Before the election blackout starting 12 am Thursday 1 May 2025 there’s a couple of simmering issues to put to the Radioinfo reader pub test.
Firstly, ABC chairman Kim Williams is copping some flack for apparently assisting comedian Austen Tayshus to get interviews promoting an upcoming show. For those not familiar with Austen Tayshus, real name Alexander ‘Sandy’ Gutman, he was responsible for the biggest hit of 1983, Australiana. The spoken word comedy sketch was written by Billy Birmingham.
Austen was somehow able to reach out directly to Kim for interview contact recommendations and as a result, in at least one instance after being rebuffed over the phone for an interview in Tamworth, said to that person that he was a ‘friend of Kim’.
The response to the situation by Austen, Kim, ABC management and ABC Managing Director Hugh Marks, via ABC Media Watch, can be read here: https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/kim/105225646
If ever you’ve been involved in a grow your business or profile session anywhere, you have likely been advised or encouraged to use the name of the person who links you to the one you are approaching. For Austen it appears a line was drawn when he declared Kim a ‘friend’. This certainly isn’t the first time, justifiably or not, that someone has name dropped someone else to get ahead. It is not all that far removed from your CV referees and cover letter.
Do you think Kim Williams and/or Austen Tayshus are in the wrong?
Not long ago Radioinfo wrote about the power of podcasts this Federal election, just after the AEC found that episodes of Abbie Chatfield’s It’s a Lot podcast would not be considered paid advertising or to have been communicated by or on behalf of a candidate or party, and that it did not require any authorisation message.
Abbie has been upfront about her own election preferences, and of late has been providing additional information to her listeners about ‘what is a Minority Government‘ and “What is the difference between the House of Reps and the Senate‘, conversations helpful to anyone engaging in an election for the first time or afraid to ask.
In our podcasting power story above we also mentioned Sam Fricker, pictured, with the former Olympian on his Diving Deep podcast also having multiple conversations with election candidates, including Clive Palmer and the first in that format for Peter Dutton.
After the Clive Palmer interview Abbie shared on TikTok a response saying:
“He interviewed Dutton because I think he would only go on his podcast because it would be softball questions and also because he is a sports person.
You’re scraping the bottom of the barrel if you’re going to Clive Palmer”
She then publicly messaged Sam saying:
“Sam, I’m being so serious and I mean this as a way to help you, who are you voting for? I’m genuinely asking.”
To which Sam replied, or rather refused to, saying that the aim of his podcast was to learn from people as he is a diver, not political commentator. He followed that up with the Instagram post below saying:
‘For my next trick I’ll get criticised for interviewing people from all sides of politics…..and trusting Australians to think for themselves. Classic.’
What do you make of this one?
No doubt it will have harmed neither of their listening numbers and both are bringing election voices and understanding to a younger audience.
But, next Federal election, the rules around podcasters’ involvement and positioning prior to an election must be more closely examined.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Email: [email protected]