Three years since the day the music died

It was likened to the loss of a family member, and the outpouring of grief that goes with it. The day the music died.

This week marks three years since the beginning of the end for Brisbane’s 4KQ.

Sold to Craig Hutchison’s Sports Entertainment Network (SEN), the station was subsequently rebranded to 693SENQ, and the Classic Hits format which had entertained generations of Queensland listeners made way for wall-to-wall sport.

The long-standing Breakfast team of Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine said their goodbyes and – at midnight on June 30, after 75 years on air in Brisbane – 4KQ signed off for good.

HT&E’s acquisition of ARN Regional from Grant Broadcasters required that 4KQ be sold, to comply with ACMA regulations which limit the number of radio stations an owner can have in one city.

Just a couple of weeks later, 4BH repositioned itself as Brisbane’s New Home of Classic Hits.

As ACE Radio CEO Mark Taylor told Radio Today back then, the timing was no coincidence.

“There was a clear and obvious hole in the market. We could have waited, but just thought – let’s get going. All the stuff that 4KQ listeners are going to miss, we’ll be able to deliver.”

In July that year, BBQ Bob Gallagher took over the Breakfast show on 4BH, returning to the station where he started his radio career as a teenager back in the early 70s

As a new radio era in Brisbane began, Hutchison promised Queensland listeners a unique offering of constant sporting content and local programming.

Three years on from the rebrand, GfK Survey 2 of 2025 saw SENQ grow its cumulative audience to 73,000 (up from 40,000 this time last year), with Breakfast reaching a 1.2% share, up from 0.8 in 2024.

In January this year, NRL great Corey Parker joined Ian Healy as the new co-host of SENQ Breakfast.

And, with the station now deep in the trenches of the 2025 NRL and AFL seasons, SEN’s Group Radio Director Sam Thompson said the Survey 2 results show a solid performance in all its major markets, including Brisbane, as well as notable engagement on SEN’s digital platforms.

Thompson described it as a pleasing result.

As Hutchison himself said from the outset “Our business model is sport, and parochial sport is at the heart of that.”