Yesterday we brought you some views on the Nine Radio sale from a range of industry insiders.
Another person with talk radio experience who has been thinking about the sale is Jason Morrison. He has experience working in publicly listed media companies and in private companies.
Here’s what he thinks:
The radio station tends to reflect the personality of the ownership.
My experience has been that 2GB’s greatest years, in the last 30 or so I’ve been around the place, have been during private ownership (the Singo era). It was irreverent, entrepreneurial, and unapologetic about what it was – and massively successful.
The same could be said for 2UE when it was owned by the Lamb family. They were good people to work for and rewarded loyalty and hard work from their staff.
For a broadcaster, there is definitely something reassuring about knowing that your contribution and creativity is not being only judged in a spreadsheet or a random survey result from afar.
John Singleton and his execs, Russell Tate and Rob Loewenthal, never left you in doubt about what they wanted and where you stood.
I know the Laundy’s well-enough to know that these are all qualities they stand for and that’s a great thing for the future of the stations and the staff.
I had a similar experience working at Channel 7 for Kerry Stokes. Sure, Seven was an ASX listed company, at little like Singo’s MRN, but Kerry’s shareholding was so substantial it always felt like his company and we worked to get him results.
Nothing feels better after a day of getting flogged than having the proprietor tell you “good job”.
Reporting: Steve Ahern
Related reports:
Agencies have always struggled to understand talk radio: Trevor Long
Nine’s radio assets sold to Laundy consortium for $56 million