Page 13: Radio stars Fifi Box and Amanda Keller weigh in on Marty Sheargold’s antics

The public and the Prime Minister have had their say on Marty Sheargold. Now radio bigwig Amanda Keller has weighed in on his antics, saying “he’s punched down at women”.

Triple M changed Marty Sheargold’s contract when he returned to air, adding a behavioural clause, which they activated on Wednesday to sack him.

That’s the word from many in the network, although the way it is couched by Southern Cross Austereo was the more saccharine, veering on Orwellian, “mutually agreed to part ways”, and not termination.

Whatever the case the optics aren’t great and the almost 100 people made redundant just this past week by the radio giant in a cost-cutting exercise had many wondering if jobs could have been saved if Sheargold was let go after his sexist rant following last year’s Grand Final.

Outrage has grown following Sheargold’s comments on the Matildas this week. Picture: Instagram

Suffice to say it has done nothing for morale within the Austereo corridors.

A goodbye to many of the Melbourne staffers who were let go was met with a few rounds on Thursday night, coincidentally the same time an invite only event for industry bigwigs and advertisers was been held with on-air talent including Nick Riewoldt, Fifi Box and Brendan Fevola scheduled to attend.

Fifi Box knows all too well of Sheargold’s antics. His bullying behaviour toward her was called out by radio veteran Amanda Keller this week, among the cavalcade of staffers, on-air talent and even the Prime Minister furious at Sheargold’s Matilda’s so-called “joke”.

Sheargold ‘parted ways’ with Triple M on Wednesday. Picture: Triple M

“This thinking, this way of thought is so privileged, outdated and boorish,” Keller said on her Gold FM radio show.

She noted that Triple M has honed a reputation as being a home for both sport and comedy: “Well, he’s pissed over both. He really has. And he’s punched down at women.”

She reminded listeners that Sheargold himself had admitted he became a “giant A-hole” when co-hosting a breakfast show with fellow radio stalwart Fifi Box some years ago. The pair hosted The Shebang on Triple M in the early noughties.

Sheargold and former co-host Loren Barry. Picture: Supplied

“He said, ‘I battered that woman down. Show after show. And I don’t blame Fifi for wanting to get out.’ This is what he said at the time,” Keller claimed.

And it is not just Sheargold getting battering but SCA executives and board for appointing him to Drive after his foul mouthed rant the Grand Final saw him take a (more Orwellian-speak) “extended break.”

SCA CEO John Kelly was quoted on Friday as saying he doesn’t subscribe to the theory that the radio industry needs to change its business model in order to survive. “I actually believe the opposite. When the world goes global, we go local, and I think what we’re trying to do is even more hyper-local.”

This was met with vitriol on social media, with many, some ex staffers, furious at the comments due to the fact it is was local content and employees who were made redundant. Again optics.