Grant Blackley has called time on his tenure at Southern Cross Austereo. COO John Kelly will take the helm from 1 July. 

Blackley and Kelly go back two decades, working together at Ten as CEO and CFO respectively prior to reforming the partnership at SCA. The two have led SCA’s shift towards a digitally-led network, with Listnr the standout in the audio market in emulating the TV networks’ move away from terrestrial broadcast to digital streaming, logged-in users and a data-driven approach to packaging and selling audiences.

SCA’s Listnr streaming app has topped 1.2 million signed-in users with 'streaming starts' up from 1.7 million two years ago to 5.9 million currently. Digital audio revenues likely to hit 10 per cent of group revenues in FY25, Blackley recently told Mi3, which will then be treated as a separate reporting line.

The two have also overseen major investment in podcast content and tech while managing changing dynamics within broadcast television, choosing to keep regional TV assets despite diminishing returns to fund the business’ digital transformation - though Blackley admitted recently he'd have sold last year for the right price.

"We were responding to a lot of enquiry. If someone had met what we deemed had been fair value, we would have sold the asset,” he said in March. “So we will continue to milk the cow. It is still a solid contribution – and that is outside of the multimillion dollar non-cash marketing support we get for [total audio app] Listnr in the regions from our TV assets.”

Either way, Blackley leaves a very different business to the one he joined in 2015. He intends to pursue interests oversees, though after extending a restraint period out to nine months, not until March next year.

SCA said it will review its operating structure and reporting lines, but is unlikely to appoint a new operations chief.