Janet Cameron sees value in regional radio. So much so that she has just bought eight stations from Fairfax to add to her family owned network. But just how much profit is there in regional radio these days?

Austereo Southern Cross now owns regional tv stations, metro radio stations and also regional radio stations. It decided there was value in combining regional and metro radio and regional tv together, and has been leveraging across all these platforms to try and squeeze some more dollars out of advertising agencies.

But what of a regional radio network alone. Are agencies interested in regional radio any more? And if they’re not, is there enough ad revenue to be made from the local chemist and butcher shop to keep things going for regional stations into the future.

Janet Cameron’s Grant Broadcasting network does, of course, own a couple of capital city stations as well, in Darwin and Perth, but it is primarily a regional network.

So what’s ahead for regional radio? Tough times for revenue, forthcoming expenses for digital transmitters, and the still current annoyance of the ‘trigger event’ rules hanging over the heads of stations which change ownership, which has just happened with the Fairfax stations.

Or perhaps Janet Cameron, and regional owners such as Ace Radio and Bill Caralis know better. They can see and extract value out of regional radio businesses where others can’t.

What are your thoughts on regional radio and its future?