Comment from Brad Smart.

A week or so back we heard the news that 3AW afternoon host, Dee Dee Dunleavy, was told she wasn’t going to get her full-term contract renewed at the Melbourne ratings’ giant.

Allegedly, management found her to be ‘boring.’

No doubt, feeling miffed and unappreciated, Dee Dee wanted out of her contract asap and the management team was apparently happy to oblige.

Now, you may also recall that back in April, before Dee Dee’s departure, an even greater media bombshell was dropped on the other side of the Pacific.

The US cable TV network, Fox News, was still reeling from a billion-dollar defamation settlement when management decided to start cleaning house.

To everyone’s utter amazement, one of the first to go was primetime host – Tucker Carlson.

Carlson was gone from the conservative channel’s headquarters in a New York minute. No final show – no chance to say goodbye to viewers. Yep, television, like radio, can be ruthless.

While Fox News is obviously a television example, rash decisions regarding talent seem to happen across all media.

Now, when it comes to Tucker Carlson, I’m sure there’ll be many people still breaking out the Bollinger after hearing this news. To those on the Left the removal of Tucker Carlson will have been regarded as a great step forward for all Mankind, but what I’m talking about here is not politics or ideology, it’s about business and the rapidly changing media landscape.

Like him or not, Carlson’s show at 9pm was probably Fox’s major source of revenue.

Across America, more than three million people used to tune in to him each night, and along with those sorts of audience numbers came a river of gold from advertisers. In return, Carlson was reportedly paid $US20-million a year.

Back in 2016, Fox had run into sexual harassment allegations with then-CEO Roger Ailes, and to a lesser degree, the highest rating star on cable television, Bill O’Reilly.

Rupert Murdoch rightly sent Ailes packing, but O’Reilly was a bigger gamble.

Like Carlson, O’Reilly produced an avalanche of cash that kept the network afloat.

Nonetheless, in early 2017, Murdoch bit the bullet and paid out O’Reilly before the mounting allegations got out of control.

At that point, Fox News could well have lost the O’Reilly audience altogether, but without a real alternative to go to, they stayed, and along came Tucker Carlson. The conservative audience gelled with him and there was no significant impact on Fox News’ ratings or revenues.

Perhaps, this bolstered the management at Fox Corporation with a feeling of “success syndrome,” believing that no matter what actions they ever took with talent, they could do no wrong. As far as they were concerned, the ratings and the advertising belonged to Fox, so everything would stay the same for all time.

In April this year, when they decided Carlson was to go, I’m sure they were fully anticipating that the nationwide audience would react as they had to the removal of Bill O’Reilly.

What Fox didn’t bank on was that, in media, times have clearly changed.

Since 2017, podcasts have become a genuine alternative to traditional media, both in the U.S. and here. Talent, who have an established reputation, no longer need the networks as they once did.

As a result of Carlson’s dumping, Fox News’ nightly 3-million strong audience has halved in weeks and the bleed in revenue has now got to be hurting the network bigtime.

So, back to 3AW in Melbourne.

No sooner had the powers that be at Nine Radio agreed to part ways with Dee Dee Dunleavy, than the latest ratings survey dropped.

The afternoon host, whom they considered ‘boring’ and no longer wanted, had surprisingly produced a significant bump in audience share, while many of her contemporaries were left floundering.

For Dee Dee, I’m sure this was a nice middle finger departure, but that doesn’t necessarily help when she’s walking off into the sunset towards an uncertain future.

As with Fox News, a hasty executive decision at Nine Radio may have seen the network let a valuable asset slip through their fingers and they may end up regretting it and paying the penalty in both audience share and advertising revenue.

The Dee Dee Dunleavy case could become a costly decision for Nine. Good and popular talent doesn’t grow on trees.

Clearly, any impact on Nine Radio won’t be on the same scale as Fox tossing Tucker Carlson, but who knows if Dunleavy’s selected replacement can hold that loyal audience that she was able to create in her hometown.

On the other side of the coin, I think there could potentially be a golden opportunity for Dee Dee, if the ABC is smart enough.

It doesn’t take a genius to realise the ABC is in big ratings trouble right now, particularly with its Radio National morning shows.

The audiences have shrunk over recent surveys to the point that some ABC hosts may be in witness protection and can be confident they’ll never be found.

ABC’s AM listeners are older and are ‘conservative.’ Clearly not conservative politically. They are, however, the type of audience that’s exceedingly loyal, but doesn’t like things to change far from their normal expectations.

I would be amazed if Cherie Romaro’s review into the ABC doesn’t confirm this.

The problem in recent years is that many ABC talk presenters have been given a free hand to express whatever views they like, and ideologically, many have pushed past the boundaries, and in some cases, gone ‘way off the reservation.’

Those hosts have dragged the ideological focus of their programs so far to the progressive side of issues that even their traditional listener base has told them they’re no longer prepared to follow them that far from the norm. The only ones still listening are those on the outer fringe. Hence the ratings.

If the ABC wants to get back in the saddle and play radio for real, it needs to be prepared to make the same sorts of changes that other radio stations do routinely when they experience an audience backlash.

A clean-out and replacement of on-air talent is going to be needed to pull the ABC back towards the centre of the spectrum where the majority of listeners live.

Is that going to happen? Probably not.

In a public service organisation, those sorts of dramatic moves are never easy, if even remotely possible, especially when the staff has such a major say over what goes to air.

Nonetheless, I’m sure that all but true believers would agree that pushing too far to the progressive side of issues on ABC Radio has proven to be a failed experiment, certainly when it comes to their ratings.

If their disastrous nationwide ratings have frightened ABC management enough, then recruiting experienced on-air talent from outside their ranks may allow them to introduce more diverse views and start re-engaging with the traditional listener base.

Their first call in Melbourne should be to Dee Dee Dunleavy.

Dunleavy could prove to be an ideal moderate commentator for the national broadcaster. She’s seen as a cleanskin – neither of the Right nor the Left – and a proven ratings winner.

With her commercial experience she knows what pushes a listener’s buttons and she has proven she can adapt to an audience’s needs, rather than shilling a specific personal ideology.

ABC Managing Director, David Anderson, needs to think about, and perhaps, champion this type of proactive change.

In the past, ABC management has been reluctant to rein in its presenters’ on-air views, even when those views have become more and more out of touch and detrimentally impacted audience share.

It seems to me that the ABC’s once-loyal audiences have now left the building. They’ve voted with their ears. They’ve told the national broadcaster that their content needs to be less extreme if they want them to come back.

One thing I’m certain of, is that deep-down they’re ABC listeners and they want to come back.

Recruiting on-air personalities, like Dee Dee Dunleavy, could be a first step in pulling the ABC back from the ratings abyss and giving their listeners a reason to return.

Brad Smart previously owned and operated the Smart Radio Network through regional Queensland.

He sold his stations to the then Macquarie Radio Network.

He has been a journalist, broadcaster and film producer for over 30 years.

Brad is available as a freelance writer, voiceover talent and consultant.

Brad’s articles and podcasts are also available through his website www.bradsmart.com.au

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