Speaking on this week’s Mi3 podcast, Nine Radio boss Tom Malone has told the story of Alan Jones’ departure from the network, soon after Nine took over 2GB.
Jones was neither jumped nor was pushed, according to Malone.
“When I took over, the first person I went and saw was Alan Jones. For 30 years he’s been the most important person on the station in terms of his ability to bring in audiences and advertising. There had obviously been some pretty heavily publicised quarrelling with the former management, so I wanted to make sure he knew we supported him.
“But he was pretty honest. He said, ‘listen, Tom, I’m 78. I don’t know how long I’ll keep doing it. I’ve got two years to run. Let’s see what happens’…”
The bushfires “gave him pause to reflect. He had a week off for some health concerns and the doctors said pretty clearly to him, ‘it’s silly to keep doing this. It’s going to be detrimental to your health,’ so he requested that we have a chat.
“He said, ‘I think I should finish up sooner rather than later’, and we were able to make that happen. We were able to send Alan off really well, and we’re really proud of that… He’s done a lot for this business over a long period of time. So a huge amount of respect for Alan and what he’s done.”
Jones has now joined Sky News.
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