Not so Good Friday for Channel Nine as staff told they must wait until after the Easter long weekend to be paid
Nine’s group director of finance operations Danielle Abandowitz emailed staff prior to the long weekend informing them they wouldn’t be getting paid until Tuesday. Happy Easter!
Staff at Nine Entertainment can’t have been too pleased upon receiving a notification on Good Friday that they would have to wait until after the four-day break to receive their fortnightly pay.
Nine’s group director of finance operations, Danielle Abandowitz, was the bearer of the bad news, emailing holidaying staff to tell them that they wouldn’t be receiving their pay cheques until Tuesday. But hey, happy Easter!
“We are writing to you tonight because we have been advised that the pay transfer due to happen on Saturday 30th March has been delayed,” she wrote in the emergency internal memo.
“This is due to public holidays and although the pay details have been finalised and transferred to ANZ, they will not be processed until Tuesday 2nd April.”
The number crunchers at Nine said they went above and beyond to solve the pay delay, even contacting ANZ directly to see if they could hurry things up. But asking a bank for a favour on a public holiday is a lesson in futility.
Still, the Nine team thought it best to give those ANZ bankers a swipe and shift the blame, even though banks are known to send regular alerts about delays to banking on public holidays.
“We apologise for the inconvenience caused, we and ANZ should have picked this up and processed on Thursday 28th March. Ongoing, we will have processes in place so that the funds are received prior so that there is no delay due to bank closures and public holidays.”
Memo to Nine: Easter occurs every year, and has done for about 2000 years. You might want to mark it in the calendar.
Macdonald lets fly with key ABC KPIs - but is she right?
ABC Sydney radio mornings host Sarah Macdonald was ticking off some key KPIs last Thursday – first it was a beat-up on private schools, then it was climate change’s ruinous effect on music festivals.
First, Macdonald discussed a meeting that had been held the previous night in Sydney, where about 1000 former students of Newington College gathered in the city’s town hall to vote on a number of school-related matters that have arisen since the 160-year-old institution announced last year that it planned to go co-educational in 2026.
Recognising that the turmoil at an expensive private boys school would resonate with her listeners, Macdonald opened the talkback lines for comment.
But before she did, Macdonald noted, incredulously, that some Newington ex-students “had flown in from all over the world to take part” in the meeting. And then, for good measure, she mentioned that fact again two minutes later. Lo and behold, when the texts started coming through, Macdonald observed that some listeners had “been shocked that people had flown in from overseas” for the meeting.
One problem, though. No one had flown in from overseas for the meeting. A handful from interstate, maybe, but not one of the 1000 attendees at the meeting had needed their passport to get to the Newington Old Boys pow-wow. A simple check with the organisers and conveners of the event confirmed this to Diary.
We asked the ABC if Macdonald or anyone from her program had sought to verify her claim of “overseas attendees”, but we didn’t hear back. So we’ll take it as a no. As to why and how that claim made it to air, we’ll never know.
We’ll also never know why Macdonald felt the need to beat up the story with easily disproved anecdotes of people “flying in from overseas” to attend the meeting. Was she perhaps trying to push a wider ABC agenda about the privileges enjoyed by people who attended private schools?
Anyway, then it was on to climate change, and its effects on music festivals. The previous day, it had been announced that one of Australia’s biggest musical festivals, Splendour in the Grass, where the likes of Kylie Minogue and G Flip were on the line-up – had succumbed to the economic pressures faced by festival organisers, and poor ticket sales.
But Macdonald thought “climate was a factor, too”.
“The last time I went to (music festival) Bluesfest, my gosh, the mud! It was up to the top of my gumboots. It was fabulous but it was super, super muddy.
“And that’s what happened to Splendour (in the Grass) too, remember, a couple of years ago? It was incredibly rainy.
“And of course we had those floods after those bushfires.”
There’s a lot to unpack here but we think Macdonald is arguing that climate change is killing music festivals.
Didn’t it rain at Woodstock for three days straight?
Raf vs Jeff
Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett famously boycotted the ABC for years, and told his ministers to do the same. So it was a surprise to many when the ex-Liberal leader popped up on the taxpayer-funded broadcaster last week to chew the fat with ABC Melbourne’s mornings radio host Raf Epstein about the woes of Crown casino.
But it soon became clear that Kennett didn’t really have too much to say on Crown. He was far more interested in landing a few blows on the ABC itself.
The interview quickly turned into a combative retelling of the behaviour of Victoria’s past political leaders and their relationships with the national broadcaster. Pass the popcorn!
Epstein lit the fire, comparing Daniel Andrews’ conduct with the media and the ABC to Mr Kennett’s treatment of the fourth estate.
Andrews famously froze out 3AW broadcaster Neil Mitchell for years and even turned his back on Raf’s predecessor, Virginia Trioli, refusing to go on her program during his final year in office.
Epstein asked Kennett: “Do you think Dan Andrews refusing to go on commercial AM radio in this city is the same as you refusing to come on the ABC for a long time? Are they equivalent?”
JK: “No, not really.”
RE: “Why?”
JK: “Well, we’re both individuals, we make our own decisions.”
RE: “Oh come on, you both decided you didn’t want to talk to that person or that organisation, it’s basically the same isn’t it?”
The on-air tussle kept going with Kennett telling Epstein: “Don’t get upset, just settle down.”
But Raf, keeping his cool, said it was a pleasure to have the former Victorian Liberal leader on his show.
“I’m always settled with you, Jeff Kennett, because it’s fun having you on the radio, but it’s kind of the same (as Andrews)?”, he scoffed.
And that’s when Kennett – who was premier from 1992 to 1999 – stopped sparring and went in for the knockout punch.
“No it’s not, in my case you are talking about 24 years ago and in Daniel’s your talking about more recently,” he said.
“Look I’m always happy to talk to you guys, the only trouble is you’re so far to the left.”
Ouch.
Resisting the urge to take the bait, Epstein instead needled Kennett on the fact that, unlike Andrews, the former premier isn’t eligible to be immortalised in bronze.
In Victoria, bronze statues are unveiled in honour of premiers once they serve 3000 days as the state’s leader, but Kennett only served for 2263 days.
“You won’t get a statue. Daniel Andrews will. You established those rules. Do you care?”
“Couldn’t give a regimental,” Kennett huffed.
4BC’s up-ended line-up
Nine Radio’s Brisbane station 4BC’s holiday line-up was in turmoil last week, not long after its schedule for the two-week radio ratings break had been set in stone.
In fact, stone is the key word here, because former Channel 7 Sunrise reporter Bianca Stone’s stint as fill-in afternoons host for Sofie Formica was over before it even began.
In a report by Nine News Brisbane reporter Tim Arvier last week, he announced on the 6pm news to presenter Andrew Lofthouse that LNP sources had told him Stone had “put her hand up to run against (housing minister) Meaghan Scanlon in the Gold Coast seat of Gaven at the next election”.
“It’s understood Bianca Stone has significant support in the party’s parliamentary wing in what would be a tough fight against the housing minister who is one of Labor’s star performers,” Arvier told viewers.
“It is worth noting that Stone has been a performer for a long time in Brisbane TV and radio and it will be very interesting to see how this plays out.”
#EXCLUSIVE: A Queensland radio and TV personality could take on the Housing Minister at the next election. @TimArvier9#9Newspic.twitter.com/sUmz4iyVbM
— 9News Queensland (@9NewsQueensland) March 26, 2024
Arvier’s report set the hares running, with Nine Radio managing director Tom Malone and the station’s content boss, Holly Green, understandably concerned that a potential political candidate at October’s state election could be hosting one of their key weekday radio shows.
So word has it that Stone was told soon after news broke of her political aspirations that her fill-in radio role was suddenly now “under consideration”.
Short story: Stone won’t be filling in at 4BC this month.
Instead, TV producer Rob McKnight, co-editor of website TV blackbox, will be taking the reins in the afternoon for the first of the two-week radio ratings break, followed by Greg Cary in week two.
I’ll be hosting @NewsTalk4BC AFTERNOONS today and all next week, filling in for the wonderful Sofie Formica. Listen via the app and give me a call on 133 882 pic.twitter.com/m8ArXXi3u2
— Robert McKnight (@rob_mcknight) March 29, 2024
But the breakfast trio of Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine are the ones who need to watch their backs as there’s plenty who have their eyes on their slot, particularly given their contracts are up later this year.
Luke Bradnam and Formica will jointly fill in on Easter Monday before she hits the airwaves with Peter “read a room” Fegan for the remainder of the week.
Then Fegan will fly solo for the second week of the break in the breakfast slot.
As for the mornings slot, former Liberal minister Gary Hardgrave will take over from Bill McDonald for the fortnight.
Confused Age
When The Age newspaper in Melbourne decided to have a good old-fashioned dig at Herald Sun columnist and Sky News Australia host Steve Price last week, something was amiss.
Diary was left baffled at what newspaper journalist Noel Towell had been reading, but it certainly wasn’t recent editions.
Towell had a crack at Price, criticising him for attending the Australian Grand Prix trackside one minute, then the next minute bagging the very same event in a subsequent newspaper column.
Towell’s article went into great detail about how Price was lapping up the hospitality at the F1 on Sunday, but just two days later had (allegedly) changed his tune and penned a column in the Herald Sun that he wanted the event gone. Confusing? You betcha.
Price has a weekly column in Saturday’s Herald Sun – not on Tuesdays – so what on earth was Towell referring to?
The Age columnist wrote that Price had failed to make reference in his mysterious column on Tuesday to the fact that he was enjoying the trackside hospitality at the grand prix, including visits to the Marriott Bonvoy Lounge and Paramount+ suite.
“None of that got a mention in yesterday’s column, but we’re sure that’s just an unfortunate oversight,” Towell wrote.
Only problem was – Price wrote no such thing last week.
Perhaps Towell missed Ten’s The Project before he decided to go for Price.
A regular Project panellist, Price told co-hosts Sarah Harris and Waleed Aly last Monday: “The Australian Formula One Grand Prix is now the best and greatest annual sporting event Australia has, bar none, bar none.”
Fellow panellist, comedian Sam Taunton, quizzed Price: “I’ve heard this argument, you were ‘anti’ it weren’t you?”
Price replied: “I wrote a column on it in November saying we couldn’t afford and we should get rid of it”, but then conceded he’d since changed his tune.
And Price did declare his freebies, telling the audience he loves the event, “especially when I get two free tickets”.
But the first Price learned about the mysterious column that Towell had read was after he was contacted by Diary.
Calls were made to The Age editor Patrick Elligett to find out what column Towell was reading, only for it to be revealed he was referencing Price’s Herald Sun column from way back on November 25 – that is, 18 weeks ago, where Price said Victoria must dump the F1 grand prix.
Any wonder Price didn’t make reference to his attendance at the car race in his November column, as his FI invite probably had not even been sent in the mail yet.
While Elligett confirmed he was looking into the matter, a Nine spokesman later told Diary: “There was an error in the copy which has been updated online.
“There will be a correction in the paper tomorrow.”
Towell’s hit on Price was quickly amended, and hopefully he has updated his newspaper pile too.
Stale fin
The quiet revolution among the dwindling group of letter writers to The Australian Financial Review continues.
Last week Diary brought you the news that the AFR’s civilian correspondents were up in arms because their traditional page in the newspaper had effectively been cut in half. In a brutal (don’t say “cost-cutting”) exercise, the letters page has recently been shoe-horned next to the back end of somebody else’s column. In other words, next step: oblivion.
In recent days, more loyal letter writers to the paper, led by editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury, have expressed their disgust at the move, and Diary reckons an uprising is in the air.
Last Tuesday, Ramani from Rhodes, in Sydney, wrote that the letters published in the paper were quite often superior to the journalism and commentary found elsewhere in the tabloid.
“Never mind they (the letters) often make better reading than the journos and op-ed operatives. The swelling crowd of expectant writers searching the columns for their epistles ensures a reliable, if frustrated, readership. Letter writers to AFR must unite: we have nothing to lose except our hopeless odds!”
The following day, Allan from Cherrybrook in NSW, stuck the knife in further, writing that the missives from readers offered “varied thought and opinion that has provided a balance in the content published in the other sections of the masthead. Restricting space for that contribution would be both disappointing and regrettable.”
Contributions from letter writers were completely absent over the AFR’s five-day long weekend, given the publication of its infamous “bumper” edition on Thursday that includes no fresh news until the following Tuesday – by which time the paper is as stale as last week’s hot cross buns.
Nick Tabakoff is on leave
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