slivvie
13 Aug 2018 - 8:19 pm

So sad this morning to learn we Classic Rock listeners have been screwed over again for the sake of sport. FFS, another sport station???

Keefsbandana
13 Aug 2018 - 9:16 pm

I loved the playlist they had rolling around.A better classic rock format than the other FM offering in Melbourne.Some really good songs .Who programmed the music??
It didn’t rate (as was not included) so therefore…farewell and join the pile of “Others” that fell to the way side attempting to rock Melbourne..(Classic Rock 91.5 etc…)
If you want classic rock just do as I do and search the web…..triplexy etc……

Michael
13 Aug 2018 - 10:39 pm

Sounds very much like the “Talking Lifestyles” format only using Sport as the basis. If you’ve got a sport and are prepared to pay to get it coverage on the station, through a sponsor or through a straight payment, it’ll get to air. Just a thought, but how else are you going to have a station like this even remotely break even financially – let alone make a profit?

George
14 Aug 2018 - 12:15 am

It was a great station how it was , lots of good songs on the playlist . Pacific Star Network are being greedy , they already have another sports station. How about all the people that want to hear music? There not being considered at all.

Joey
14 Aug 2018 - 3:10 am

Will be interesting to find out how much of SEN+ is merely a simulcast of 1116 SEN. I tuned in for first time overnight and it’s the same broadcast on both frequencies, albeit separate commercial breaks.

The last time an attempt was made to simulcast two commercial stations (3MP and 3EE, both branded as 3MP) it lasted less than one year and I believe the owner of 3MP was then ordered by the broadcast authority to cease this practice (giving birth to Magic 693 in 1994).

It’s sad to see the once great 3MP reduced to being nothing more than a trailer of another radio station but I’ll be lucky to upset more than a few hundred people by suggesting that Classic Rock Radio is no great loss.

Clearly a commercial decision – it places SEN both first on the alphanumerical DAB selector (as 1116 SEN) as well as placing it as SEN+.

While on the AM dial, Macquarie Sports Radio 1278 (which I believe has a “do or die” chance that extends no further than the 2018-19 cricket season) now finds itself stuck in between both SEN selections.

Crocmedia/SEN is probably right to double-down in protecting its sports format and not making life easy for its Macquarie competitor. Although Macquarie Sports Radio might have the luxury of being a tri-city sports station, only SEN is abundantly focused on Melbourne and providing real footy competition to the bigger networks.

At least for the time being, it’s the death of AM music radio in Melbourne, with only 531 3GG (from West Gippsland) covering the outer south-east suburbs like Cranbourne and Pakenham.

Yet I’ll bet the station most primed to revive a music format on AM will be Macquarie – and that format (for 1278 AM) will be a broader oldies format, not a narrow classic rock format. Especially now that Nine Entertainment looks set take the reigns for the long-term, there are surely going to be better opportunities for Macquarie than allowing every other AM commercial licence besides 3AW (which itself has blocks of sport) to be 100 per cent sport – the long list now resembling RSN, SEN, MSR and SEN+.

Kim Thiel
14 Aug 2018 - 6:50 am

Get this sport crap off.

Wasaloyallistener
14 Aug 2018 - 9:31 am

Just as we finally had a decent classic rock radio station, had the right recipe, now we have to listen to morons / yobos talking absolute garbage. About as exciting as a vasectomy!

Roddie
14 Aug 2018 - 9:50 am

Give it back to the people of the Mornington Peninsula for which the licence was issued. It was still a great station up until 10 years ago when Shaun Cosgrove did mornings. That was before Singo and his cronies Price and Bolt took it away to beat Neil Mitchell and 3aw and the rest is history, ratings of 1% was their best.

Christine
14 Aug 2018 - 10:05 am

So sad. Was a great rock music station, especially after Magic changed their format.
Can get sports and blah blah on plenty of other stations. Just signed the petition on Change.org.

Victorian Local News (Cam)
14 Aug 2018 - 11:24 am

Thanks for sharing my petition guys!

Tracy
14 Aug 2018 - 1:01 pm

Very disappointed just another station talking about the same subjects (football). I loved listening to this music without radio host talking rubbish. I flicked back and forth a few times this morning but changed to another station very quickly after listening to people talk dribble instead of music. I wont be tuning in at all.

Neil McKenna
14 Aug 2018 - 1:24 pm

Time to get mad at this stupid decision. E mail: SEN [email protected] and make your voice heard. Bring back the music .. either CLASSIC ROCK or CLASSIC HITS. No more sports !!!

Fred N
14 Aug 2018 - 2:26 pm

Watching this from afar is like watching reruns of Benny Hill. 3MP is now pitted to a disenfranchised narrow band community station. The brand equity of SEN, built over many years, has now been stripped into a syncopated mish-mash of blandness with highlights of totally irrelevant ‘special events.’ Never has so much formatic damage been done by so few.
A very sad case of the PSN capital managers only listening to people they want to hear … at what cost?

Listener
14 Aug 2018 - 3:32 pm

Thank God for Triple M Classic Rock Digital!

BB
14 Aug 2018 - 8:19 pm

SEN Classic Rock wasn’t really that good. Sorry, but I can get the same from Spotify. A playlist of 100 songs – no content. Repeat.

At least I can listen to Triple M Classic Rock. It sounds like it is put together with great content and great songs.

Next!

Joey
15 Aug 2018 - 5:28 am

Not objectionable at all to reviving an AM music format (at least one) but I doubt Classic Rock is quite the fit. Triple M now has its main FM station, Greatest Hits on Digital and Classic Rock on Digital. This bundle of choices was, at least momentarily, not available when 1377 went Classic Rock.

If you keep away from the mellow music tempo of Smooth FM, leave the gen-x stuff (80s and 90s) to Gold 104.3 and leave the Classic Rock to Triple M, what’s left is what, for positioning purpose, could be termed “original oldies” from the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Given the overlap of that idea with compentent performing formats like those of Brisbane’s 4KQ, Perth’s 6IX, Adelaide’s Cruise and Canberra’s 2CA, either Macquarie (1278 AM) or Pacific Star Network (1377 AM) have the potential frequency to bring it on.

There’s a generation of music there that’s likely been prematurely deleted from the dial and given how 4KQ in particular performs, the two mentioned networks must surely come to their senses and decide who is going to end this silly situation we now have.

The only sport really happening above 1116 on the dial is a race to the bottom. Better still would be to take both these lemons back to music as none of this change has been justified.

Mark
16 Aug 2018 - 5:49 pm

I love sport but I also love music none more than good old rock so please bring back music there’s not much around from the 70s 80s & 90s

Ron
17 Aug 2018 - 9:31 pm

slipped over when they killed magic now 1377’s been ruined by flogball glorifying dribble, seriously …grown men chasing balls around a paddock!

Davo
18 Aug 2018 - 12:12 pm

What the Hell?? I go to the country for a few days,out of reception range of Classic Rock Radio,then come back to this sports drivel?? Blah Blah Blah!! City radio stations could learn a thing or two from the country. I was in Bendigo and they have a station called Freshh FM 101.5…Great 80’s and 90’s music,with dj’s that actually sound like they have a personality..normal humans..remember them?

Barbie
19 Aug 2018 - 2:51 pm

AM radio is heading in the same direction as free to air tv, the same programs on multiple stations or nothing but rubbish being broadcast. Come on guys, not everyone is a sports freak, bring back some variety to AM radio.

Mark
19 Aug 2018 - 10:17 pm

I’d sign it if I still lived in Melbourne. Last month I spent a night with my uncle and aunt and came across Classic Rock Radio on the clock radio in the room they put me in. It was a great station too. Much better than boring sport.

Peter Earls
21 Aug 2018 - 11:18 am

The music 1377 played really made me happy.Nowhere could you hear this type of music.I,m pleading to common sense of the boss to change it back.Shorly the rateings will show what’s what.Thankyou

Boris
21 Aug 2018 - 9:32 pm

Just what we need. More carry on bultish from these self opinionated jocks. Why take off the only am music station that played relaxing, classic songs, for this rubbish? Get off the air!!

Sam
22 Aug 2018 - 8:26 pm

Who wants to hear that dribble at 4 am every morning!!!!
put the music back on F.F.S.!!!

Mars
25 Aug 2018 - 9:36 am

Loved the Classic Rock station – great playlists, always interesting songs coming through – I do listen to SEN now and then but what the hell do they need 2 stations for – they’ve lost me as a listener – no reason at all to have 2 SEN’s going – Come on Hutchy – give us back our Classic Rock!

Patrick
28 Aug 2018 - 11:53 am

Bring back classic rock 1377 , enough sport on other radio stations .

Todd
8 Sep 2018 - 8:51 pm

was a great station, now crap

Peter.
11 Sep 2018 - 6:46 pm

Always enjoyed listen to great classic rock from the 60s 70s. & 80s, went overseas for 6 weeks came back, turned the radio on and what do I hear – boring sport.
Who is the bright spark who made this decision.
Time for a management change perhaps.

John
18 Sep 2018 - 2:45 am

We don’t need another “sports Talk” radio station. No other station has a playlist like Classic Rock and Melbourne needs a “Classic Rock” station –
Please bring it back

Damian Anderson
26 Sep 2018 - 7:14 am

I’m not sure what the problem is here. It makes sense to have a second outlet for the live sport that Hutchy is pushing for. With cricket, soccer, tennis and basketball all coming up and being played at the same time, SEN+ makes perfect sense. Having SEN, SEN+, Macquarie Sports and RSN in a sports mad city is most welcome and I appreciate having choice like never before. To all those who miss the old music, why not just play your music collection, it’s not like you’re missing out on discovering new music.

Mr Excitement
23 Oct 2018 - 8:13 pm

Craig Hutchinson has taken Kool and Aussie radio off the DAB and replaced it with SEN2 and SEN3! It is unacceptable. A new petition has started. https://www.change.org/p/pacific-star-networks-change-sen-back-into-classic-rock-radio/u/23465419

Kerry
31 Oct 2018 - 6:45 pm

Bring Kool back…
Was the best station.
I hate sports

Franklin Bernard
9 Dec 2018 - 6:33 pm

I am most disappointed that your management has removed KOOOL from dab .
This was the best music on the dab band and I think you should rethink this action

Greg Arkle
1 Mar 2019 - 8:49 pm

Koool was the best and only station where you could listen to the old 70s and 80s that we grew up loving and knowing. Also no adds or chit chat all day long. No other station plays this kind of music going back to the 70s.

Daniel
29 Mar 2019 - 10:34 pm

I’ve put a complaint to acma, saying that sen+ 1377 is airing the same content most of the time as 1116 am, and also said that 3MP got taken off 693 over 10 years ago, and asked why is SEN allowed to do the same thing where 3MP wasn’t. Radio stations in Melbourne are telling us what to listen to, not taking notice to the people of Melbourne. It’s time for acma to get off there ass and do something. In Sydney they have still got a station like 3MP, it’s called 2CH. It’s bull shit how radio stations think that they know best. Bring back 3MP or classic rock radio.

Jobs

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