2GB Drive presenter Jim Wilson will leave his show to “pursue other opportunities with Nine television.”
Wilson, who took over the show in July 2020, will finish up immediately, with his last show going to air tomorrow.
He told his listeners this afternoon:
“I’ve been so lucky to have been given this opportunity and my listeners have been incredible, I’m going to miss them. They’ve taken me into their lounge rooms, into their cars and to have been the #1 talk show, in a super competitive slot, three out of the last four ratings surveys is something I’m very proud of achieving…
“Yesterday we went down, and Richard Glover at ABC 702, who I have the utmost respect for as a broadcaster and as a person, was number one talk show in our slot, so I sent him a note to say congratulations. He’s a good man Richard… This decision to leave was made late last week and had nothing to do with yesterday’s survey.”
Wilson’s Drive timeslot, (which includes a sports show from 6pm), dropped by 1.3 share points in yesterday’s survey to 7%, behind KIIS, Nova, ABC Sydney and Smooth.
“In my 35 years in broadcasting, my mantra has been all about being fair and reasonable and true to myself,” Wilson said on air.
“We’ve managed to help people and given them a voice on my program and that’s been the most satisfying part of the job – getting people a fair go. I love what I do and I’ve still got the passion to do more in the future, there’s nothing like live broadcasting and I say bring on the next chapter.”
Nine Radio’s Managing Director, Tom Malone thanked Jim “for his hard work, professionalism and passion over the past two and a half years. He is a person of the highest integrity and he’s championed so many great causes for our listeners during his tenure. I look forward to seeing Jim back on our TV screens, and he leaves radio with our good will and best wishes.”
An announcement about a new permanent 2GB drive host will be made soon.
Can a sports broadcaster be a generalist broadcaster? Generalist means to comment on other topics other than sports.
Answer: Yes.
2GB has three sports-to-generalist broadcasters: Ray Hadley, Bill Woods and Jim Wilson.
This is not an analysis on the ratings of each presenter.
Rather the skills gained from commenting on sports can be transferred to commenting on other topics. The abiliity to comment intelligently on non-sports requires a wide knowledge of politics, economics and issues that affect our society.
Commenting also requires talking about the injustices on the underdogs and people doing it tough.
It is vague but may include topics such as children who are orphaned because both parents passed away or taxi drivers not fully compensated for the consequences of government policy radically permitting ride-share services such as "uber" to compete.
In addition, many of the sports broadcasters commenting as generalists either were introduced to the listener in increments such as filling in for other presenters for example Ray Hadley and Mark Levy OR had experience commenting on diverse sports issues and transferred that skill to commenting on non-sports topics. Example, Bill Woods had an evening sports program on channel 10. His program was like a current affairs program for sports. In addition Bill Woods has applied his skills to broadcasting non-sports topics.
It is hard to tell why Jim Wilson had lower ratings in the 1500-1800 time slot.
Does it require a rejig of the hours of the presenters in the 1200-1800 time slot?
Maybe Jim Wilson should have been introduced to the listener in small increments rather than a radical change from sports broadcasting to generalist broadcasting. His late sister Rebecca Wilson (RIP) was a successful commentator on a variety of programs over time.
Can we learn from this?
Whoever takes on the 1500-1800 slot must be a generalist commentator. It is not just transitioned sports to generalist broadcasters but reporters as well. As an example before Chris O'Keefe was a reporter on 9, he started as a commentator on channel 44's "Mark My Words" hosted by Mark Barbeliuk.
Not easy to predict,
Thank you,
Anthony, learn from history, Belfield, in the land of the Wangal and Darug Peoples of the Eora Nation
I'm not so sure the issue is a presenter coming directly from sports to generalist, rather more so coming direct from television to radio. Mark Levy (sports presenter) regularly fills in for Ray Hadley with generally positive reviews. Good looking, but vanilla tv types come across quite bland on radio. Deb Knight seems to suffer likewise. On television it's about appealing to as wide an audience as possible without offending people, whereas in radio it doesn't matter to offend some of the audience (Kyle Sandilands, Ray Hadley etc., so long as you can deliver 10 - 15% of the audience consistently. I've stopped listening to 2GB between midday and 6pm as whilst Deb and Jim are no doubt great people, their radio shows are bland compared to other 2GB shows.
Agree with lewie787.
As I mentioned in the original post, Bill Woods is a sports broadcaster from tv (Ten) to radio (2GB). His show includes segments in economics, politics, finance and history. He invites listeners to comment on the topics presented. His show is interesting and has a nice flow.
Bill does not have a sports feeling to his program nor is there any osmotic effusion of sports commentary duringn his discourse except the rare moments mentioning NRL team "The Bulldogs".
Bill is not"...a vanilla tv type..." Neither is Ben Fordham nor PK from RN nor Chris Smith. They easily transfer from radio to tv and from tv to radio.
Steve Price was a newspaper-to-radio presenter on 2GB. Steve's and Chris's afternoon shows were newsy and compelling listening.
If 2GB's market share as measured in the ratings are lower in the 1200-1800 timeslot, would reinstating Chris, Steve even Jim Ball increase the ratings?
Compelling radio is another way to keep our government and policy makers to account.
Thank you,
Anthony of interesting Belfield in Bulldogs country in the land of the Wangal and Darug Peoples of the Eora Nation