The board of Macquarie Media unanimously endorsed the deal, which still needs to be approved by the radio group's shareholders.  Macquarie shares closed at $1.74 before the announcement, well above Nine's offer price.

Macquarie Media's biggest shareholder is ad-man John Singleton, who owns 32 per cent of the company. He could not be reached for comment. Fellow shareholder and adviser Mark Carnegie did not respond to calls.

Sondal Bensan, an analyst for Pendal Group which owns 7.5 per cent of Nine, said he supported the offer, and the TV network had struck itself a bargain."On face value, they’ve paid a price that is a lot lower than what a lot of people thought," Mr Bensan said. There were reports in 2019 that Mr Singleton wanted $2.50 a share for his stake.

"[The offer] is a fair bit below where it is trading," Mr Bensan said. "It’s a good deal. The combined group ... broadens out all the forms of media they’ve got that they can get synergy from a revenue perspective with wholly owned print, TV and now radio businesses."

Nine, parent company of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, obtained 54.4 per cent of  Macquarie Media when it merged with Fairfax Media late last year.  It is aiming to have the Macquarie deal wrapped up by December. Once Nine has support from enough shareholders to lift its stake to 90 per cent, the deal cannot be blocked.

The offer price values the entirety of the business at $275.4 million, including the payment of its dividend this month and net debt of $22 million.

Nine chief executive Hugh Marks had repeatedly signalled he wanted to own the company outright, earlier saying the re-signing of controversial star breakfast host Alan Jones to the radio network after months of the negotiations was "important" for business security.

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Ray Hadley re-signed with the radio station last Christmas.

Mr Marks said in a statement that together the companies invest more than $400 million a year in news and editorial content.

"In addition to cost efficiency initiatives already underway at Macquarie, bringing the two businesses together will realise further annualised synergies of more than $10 million," he said.

One of the changes expected to help reduce costs and boost revenue includes rolling out the 9Galaxy automated sales platform for the radio business.

The Macquarie board voted in favour of the deal late on Sunday.

Macquarie chairman Russell Tate said it was "clearly not something that has come out of the blue" with the shareholders and staff waiting on the deal since Nine merged with Fairfax last year.

"I’ve said for many, many years that the most sensible place for the company to end up is with a TV network," Mr Tate said.

"It’s always made sense. I’ve had discussions way back ... This didn’t come as a surprise, it made sense that it would happen at some point in time and that time was up to Nine."

Many of the radio network’s high-profile staff have contracts and involvement with rival television networks and newspapers, including Jones who has a column in News Corp’s The Australian and 2GB presenter Steve Price who is a panellist on Network Ten’s The Project.

"This will be dealt with individually, but most are known to Nine and to us and I don’t think Hugh [Marks] will take a different view in future," he said. Sources close to Nine did not expect there to be any change in the hosts’ involvement with other media companies.

"There is no question in my mind that this is a very, very good thing for the business of Macquarie. When you consider all things, not just the price, I’m very comfortable with where we got on our recommendation," he said.

"We’ve been working closely with Nine already I think we’ll continue along that path."

"Not a natural fit": Deal welcomed by on-air talent

Newly appointed 2GB afternoon presenter Mr Price did not expect a Nine takeover would make much of a difference to the on-air content or the day-to-day operations.

"I think there’s plenty of good synergies between radio and the TV network. We already speak to a lot of Nine talent, we have Nine news people on radio," he said.

"From my point of view – I’ve spent 10 years on Channel Ten. I’ve never had a discussion with anyone from Channel Nine [as a major stakeholder] saying they’d prefer if I was on Nine than Ten, there has been no interference," he said.

Despite this, he didn’t think the two companies were aligned in political views within their coverage of news and current affairs.

"Is it a natural fit? Probably not. 2GB in particular is clearly a conservative voice in the media whereas Channel Nine would see itself as much more centre or centre left than conservative. But I still think they will work well together," he said.

Former presenter Chris Smith said that it was an "outstanding result for the brand, which I’ve always loved".

"It can now get ahead making intelligent decisions on programming and presenters."

2GB drive presenter Ben Fordham, who also hosts Nine's Australian Ninja Warrior, said in a statement it wouldn't impact him or his show.

"When ownership structure of the radio station changes, it leads to zero changes on our show. There may be changes that will impact other aspects of the business but the on air product remains the same," Mr Fordham said.

3AW presenter Neil Mitchell told listeners on Monday morning that the deal would strengthen Nine by giving it control over papers, radio and TV and said the independence of his editorial wouldn't be affected.