Chris Smith sets sail on cruise as 2GB listeners prepare to rally

It has been a long week for 2GB’s Chris Smith with days of intense negotiations over his radio career taking a toll on his family. He spoke to The Sunday Telegraph about who’s at the centre of the discussions and his hopes of the company saving him.

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EXCLUSIVE: With the strain of exhaustion etched on his face and his broadcast career on the verge of collapse, radio host Chris Smith emerged from his home on Friday clutching the hands of his two greatest devotees for support, Harry and Gus, his three-year-old twins.

“These kids are what my discussions with 2GB are all about, and my wife. This is what it’s all about, and I hope and pray that 2GB can help me,” he said.

Smith spoke briefly and delicately about the ongoing managerial impasse threatening his top-rating program.

It’s been a long week. On Monday his bosses called him into a surprise meeting and revealed his popular afternoon show would be moved to the nightshift, effectively a demotion.

The news triggered days of intense negotiations.

Chris Smith, pictured with his wife Susie Burrell and their three-year-old twins Harry and Gus, has had a long week of discussions. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

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For now, Smith is off the airwaves; he will spend the next three weeks on a company-sponsored cruise with 2GB listeners intent on seeing him returned to his three-hour timeslot — midday-3pm — which he has hosted for the past 18 years.

A rally planned for Tuesday will see some of these listeners gather in support of him outside 2GB’s Pyrmont office.

“I’m touched,” Smith said. “My gut is wrenching for people who have been with me for almost two decades, for people who have followed me for almost two decades.

“What I’d like to do is go off on this transatlantic cruise with 100 of my listeners with this not hanging over my head.”

Smith’s large radio audience provides a strong lead-in for the Ben Fordham show that airs straight after. Picture: John Feder

The move will see Steve Price move into the afternoon slot.

For the past week colleagues have seen the prominent radio personality packing up his office or bunkered down in lengthy management meetings. Whether he will return to the microphone remains unclear.

Station CEO Adam Lang said he was looking forward to working with Smith “long into the future” but declined to speak in detail about the negotiations, citing confidentiality.

What is widely known, however, is that Smith stormed out of the building on Monday after being informed his show would be swapped with broadcaster Steve Price, whose timeslot runs from 8pm to midnight.

Smith’s audience is currently about 500,000 listeners, numbers that provide a strong lead-in for the drive-time host Ben Fordham, whose show begins straight after Smith comes off air.

“I want my friend Ben Fordham to be able to rely on the audience that I pass onto him,” Smith said.

“I want him to keep getting the kind of audience lead-ins that he has got from me since he started.”

Ms Burrell said the late shift move would not work with her husband’s parenting responsibilities. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

But at the heart of the negotiations is family, said Smith’s wife Susie Burrell, who described the events of the past week as a “complete insult” and pointed to a “lack of transparency” from 2GB management.

She added that a move to the late shift was incompatible with her husband’s parenting responsibilities.

In addition to twin boys, Smith also has two teenage children from a previous marriage.

“It’s been incredibly disappointing to see my husband treated this way when he has such a long history with the company,” said Ms Burrell, a dietitian who appears regularly on radio and television.

Speaking despite Smith’s requests to refrain from further comment, she said: “There’s no justification for this. My husband has been made a bit of a sacrificial lamb. It has left Chris and I devastated.”