Alan Jones to return to airwaves at Macquarie Radio Network

AUSTRALIA'S best-known broadcaster, Alan Jones, will return to the airwaves by the middle of next month, bolstering the prospects of John Singleton's Macquarie Radio Network maintaining profit levels as it battles a general advertising downturn.

AUSTRALIA'S best-known broadcaster, Alan Jones, will return to the airwaves by the middle of next month, bolstering the prospects of John Singleton's Macquarie Radio Network maintaining profit levels as it battles a general advertising downturn.

The Sydney-based Macquarie Radio -- which operates the city's top-rating station, 2GB, and the over-50s-skewed music station 2CH -- recorded an 18 per cent fall in bottom-line profit to $4.4million for the June financial year. The drop was in line with a profit downgrade the network released to the market last month where it revealed earnings would be "15-20 per cent less" than its 2007 result.

But in an interview with The Australian, Macquarie Radio CEO Angela Clark revealed a silver lining for the network amid the ad downturn with the imminent return of Jones -- its biggest star and revenue generator -- from prostate cancer surgery.

"At the latest, he will be back on air on September 15," Ms Clark said.

In further positive news for Macquarie's ability to attract advertising, Ms Clark revealed Jones would not reduce the length of his five-hour breakfast program upon his return.

It had been speculated Jones might look to take on a less onerous schedule in the wake of his surgery.

But Ms Clark said: "At this point, he's planning to continue his existing shift."

The company has admitted that the tough Sydney radio market -- which has been struggling for the past three years -- represents an ongoing challenge. Macquarie Radio chairman Max Donnelly said: "It has been a difficult year with regards to the advertising market but we believe we have the best talent in Australian radio."

However, Ms Clark has claimed this challenge could represent an opportunity for the network by allowing it to eat into the share of other competitors: "In three years of Sydney radio declining, we have been improving our relative position in the market in a format sense and audience sense. While it doesn't immunise us, it does give a relative degree of protection."

Ms Clark said that in July, the Sydney radio market had decreased "by about 5 per cent", but Macquarie Radio's advertising was "up year-on-year" for the month.

Ms Clark said the company was in a better position than some other media groups to handle fresh recent indications that the overall media ad market was struggling because it had already been forced to confront the prolonged decline in Sydney radio advertising.

She was happy to maintain the network's current personality and program timing mix, despite the recent challenges posed by Jones's surgery. "We have no current plans for format change," she said.