Social media deals just the start of 3AW’s Felgate headache

Jacqui Felgate has boosted her online profile and scored a coveted radio gig but can the social media darling ever be trusted to be impartial?

The media regulator is reviewing Jacqui Felgate’s list of commercial deals. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Melbourne’s leading radio station 3AW has created a massive headache for themselves appointing social media darling Jacqui Felgate to host the drivetime show from next year.

Presently filling in for the sacked Dee Dee Dunleavy, Felgate – until outed on Monday by The Australian’s media writer Sophie Elsworth – was broadcasting in breach of broadcasting authority regulations.

As Elsworth revealed the new AW star has 12 commercial partnerships with everyone from banks to car dealers and shopping centres.

The station and Felgate had not revealed those deals on their website.

The owners of 3AW, the Nine network, described it as an “innocent oversight”.

No it’s not, the media company had been breaking the law.

That’s not the end of the problem for AW but just the beginning.

Among Felgate’s deals – said to be worth around $25,000 a pop – are NAB, car dealer BMW and a property developer called Villawood.

Jacqui Felgate’s commercial deals could be just the start of the problem for 3AW.

Just those three examples pose a question for the AW audience when Felgate covers – as she will inevitably have to do – interest rates, the state of the vehicle market or the behaviour of property developers in a distressed housing market.

Will the new darling of drivetime, as regulations demand her to do, declare she has a financial interest in a company like say Chemist Warehouse, another of her sponsors?

And what to do when the talkback lines light up with a debate over the whipping of racehorses during the Spring Carnival as happens every year, does she tell those listening that she is paid by the Melbourne Racing Club?

I could go on with Felgate being paid by makeup sponsors, shopping centres and even dentists doing veneers for teeth.

The fact the presenter has been on the station filling in and management didn’t think it necessary to point out these deals is either sloppy, or they believed part-timers were not captured by the regulations.

Either way, what to do now?

Tom Elliott is the chairman of Beulah Capital’s investment committee. Picture Jay Town

The social media deals are obviously lucrative, and she would be reluctant to dump her social media salary that could likely be close to what Nine is paying her.

What Nine can’t do is allow her to keep those deals and present a talkback/current affairs show with the conflicts I have just pointed out.

I’ve been in the middle of this issue before.

Back in 2008 I took over the morning radio show on Sydney’s 2UE from the legendary broadcaster John Laws.

Laws retired from mainstream talk radio at the end of 2007 and today broadcasts on Sydney’s 2SM and regional stations mainly on the East coast of NSW and Queensland.

Out the door with “golden tonsils”, as he was known, went the golden microphone (real gold), the monogrammed calf skin leather chair and the famous John Laws cowbell.

The bell had been in use since the end of 1999 when Laws and fellow Sydney broadcaster Alan Jones were found to have breached broadcasting regulations in the infamous “cash-for-comment” case. The station was fined more than $300,000.

John Laws continued to be paid a fee by a raft of companies for promoting their products, on top of his massive radio salary.

The sponsors through the years – for him and Jones – included Toyota, Qantas, Foxtel, Optus, Star Casino, Mirvac and the major Banks.

The problem was that according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) it was not possible for the audience to distinguish between comments about banks or casinos, what was paid for comment and what was genuine comment.

Eventually the ACMA decided the bell ringing wasn’t enough of an alert and Laws walked away.

Since then radio station owners and on-air presenters have been very cautious about getting caught up in another cash for comment saga.

It’s now a condition of holding a broadcast licence that you must list on your website any third-party agreements the on-air presenters have.

3AW breakfast host Russell Howcroft provides brand advice and talent services to the Sayers Group.

Melbourne’s number one station until this week had very few disclosures to make.

If you scroll to the very bottom of their website and click on the tiny writing that says commercial agreements, you will find that new morning presenter Tom Elliott is connected to something called Beulah Capital, he’s chairman of their investment committee.

Breakfast host Russel Howcroft interestingly provides brand advice and talent services to the Sayers Group founded by ex-PwC chief executive and Carlton president Luke Sayers.

Night-time presenter Dennis Walter has a deal with a funeral parlour and a caravan maker.

Unsurprisingly, Neil Mitchell has no deals with anyone and is free to voice his opinions on everyone and everything.

Felgate on the other hand, is in a world of social media driven pain.

I can understand the dilemma she has to some degree.

At the end of 1999 when the Laws and Jones cash-for-comment scandal was broken by the ABC, I was dragged into the affair when an anonymous complainant suggested I was being paid by Volvo, Transurban and Crown Casino.

I wasn’t being paid one cent by anyone and was later cleared by ACMA.

At the time I was program director and drive presenter and read live commercials on air for a Volvo dealership, Bilia of Hawthorn.

As part of that commercial agreement the dealer provided 3AW with a vehicle which I drove as part of the sales deal that allowed me to talk in their commercials about their range of cars. The anonymous complainant confused station broadcasts at locations like Crown Casino and Transurban road projects with some sort of cash deal for me, which was wrong.

ACMA accepted the station’s explanation and AW and myself were found innocent and no-one at 3AW – unlike in Sydney – was ever fined or sanctioned.

Originally published as Social media deals just the start of 3AW’s Felgate headache