NX FM’s Ashby resigns after court action

NX FM announcer James Ashby has resigned after he was charged with “verbally harassing” rival broadcaster NEW FM’s Jim Morrison (real name Paul Fiddler).

Morrison, who joined NEW-FM after leaving NXFM last year, was up against Ashby in the Drive shift at the time of the alleged calls.

The Newcastle Herald’s Jason Bartlett reported: “It is alleged four calls were made on May 9 to Morrison’s Sandgate studios in which offensive remarks were passed… The case was adjourned until next month at Newcastle Court.”

A comparison of figures shows that Morrison was rating 22.9% when he left NX FM Drive. The most recent survey showed his Drive shift on New FM rating 11.4%. NX FM has a 10% lead over New FM in the drive time shift, up from 8.7% at the beginning of the year.

Morrison was recently moved into the breakfast shift at NEW FM.

The Table shows Drive (4-7pm) figures for the past 3 surveys:

 

  Survey 1 Survey 2 Survey 3
NX FM 22.9 21.6 21.4
NEW FM 14.2   13.0 11.4

NX FM General Manager Steve Smith said:

“To his professional credit, James has resigned out of respect for our audience, acknowledging their right to always maintain trust in the good character of all NXFM announcers and the core product value of being a fun and entertaining radio station.

While James accepts he suffered a serious lapse of judgement and will now face the consequences, the extraordinary vindictiveness being shown by Paul Fiddler in his lust for publicity beggar’s belief. James is a fine on-air talent & this is a high price to pay.

The next Newcastle ratings are due out on November 8.

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