How radio queen Dee Dee Dunleavy was blindsided, ‘boned’

3AW host Dee Dee Dunleavy was celebrating what she thought had been one of her best weeks on air, when she was suddenly axed. Friends reveal her level of shock and devastation.

Diane ‘Dee Dee’ Dunleavy with former co-host and friend Peter ‘Grubby’ Stubbs, who was also shocked by her sudden dumping. Picture: Supplied

On Friday last week talent manager Mark Klemens and 3AW station boss Stephen Beers sat down for a regular catch-up.

What Klemens didn’t know was coming was the bombshell regarding his longtime client and 3AW Afternoon’s host Dee Dee Dunleavy.

Rather than talk contract extensions (normally the time for such conversations) the high-profile talent manager was told his client was getting boned.

Klemens, who is considered one of the most respected celebrity agents in the country as managing director of Profile Talent, told Dunleavy later that night the radio station was not renewing her contract at the end of the year.

To say Dunleavy was blindsided is an understatement.

Having joined Afternoons in December 2019, replacing longtime host Denis Walter who shifted to Nights, the radio queen was flying high.

Former 3AW broadcaster Dee Dee Dunleavy. Picture: Instagram.

Friends say Dee Dee had just been celebrating what she thought had been one of her best weeks on air.

Those many high-powered friends in Melbourne have been rallying around the radio veteran all week, telling Page 13 Dunleavy was devastated and most of all hurt.

“Dee Dee had been in the place a long, long time. She was so proud of what she was doing on air. She is hurt and so disappointed,” one close friend, who wished not to be named, said.

“There is no other way to put it than she was completely and utterly blindsided. It just came out of nowhere.”

But when it comes to showbiz, nothing comes from nowhere, especially in the cutthroat world of radio.

While Dunleavy was popular, having topped the latest radio ratings survey in her timeslot, which came out the following day, 3AW had made up its mind.

Suggestions her negative take on 3AW owner Nine Network’s upcoming Shane Warne biopic and her “no” stance on the Voice referendum were behind the boner were quietly denied this week.

Whispers she was undermining 3AW king Ross Stevenson’s Breakfast co-host Russell Howcroft (also a Klemen’s Profile client) were pooh-poohed.

It’s understood Ross and Russ separately contacted Dunleavy to wish her well and voice condolences.

Insiders say Dee Dee was hurt and devastated by her sudden axing. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

Theories 3AW was trying to skew to a younger audience were also dismissed as the reason behind the station’s decision to look elsewhere.

Not as loved as 3AW lifers such as Neil Mitchell, Denis Walter and Stevenson was a reason floated behind closed doors.

Always glass half full was another. Sometimes sharp with listeners.

The network was hoping its transparent decision to give Dee Dee, 60, as much time to process and plan her exit would protect it from the backlash.

But it backfired badly.

Instead she spent last weekend curled up, not sure how she could pretend to her listeners everything was fine and dandy.

Because if there is one thing about Dee Dee, she calls a spade a spade. Friends say she could not bear the thought of deceiving her audience or herself, so made the decision to go out on her own terms.

Her longtime former co-host and friend Grubby Stubbs talked of her many achievements. The duo was a mainstay on Melbourne radio for more than three decades, hosting Fox FM’s mornings show from the late 1980s before moving to breakfast at Gold FM in 2000.

Grubby told Page 13 Dee Dee is now back holding her head high.

“She is the ultimate professional, great fun and like a lot of people, I was pretty shocked,” Grubby, the Weekend Break host on 3AW, said.

“We are great mates and I will be over there having a cup of tea and driving her mad, same as we always have.

“She is very proud of what she achieved and certainly not bitter and twisted or saying how can you work for those bastards.

“People make decisions, sometimes you scratch your head at those decision but you get on with it, that’s exactly what she said to me.”

One 3AW insider felt she could have moved to other areas at the network before she went public with news she was leaving.

But Dee Dee is not one to go gentle into that good night, releasing the shock statement on social media that she would not be returning to the airwaves on Monday.

3AW’s saccharine statement followed, and plenty are left wishing it could have been handled better.

But again that’s showbiz and executives are looking to audition replacements.

It’s no secret many within 3AW think “golden child” Jacqui Felgate will move into the role early next year.

Jacqui Felgate is tipped to move into the radio role early next year. Picture: Nick Addison

But anything can happen in razor-slash radio, with Neil Mitchell’s former longtime producer turned Nine reporter, Heidi Murphy, continuing to impress.

Current fill-in Elise Elliott and graveyard shifter Tony Moclair will also fill the gap. But as one person crudely remarked, Moclair, however good he might be has the wrong appendage. It has to be a woman.

And so the game of (micro)thrones begins.