By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Kyle Sandilands doesn’t mind being in the news, particularly with reports of his ginormous salary. But even he might be less than impressed to learn that highly confidential pay details of radio’s biggest earning stars (including his own, obviously) have been handed to lawyers representing the enemy.
This is because the Copyright Tribunal of Australia ordered the big radio networks to divulge details of their biggest earning stars to lawyers conducting a court case for the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia Ltd, which is campaigning to get more moolah for Aussie record labels and performers.
Kyle Sandilands’ very lucrative payslips have been handed over. Credit: John Shakespeare
And FM radio networks are the main target, as Phonographic Performance reckons they are not forking out enough in licence fees.
So it must have hurt the big radio networks – Nova, owned by Lachlan Murdoch; SCA, the home of Triple M, Fox and 2Day; and Kyle and Jackie O Henderson’s shop, ARN – to lose this skirmish.
The highly confidential payslips may help the copyright tribunal determine what is fair to pay musos for playing their records on the radio.
Goodness knows how the radio stations are managing their notoriously competitive talent on this issue.
But who are the top paid stars? The industry guessing game is delicious.
At issue: the tribunal said lawyers for Phonographic Performance could be told who the three highest-paid radio presenters were at ARN, Nova and SCA in the 2022-23 financial year. But that period is well before Sandilands and Henderson signed a decade-long deal worth up to $200 million, which was announced in November. So the lawyers just calculated the pair’s old, albeit lucrative, deal.
Apart from Kyle and Jackie O, ARN is home to Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones on WSFM in Sydney, as well as Gold FM’s British import, Christian O’Connell, in Melbourne. They can’t all be on the list.
Over at SCA, Fifi Box at Fox FM in Melbourne was top of the ratings pile along with co-hosts Brendan Fevola and Nick Cody. And comedian Dave Hughes at 2Day FM in Sydney must fancy himself as being a contender. We are not so sure about his Morning Crew mates, Ed Kavalee and Erin Molan.
Fox FM’s Brendan Fevola, Fifi Box and Nick Cody.Credit: Fox FM
Independent senator David Pocock is fighting the good fight on this issue, with a private members bill to give artists fair pay for play on radio, but even he didn’t want to be drawn on news of the salary disclosures. Wise man.
The Phonographic Performance Company of Australia and Commercial Radio Australia declined to comment.
Baby bonus
OK, so we recently gave Chris Dore, a former editor of The Australian, a serve over his rebirth at Seven West Media. In truth, CBD loves a comeback story. So we feel it is only fair to tell you that Dorey’s appointment as editor of The West Australian and The Sunday Times isn’t the newsman’s only piece of good news. He’s also going to be a dad.
Chris Dore has a new gig at Seven and a bub on the way.Credit: Jesse Marlow
The worst-kept secret in the media is that Dore and his partner, Jenna Clarke, a columnist at The Australian and where Dore once edited her work, are expecting a baby in June.
Now that the happy news is social media official, we couldn’t ignore the unmissable cast of characters who attended the couple’s recent baby shower. CBD’s spies spotted former Liberal speaker and helicopter enthusiast Bronwyn Bishop hovering over the saveloys, while her hard-right party comrade, Teena McQueen, was also around.
Party host: Sharri Markson.Credit: Louie Douvis
Other guests included new Daily Mail political editor Peter van Onselen, his corporate high-flyer wife, Ainslie van Onselen, The Australian’s Caroline Overington and pugnacious defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou.
The party was hosted by News Corp’s Sharri Markson at the home of another defamation lawyer, Rebekah Giles, who we were shocked to see hanging out with a bunch of journalists she wasn’t trying to sue.
Chosen one
After a period of indecision akin to human gestation – a whole nine months – Victorian Labor has finally appointed a new state secretary.
Chris Ford exited the role in August after overseeing a state election campaign where the government increased its margin by one seat.
Then Cameron Petrie acted in the role for nine months as Labor’s Left and Right factions failed to agree to a deal.
The Left currently have the majority within the party and wanted the leadership for City of Kingston councillor Steve Staikos. But it simply wouldn’t be Victorian ALP democracy to just elect a new leader without some factional horse-trading.
Long story short, Petrie and his assistant, Nicola Castleman, are not part of the new lineup. Staikos was confirmed as state secretary. Youthful right-winger Jett Fogarty, an adviser to Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, has scored the new role of senior assistant secretary.
Mikaela Sadkiewicz, of the Left, fills the other new role of junior assistant secretary. The move avoids the leadership contest spilling out into Labor’s state conference this month, but it hasn’t stopped party apparatchiks tipping the event to be even spicier than last year. Let’s hope the decision-making is speedier.
Pallas show
It’s not where you start, it’s where you end up that counts, right? Well, not if you are a state treasurer drawing budget graphs.
Just ask Victoria’s Tim Pallas, whose statistics for the state’s business community at a Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry function on Wednesday were peppered with references to the state’s outperformance on employment and business investment.
Treasurer Tim Pallas speaks at the business lunch on Wednesday.Credit: AAP
But it was Pallas’ timeframe that had the crowd fascinated. Financial year? Calendar year? Nope. For Tim, day dot was September 2020, when readers will recall Victoria was in the grip of a punishing lockdown and the rest of the country was, well, not.
That’s a deck stacked harder than a western suburbs Labor branch.
The event was jointly hosted by the Melbourne Press Club’s vice president, Nine journalist Heidi Murphy, who stole the show by describing the reduction in state debt as of “bee’s dick” proportions.
The chief money man responded: “I wouldn’t be quite so salacious. But let me put it this way, it’s a start. And, you know, the longest journey starts with the smallest step.”
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