Fairfax upheaval and Macquarie selloff in late 1980s flows on to 5DN: its old Adelaide identity obliterated as X102

5DN, originating in 1924, briefly becomes X102 in 1992 as a spillover from the crumbling of the Fairfax media empire and the selloff of Macquarie radio network.

The story of how 5DN, Adelaide first commercial radio station going back to 1924, suddenly became for a short time in the early 1990s as the adult rock station X102, is bound up in national corporate power plays of the 1980s.

The end of 5DN 972 starts in 1987 with 26-year-old Warwick Fairfax takeover of his family’s 150-year-old media empire based on newspapers such as Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

The Macquarie radio network, with 5DN a founding member from the 1930s, also was part of Fairfax. But, with Warwick Fairfax’s takeover starting to unravel, he put the Macquarie radio network on the market.

Jeremy Cordeaux, who owned 10% of 5DN, put a proposition, accepted by South Australian premier John Bannon, that the state government buy the Macquarie network and make 5DN its key station. The government had a line of credit for the deal but the $100 million price tag plus millions extra in costs was too much.

Macquarie radio network went to a group led by Queenslander Mark Cassidy. In turn, Cassidy asked Cordeaux if he wanted to buy 5DN. This time Cordeaux went to Mount Gambier transport magnate Alan Scott, who also owned the Border Watch newspaper and radio station 5SE, to partner him in buying 5DN. The state government SGIC insurance commission also became involved, with Cordeaux and Scott, in First Radio Ltd.

SGIC also gave First Radio Ltd. $6 million for 5DN to win the auction bid for an FM licence.

With only 10% share, Cordeaux found himself outvoted by Scott and SGIC interests on the fatal decision: to rebadge 5DN in 1990 to Radio 102 FM, with the 5DN talks/news format dumped for the cheaper classic hits music (“Sounds like Adelaide to me”). It sunk to embarrassingly low ratings and was reformatted to X102 (adult rock) in 1992.

Cordeaux, who’d been allowed to keep his morning talk program, resigned before X102 started. The next twist came when Hoyts Media, who owned 1323 5AD, offered it to Cordeaux, who bought it as part Montclair Investments, including former 5DN station manager Sue Fraser.

With the First Radio owners of 102.3 FM bleeding money, they were willing to offload it to Cordeaux and Montclair Investments for a $1.