Here’s a countdown of radioinfo’s 20 stories that mattered most to our readers in 2019.
Unsurprisingly, contract negotiations and staff changes at 2GB, before, during and after the NINE takeover, dominated the headlines.
Although, the release of several survey results made the top 20, we only included two here – one metro and one regional. For all the survey results and analysis for 2019 go here.
The ACRA winners were also popular and our April Fool’s gag made it into the top 20 too.
Sadly, we lost a number of people along the way – starting with the unexpected eath of a great talent, Sammy Power.
20. Vale Sammy Power
Radio presenter Sammy Power has died aged 55.
Sammy studied at AFTRS and began her career on air with a brief stint in regional radio, before getting her break in Sydney hosting breakfast on Mix 106.5 (now KIIS).
She was teamed with Jason Bouman with good ratings success in the early 2000s.
She left Mix in a format reshuffle, then worked at Wave FM Wollongong.
Sammy was also on air at Triple M Brisbane and Hot 91 Sunshine Coast. Read more…
19. Triple M now the most listened to on the Coffs Coast
Triple M 106.3 Coffs Coast has made significant gains to be a clear number 1 in front of its SCA stablemate, Hit 105.5 Coffs Coast in the latest regional radio ratings survey, conducted by Xtra Insights.
Triple M gained 6.1 overall to give it 29.4 ahead of Hit 105.5’s 23.6, with triple j on 12.0 and the ABC Coffs Coast on 10.9. Read more…
18. SCA Adelaide’s ground breaking playout experiment across FM and digital stations
SCA has begun an experiment in Adelaide that puts its live local breakfast show on each of its DAB+ stations in that city.
As of this morning, Hit 107 breakfast hosts Bec and Cosi are now being heard on all of Adelaide’s Hit Network DAB+ stations, using playout technology to sync the talk breaks with the different playlists of each station. Read more…
17. Jonesy & Amanda crowned Best FM Team: FULL WINNERS LIST #ACRAs2019
WSFM breakfast hosts Jonesy and Amanda have won the Best FM Metro On-Air Team category at the 31st Australian Commercial Radio Awards.
The pair, who have been on air together for 14 years, previously won the coveted award in 2012 and 2014. Read more…
16. Chris Smith set to return to 2GB
Macquarie Media has confirmed that Chris will be returning as its new Weekends presenter for 2020, and Macquarie Media’s Head of Content Greg Byrnes is “very pleased Chris is coming back to 2GB. He’s loved by our listeners and knows how to create great radio. Chris’s weekend show will be a mix of news, opinion, lifestyle and entertainment.”
Smith says: “To return to Macquarie Media in this capacity is the perfect fit for me now that I have TV shows to host at Sky News. It’s a great thrill to be asked back and an honour to be tasked with filling in for the great Alan Jones once again in the prime breakfast shift. Read more…
15. BREAKING: Fitzy to Replace Eddie on Triple M
The big switch was triggered when Eddie was forced to make a public apology after the comments he made in regards to plane crash survivor and amputee Cynthia Banham for performing a less than perfect coin toss at the Sydney v Adelaide game last Friday.
Fitzgerald admitted that while he enjoyed his time at Nova 969 as Breakfast co-host with Wippa, he didn’t get into radio just to be funny. It was time to move to a station that was more serious about the game he loves. Read more…
14. Radio talk presenter ‘Sacked for Conservative Commentary’
But a week ago, management terminated his show because, as he says he was told, “My conservative style was not suiting the network moving forward.” He has it in writing from the former general manager that, “I would not be considered for any additional shifts, fill in shifts, or prime shifts unless I toned it down.”
A spokesperson for 2HD who wished to remain anonymous didn’t dispute that claim, telling radioinfo, “He was basically let go because the style of his show didn’t suit the Super Radio Network. It wasn’t a balanced show. It was a very unbalanced show.” Read more…
13. SCA begins redundancies in tough trading conditions
Southern Cross Austereo is in the process of issuing redundancy notices to somewhere between 50 and 100 staff this week, as it faces tough trading conditions.
Some radio staff have already received notices, while management is still in negotiations with others. Read more…
12. Radio Tomorrow with James Cridland
Goodbye, and keep listening
Radio Tomorrow with James Cridland
A lot has happened since November 2014.
At the time, I was working in the roof – quite literally. My office space was in a room that was so illegal, when I bought the house they weren’t allowed to call it a room, even though it had stairs leading up to it.
In the winter months it could be made quite warm, since there wasn’t much of it. The room was at the top of the house and… Read more…
11. Vale Glen Hannah
Australian country musician and ABC Saturday Night Country producer, Glen Hannah, has tragically died.
Hannah, who was married to singer/songwriter and radio presenter Felicity Urquhart, passed away this week, leaving behind his wife and their two daughters, Tia and Ellie.
Tamworth’s Golden Guitar Awards’ Musician of the Year in 2017, the award-winning musician had worked with some of Australia’s biggest country music artists Kasey Chambers, Lee Kernaghan and John Williamson. Read more…
10. Is Chris Smith about to be sacked from 2GB?
News Corp publications are reporting that Chris Smith is on the verge of being sacked from 2GB if he refuses to move into the evening timeslot in a straight swap with Steve Price.
Following a meeting with station management, Smith reportedly stormed out of Macquarie Media’s Pyrmont offices Monday, though he was back on-air Tuesday afternoon.
Luke Grant was called into the station to cover Monday’s shift.
Smith’s office is currently lined with packing boxes believed to hold his celebrity photographs and trophies, and his team were called in for crisis talks with management on Tuesday. Read more…
9. Time is running out on Jones contract as new owners take control of 2GB
Comment from Peter Saxon. The real issue here is who’s running 2GB, its management or Alan Jones? It’s a question that is central to a number of causes that Jones has taken on in recent times. Who runs the Opera House, its General Manager, Louise Herron or Alan Jones? Who decides government policy, elected parliamentarians or Alan Jones? And most recently, who runs Rugby Australia, its CEO Raelene Castle or Alan Jones?
Jones has long been a critic of Ms Castle and her administration – not without some justification – but as usual, he goes over the top in his condemnation. “Nuance,” it seems, is a word superfluous to the needs of a shock jock in the modern era. Read more…
8. 2GB presenter accused of bullying
A former 2GB studio producer has called out bullying in the radio industry in a public post on Facebook.
Chris Bowen has written about his years working with a “bully” who regularly berated and harassed him in the workplace.
Bowen, who does not name the “bully” in his post on the social media platform, chronicles the effects the years of bullying have had on his mental health.
Interestingly, in bullying cases the accuser tends to prefer to remain anonymous while outing their tormentors. This time it’s the other way around and in respect to Chris, radioinfo has also decided not mention the alleged bully – although anyone who worked with Chris at 2GB will know who he means. Read more…
7. Radio ratings survey 1 for 2019: Swings and roundabouts in topsy turvy first survey
Ash, Kip, Luttsy & Susie O’Neil: Nova 106.9
2Day beats Triple M. Nova back on top in Brisbane, drops in Sydney.
Results for the first radio ratings survey of the year have just been released. Read more…
6. “I’m Madam Butterfly, that’s my nickname, this is my race.” Susie O’Neill
Olympic swimming great Susie O’Neill reveals in an emotional video how she felt a failure after her last race in her signature event.
On September 20, 2000, she was the unbackable favourite to win gold in the 200m Butterfly swimming event at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
She came second and she has never ever been able to watch what was her final race… until now. Read more…
5. “I’m a properly broken guy” Brian Carlton tells his fans
On Monday morning Brian Carlton opened his hugely successful, award winning Tasmania Talks show by bidding his listeners an emotion-charged farewell.
After four years, this is not how he wanted it to end. But end it did when management suddenly pulled the plug on him about seven minutes into his monologue and switched to music. Read more…
4. Heidi Latcham is joining 919 Sea FM
Heidi Latcham is back in her home town of the Sunshine Coast and is joining 919 Sea FM to be BarRat’s new partner on ‘BarRat & Heidi for Breakfast’.
Heidi has extensive experience on both radio and TV, including a recent stint at Star 1063FM and says “I’m so happy to be home on the Sunshine Coast, I am still a “Buderim Mountain State School Old Girl” at heart! I get to do my dream job in my dream town! I plan on having sand in my hair every day.” Read more…
3. Robin Bailey quits Triple M to look after husband Sean
Riddled with cancer, former Austereo Marketing Director Sean Pickwell, married Brisbane’s most loved breakfast presenter, Robin Bailey 14 months ago.
At the time, doctors had given Sean just six months to live. He wasted no time proposing to Robin, telling the Sunday Mail (subscription) “I would have understood if she had said no. Talk about buying damaged goods – that’s certainly how I was feeling about myself. Luckily, that’s not what Robin thought.” Read more…
2. I’m getting a bit croaky… this show won’t be returning: Myf Warhurst
Myf Warhurst went through her whole show on Friday before revealing to her audience that she would not be returning to ABC local radio next year.
There were some hints that something was wrong when she began the show by asking for requests that listeners needed to hear today, then played a request for herself titled Ball of Confusion. Read more…
1. Exclusive: Why I quit MacRadio – George Moore
In a brief statement at around 10:20am, Moore told listeners of 2GB, 4BC and network stations that he’d been offered a new contract to continue into 2020 and beyond but had turned it down.
He said that while the money was good, the terms of the agreement were unacceptable and therefore, “with heavy heart,” he had no option but to resign. He had, however, agreed to stay until Christmas but would not return in 2020. Read more…
