2GB bosses Adam Lang, Michael Thompson under scrutiny for station changes
The drama engulfing Chris Smith’s future at 2GB radio is being felt throughout the station’s Pyrmont offices with the two men in charge under the microscope for their handling of the situation.
Radio station 2GB’s national executive producer Michael Thompson angrily burst into the studio this week while presenter Chris Smith was on air to tell him he had gone too far.
Smith’s crime was failing to cut off a listener who said that no one in his loyal audience could believe he was being treated this way.
The Daily Telegraph this week revealed that Smith was about to be bumped from his regular afternoon shift and swapped with night-time presenter Steve Price as part of a move to cut costs.
The news sent shockwaves through the offices of 2GB owners Macquarie Media, its listeners and advertisers.
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Smith is distraught. He has broken down in tears in the corridors of the radio station, and on Monday stormed out after a heated meeting with management.
The way Macquarie Media bosses have handled the entire situation — Smith’s staff still have not been told what is happening — has once again highlighted just how unhappy people
are inside the station’s Pyrmont headquarters.
Smith has been buoyed by a wave of support.
Listeners are planning to protest outside the station on Tuesday, and the following week outside the offices of its new owner, Nine Entertainment.
“The listeners have not been taken into account at all,” said dentist Jim Sternhill, who called in to 2GB presenter Ben Fordham’s show this week.
“If they do this, we will switch off.”
And that would be bad news for advertisers, at least three of whom are threatening to withdraw up to $2 million if the plan to move Smith goes ahead.
“I would not like to see the line-up reshuffled because I think it works,” regular advertiser Con Dedes, owner of Dedes Waterfront Group, said.
Mediaweek editor James Manning agrees: “These presenters have been in their roles for a long time, and moving them or sacking them is just going to upset the audience.”
But as far as Macquarie Media’s management team is concerned, Smith’s swap with Price is a done deal.
“They are bleeding money from bad decisions and badly need a win,” an insider told The Saturday Telegraph.
Chief executive Adam Lang and his right-hand man Thompson were determined to get rid of breakfast presenter Alan Jones after his costly loss in the Wagner family defamation case.
They were so confident that their expensive breakfast radio star was not going to get his contract renewed that they offered his slot to mornings host Ray Hadley and told Price he could come off nights to take Hadley’s spot.
As talks dragged on, Nine chairman Peter Costello and chief executive Hugh Marks made it clear they wanted Jones at the microphone for another two years. His contract was finally signed at the end of last month, paying him $8 million.
That left Lang and Thompson holding two broken promises to Hadley and Price and needing to make up a lot of money.
Hadley has made it clear he is happy to wait for 78-year-old Jones to retire, but Price is understood to be agitating for change.
“I haven’t had any discussions and wouldn’t talk about contract negotiations,” Price said yesterday.
But insiders say he has been offered Smith’s slot as a consolation prize and that Smith is “collateral damage”.
Behind the scenes, Lang and Thompson are trying to cut costs to prop up ailing sport station Macquarie Sports Radio, which has 30 full-time staff but is pulling in less than 1 per cent of audience share across NSW, Victoria and Queensland.
That comes hot on the heels of their last failed venture, Talking Lifestyle radio, which shut after 18 months and at a cost believed to be in the region of $6 million.
They have already saved $500,000 a year by axing the Australian Associated Press news service. But moving Smith on to nights and putting Price on in the afternoons would make further big savings.
Price would broadcast into three states — NSW, Queensland and Victoria — where the current popular 3AW afternoon host Denis Walters and his team would be axed.
The management team’s handling of the negotiations has upset Macquarie Media staff, who are already feeling vulnerable after no action was taken following a number of bullying allegations against Hadley earlier this year.
Thompson, Hadley’s former executive producer, has told staff that they will
be disciplined if they are caught discussing the plans for Smith — even among themselves.
Smith was too sick to appear on air yesterday and has now gone on a pre-planned three-week holiday, which includes a cruise from New York to Europe with listeners. Management
had planned for him to return and go straight on to the night shift.
That does not suit Smith, who has young twin daughters and wants to keep going with the formula that has won him 90 audience surveys.
He has left the matter in the hands of lawyers who have written to Macquarie Media management to try and stop the move.
Smith declined to comment for this story.
Yesterday Lang’s response to questions on the issue was a curt “no comment”. Earlier in the week he had offered an opaque, “We look forward to continuing to work with Chris on our News Talk stations long into the future”, without saying in what timeslot.
When contacted this week, Nine chief executive Hugh Marks said he was kept informed about the moves by The Daily Telegraph.
The question now is: How long it will be until he decides to take a closer look at exactly what is going on inside his major radio network?
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