Southern Cross Austereo CEO Rhys Holleran disappointed with media reports.
Rhys Holleran has praised the talent recognised in the SCA Next Top Jock Awards and criticised media reports for linking Michael Christian’s award with last year’s tragic prank call.
In an email today, Holleran has told stakeholders close to the company:
I am delighted that Ellie Mobbs, Michael Christian and Perry Lazarus have won our Next Top Jock awards this week. I am very proud of our people and delighted we had such an array of talent to choose from with these inaugural awards for our emerging talent.
I am particularly pleased Michael Christian has shared one of the awards . He has shown tremendous professionalism to come back to work and get on with his career this year and the quality of his work over the past 12 weeks that helped him win this award speaks volumes about his character and his talent.
It is disappointing that some media reports today have attempted to connect the award with the prank call last December. This is of course complete nonsense; it’s both inaccurate and unfair. But it doesn’t detract from the quality of what we do, the talent we have across our company or our commitment to stand by our p eople.
Rhys .. Congrats for standing by your people - regardless of the past -- when I worked in radio there were few that ( I encountered) who stood by their staff.
A refreshing change in radio
Standing by your people is one thing. Rubbing the "victims" nose in it is a bit rough. For me the timing of this is just all wrong. I'm sure he's a talented lad and I don't mind the award, but seriously, just as the inquest is about to start, I would rather they kept it in-house.