About SEN 1170

SEN 1170

SEN 1170 is a commercial sports radio station broadcasting to Sydney on 1170 kHz AM, owned by the Sports Entertainment Network (SEN). Launched on 22 October 2020, it replaced the long-running classic-hits station 2CH on the 1170 frequency after SEN acquired the licence for more than $11 million. Billed as "Sydney's Home of Sport," the station carries live NRL, cricket, AFL and racing coverage alongside sports talk programming fronted by some of Australia's best-known sports broadcasters, and is also available on DAB+ digital radio and through the SEN app.

Overview

SEN 1170 broadcasts on 1170 kHz AM to the Sydney metropolitan area as the Sydney flagship of the Sports Entertainment Network, the Melbourne-headquartered sports media company led by chief executive Craig Hutchison. The station's format is dedicated sports: live match calls, sports news, analysis and talkback, with a schedule built around star presenters drawn largely from television sports coverage.

The station is part of a national SEN network of sports stations across Australia's capital cities and regional centres, and in Sydney it sits alongside the company's other audio assets, including the SEN Track racing service and a suite of DAB+ channels. Its proposition is straightforward — continuous sports content for one of the world's most sport-obsessed cities — in a market where previous attempts at all-sports AM radio had struggled.

SEN's official website is sen.com.au, which carries the network's station streams, news and program information; the network also operates the SEN app as its primary digital listening platform.

History

The 1170 AM frequency is one of Sydney's oldest: a station had broadcast on 1170 in Sydney for 95 years, most recently as the classic-hits outlet 2CH, owned by EON Broadcasting. In June 2020, the Sports Entertainment Network — then known as Pacific Star Network Limited — acquired the 2CH 1170 AM licence from EON Broadcasting for over $11 million, as disclosed in the company's ASX announcement of 20 October 2020. The classic-hits 2CH service moved to the DAB+ digital platform, freeing the AM frequency for SEN's sports format.

The launch was preceded by an advertising campaign and a launch function, and day one was confirmed as Thursday 22 October 2020. The first program to air was Breakfast with Vossy at 6:00 am, hosted by Andrew Voss — the former rugby league caller and television host — who opened with the Shannon Noll song "Shine" as his theme. The debut was given national prominence when Prime Minister Scott Morrison appeared as a guest on the first show, declaring "How good is SEN?" — a statement, as Mediaweek noted, rather than a question.

The launch lineup was presented as a deliberate show of force: alongside Voss, the station fielded Matty Johns hosting Friday breakfast (his show named "Morning Glory" after the Oasis song), Matt White, former NRL stars Bryan Fletcher and Joel Caine as the "Joel and Fletch" drive team, Katie Brown, Gerard Whateley, Jimmy Smith, Stephanie Brantz in evenings, and regular contributor Greg "Brandy" Alexander. The timing was strategic: the station debuted days before the NRL and NRLW Grand Finals on 25 October 2020, and broadcast eleven hours of dedicated live rugby league coverage across grand-final weekend.

The launch came with acknowledged scepticism. Hutchison himself noted at the launch event that many had told him a sports station in Sydney could not work, pointing to the failure of Nine Radio's Macquarie Sports Radio network — which had managed only a 1.1 per cent audience share in Sydney before Nine paused the format — and the modest ratings of Tabcorp's Sky Sports Radio. Voss countered that the new station would be informative, entertaining and relevant to Sydney, "like reading a newspaper back-to-front," with sport as the primary focus but a healthy dose of news and current affairs — and explicitly not "shock-jock radio."

Programming and Content

SEN 1170's schedule is built around live sport and sports talk. The flagship is the breakfast show, which mixes the day's sports news, interviews with players, coaches and administrators, and listener talkback. Daytime and drive programming continues the sports conversation with presenter-led talk shows, while live match coverage — principally NRL, but also cricket, AFL and horse racing — forms the backbone of the station's rights-based content.

The station's positioning as "Sydney's Home of Sport" reflects the city's sporting calendar: NRL dominates winter, cricket summer, with AFL, racing and other codes filling the gaps. SEN's network structure allows Sydney programming to draw on talent and coverage from across the company's stations, including Melbourne-originated content such as programming associated with high-profile SEN presenters.

News and current affairs run through the schedule alongside the sport — the launch promise was a newspaper read back-to-front, sport first but with broader news context — and the station carries the sports-news bulletins and updates that keep listeners across scores and developments through the day.

Coverage and Audience

The 1170 kHz AM signal covers the Sydney metropolitan area, and the station is additionally available on DAB+ digital radio, which gives it clearer audio quality and coverage beyond the traditional AM footprint. The SEN app carries the live stream nationally, along with the network's other stations and DAB+ channels, and the station streams through the SEN website.

The target audience is Sydney's sports fans — a large and demographically broad constituency in a city where rugby league, in particular, commands intense loyalty. The station competes for sports listeners with Nine Radio's 2GB (which carries NRL coverage and prominent sports talk), the ABC's sport programming and Tabcorp's Sky Sports Radio, making Sydney one of the most contested sports-radio markets in the country. The company's first public test came with the GfK Survey 1, 2021 ratings — the first survey to measure the new station — after Hutchison told Mediaweek at launch that the station's progress would be judged on the official ratings. The 2CH ratings that SEN had displaced moved to the DAB+ figures published each survey day, while SEN directed advertisers to the SEN app's listener data as the measure of the new station's digital audience.

Ownership

SEN 1170 is owned by the Sports Entertainment Network, the sports media company headed by chief executive Craig Hutchison. The company, formerly known as Pacific Star Network Limited and listed on the ASX, acquired the 1170 AM licence in June 2020 as part of its national expansion of the SEN brand beyond its Melbourne origins. The network operates sports radio stations and associated media assets across Australia, with SEN 1170 as its Sydney beachhead.

Digital Presence

The network's digital home is sen.com.au, which hosts live streams of SEN 1170 and the company's other stations, sports news, podcasts and program information. The SEN app is the company's primary listening platform, offering the full range of SEN stations and DAB+ channels, and the company has invested heavily in app development as a complement to its broadcast signals. At launch, Sydney audiences could choose between four SEN DAB+ offerings — 1170 SEN itself, 1539 SENTrack, Classic Hits 2CH and a repackaged Melbourne 1116 SEN feed — alongside the main AM signal. The company reported in 2020 that average SEN app users were listening for 308 minutes a week, with podcast growth fuelled by the app's strength as a national aggregator of the network's content. The station's launch marketing spanned the Seven Network and News Corp Australia's digital properties, reflecting SEN's partnerships across Australian sports media.