Rumours rife Hamish Macdonald is keen to cut back on ABC shifts
ABC Radio host Hamish Macdonald is widely rumoured to already be eyeing a change; For many, the exit of Seven’s outgoing news boss Anthony De Ceglie could not have come sooner.
It seems ABC Radio’s top brass just can’t take a trick – one moment former fill-in presenter Antoinette Lattoufis up in arms that she hosted too few of its Sydney morning shows, the next, current presenter Hamish Macdonald reckons he’s hosting too many.
Lattouf took the public broadcaster to court for unlawful termination after she was let go just three days into a five-day contract in December 2023. Now the industry is awash with scuttlebutt Macdonald has told ABC Radio boss Ben Latimer that three days is all he wants to do.
Of course, it would not surprise us if that turned out to be true. In fact, we set our stopwatch the moment Macdonald slipped in behind the mic at ABC Sydney’s morning show at the station’s new Parramatta studios in January, after former host Sarah Macdonald(no relation) was controversially canned late last year.
Not because we thought he would do a bad job by any stretch of the imagination – and he hasn’t; he’s quickly established a firm but modest following, and even lifted the outlet’s ratings, attracting a steady 6.2 per cent share of the available audience.
No, it was because the roving reporter is (in)famous for having some of the itchiest feet in the industry.
In fact, the bloke has changed channels – and programs – more times than all but the oldest, most busted-up television remotes and rarely spends more than two years in any one gig while frequently ping-ponging between the ABC and ailing Ten gabfest, The Project. (Hey, it’s good to be in demand.)
Part-time posting
Perhaps wary of Macdonald’s renowned wanderlust, the wily chiefs at ABC Radio appeared to negotiate the perfect compromise after signing him to take on their Sydney station’s most troublesome timeslot.
He would only host the program for four days a week – Monday through Thursday – leaving him free to anchor The Project on Ten on Sunday nights and file reports for the commercial network in his spare time over the weekend.
Macdonald’s fellow alum from The Project, the ever-popular Kathryn Robinson, would then host the morning show on Fridays.
Simple. Well, at least for a little while.
Word is Macdonald is keen to scale back even further on the part-time posting so he can focus on an exciting new “project” that requires his presence in Melbourne. What’s more, apparently the ABC believes it has a ready-made solution and is hopeful Robinson will agree to double her workload and take on a second day behind the mic.
Of course, if all else fails, there’s always Lattouf – after all, she’s demanded to be reinstated as a fill-in host with the station (alongside a very big cheque) as part of her multimillion-dollar legal action against the ABC.
Federal Court Justice Darryl Rangiah is still weighing up whether the taxpayer-funded outlet will need to do just that – so stay tuned.
We reached out to Macdonald on Sunday evening to see if he was up for sharing any of the details but alas it appears he was gearing up for his latest appearance on The Project.
As for Aunty, they insist their debonair radio host isn’t going anywhere: “There’s no truth to this. Hamish hasn’t asked to go to three days and it isn’t happening.”
That’s certainly not what we’re hearing.
News boss jumped
Seven’s outgoing news boss Anthony De Ceglie started his short-lived reign in the top job by telling staff they no longer had to worry about the ratings.
But as soon as the numbers started to head south, so too did any chance of him sticking around for the long term.
After a disastrous 13 months in charge of the network’s once-trusted news and current affairs division, the self-proclaimed “innovator” exited the station for good about noon on Friday – just one day after revealing he was quitting (and copping a hefty pay cut) to go run the National Rugby League’s new Perth-based expansion club, the Bears.
While Seven chief executive, Jeff Howard initially insisted De Ceglie would stay on and help his successor, Ray Kuka, for a “transition” period until the end of the month, it turns out they soon realised they didn’t need – or want – him to hang about after all.
For many, his welcome departure could not have come sooner, after a tumultuous tenure punctuated by aggressive cost-cutting, drastic mass redundancies and a diabolical ratings nosedive that threatens to see Seven knocked off in the news ratings by rival Nine this year.
Senior network sources told Diary the former newspaper editor had been cutting an increasingly lonely figure at the network’s Media City headquarters in inner Sydney in recent months and had been openly at war with much of the station’s top brass, including Howard and the network’s influential managing director of television, Angus Ross.
In fact, De Ceglie had somehow managed to alienate just about all of the channel’s key executives with his stony-faced refusal to listen to anyone with more television experience than him … which, turns out, was pretty much everyone.
After all, his only experience with television before taking on the job last April had been watching it, and we’re not even sure how good he was at that given he thought adding an astrologist and a Friday night funnyman to the station’s serious news bulletins was wise.
It was at least entertaining for his rivals at Nine as they watched on in awe, wondering how one person could possibly make so many bad calls and single-handedly destroy Seven’s unbeatable 10-year dominance in the news rating in less than a year.
Admittedly, much of the slashing and burning had been done at the behest of the Seven West Media board, which tasked the television outsider with overhauling the network.
But having set the joint ablaze, and relentlessly fiddling with the news bulletins as the station burned down around him, it was little wonder De Ceglie finally decided to make a mad dash for the emergency exit last week.
“There’s no question he jumped before he was pushed,” one well-placed senior Seven source told Diary. “And he was most certainly about to get pushed.
“Anthony promised an innovation and digital transformation but all he created were gimmicks – and unpopular ones at that.”
Seven insiders told Diary there would certainly be drinks to celebrate De Ceglie’s departure, but he was unlikely to be invited.
“There’s just an overwhelming sense of relief that he’s gone,” one senior Seven executive said. “Thank God he’s found a new job, it means we can finally get back to doing ours.” Their first task? “Undoing just about every change De Ceglie made.”
As for the man himself, De Ceglie’s once again fronting up for a daunting job with zero relevant qualifications, and will soon find himself running an untested sports team in a hostile city with a host of ready-made enemies and the sudden enmity of his billionaire former backer, SWM chairman Kerry Stokes.
Yeah, good luck with that! De Ceglie might well find he’s about to get so frozen out in the west, he’ll feel like he’s running the Perth Polar Bears.
The Wolfman cometh
Speaking of De Ceglie’s ignominious exit, there’s a reason his replacement as Seven’s national news director is known as “The Wolf” within media circles.
Like his iconic namesake in Quentin Tarantino’s cult hit flick Pulp Fiction, Kuka’s the man the channel sends in to clean up messes.
And boy oh boy, does he have a doozy on his hands this time around – though, typically, he has wasted no time in grabbing his mop and bucket.
Although Kuka wasn’t scheduled to start in his new gig until Monday, we hear he was already in Sydney and had assumed control of the day-to-day running of the network’s news operations within hours of De Ceglie announcing his resignation.
At the top of his list?
A complete overhaul of Seven’s key news offerings.
Changes will include rolling out a new national news and current affairs show to air between 3pm and 4pm weekdays.
Former Today sports presenter Alex Cullen is tipped to be the top pick to host the show – not least by Cullen himself, who has been quietly reassuring friends he has the job in the bag.
Meanwhile, Seven News wunderkind Sean Power will take on the running of the new format in addition to his already considerable duties as the network’s Sydney news director.
The shake-up is also good news for Seven’s popular daytime anchor Ann Sanders.
The long-serving presenter, who has been fronting Sydney bulletins for 37 years, lost her 11.30am news gig under De Ceglie in January after he extended the Morning Show with Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies until midday, and brought in one-time Ten autocue reader Natarsha Belling to host a national news bulletin from noon.
But it sounds like Sanders will definitely still be at Seven when her 40th anniversary at the network rolls around in a few years with her long-hour 4pm declared safe under Kuka, as he looks to reinvigorate the channel’s news chops.
And all that before the Wolf has even officially started.
ABC praises itself
Most people wait until they win an award before they start giving an acceptance speech.
Not so the overenthusiastic team behind the ABC’s podcast on Erin Patterson’s ongoing murder trial over allegations she deliberately killed three of her in-laws by serving them poisoned portions of beef wellington.
Former ABC podcasts manager Monique Bowley took to social media just days into the high-profile six-week trial to boast about her genius idea to commission the public broadcaster’s imaginatively titled The Mushroom Case Daily podcast … which, as the name suggests, covers the mushroom case, er, daily.
“There are moments in podcasting when you know a story will stick,” she revealed. “For me, stickiness is next to godliness.”
While those sorts of suggestions augur none too well for the state of Bowley’s kitchen counters, she was already off and giving away more of her amazing tradecraft secrets.
“Erin Patterson’s face was etched into the national psyche really early on. And it does seem like there is something strangely magnetic and compelling about her face,” she confided. “So we made the call; her image should feature in the artwork.”
Slow down, Einstein. You put a picture of the accused killer in the artwork for a podcast about the accused killer?
Can someone please call the Walkleys and let them know they need not bother accepting any other entries this year?
One of the podcast’s producers, Stephen Stockwell, was equally blown away by Bowley’s brilliance.
“Monz’ leadership getting this pod off the ground was inspirational,” he said online. “While I tinkered around the edges she charged through bureaucracy, sorted artwork and did everything she could to make this project a reality. Thanks for bringing me into this, Monz. I’m having a ball.”
Now far be it from us to stop people from “having a ball” … but three people are dead, numerous lives have been ruined, and we’re only halfway through a serious murder trial. Perhaps the ABC types should save the ticker-tape parade and communal public backslapping for a more appropriate moment – like after the jury reaches a verdict?
After all, Patterson says the deaths were a tragic accident.
And besides, the ABC was hardly the only news outfit to figure out that the nation’s highest-profile murder trial was probably a story worth covering in a podcast.
The Herald Sun and Daily Mail Australia have also committed well-staffed podcast teams to covering the trial.
What’s more, they too somehow picked up on the mind-blowing idea of including a picture of Patterson in their artwork.
Fancy that.
Nine’s knees-up flat
You know there are dark clouds gathering over your newsroom when you can’t even coax the journos out with the promise of free booze.
Nine’s newly minted Queensland news boss, Brendan Hockings, put on drinks for his hardworking troops at favoured network watering hole The Paddo a week ago to thank them all for contributing to the channel’s coverage of not-so-fierce Tropical Cyclone Alfred in March.
Sadly, we hear the knees-up ended up being about as much of a fizzer as the underwhelming and over-hyped storm system with only a handful of staff rocking up.
The poor turnout is being blamed on plummeting morale within the network’s Mount Coot-Tha studios following Hocko’s captain’s call to poach part-time Seven reporter Joel Dry to co-host Brisbane’s 6pm news bulletin alongside Melissa Downes.
Much of the newsroom reckons the plum posting should have gone to the network’s key newsbreaker, Tim Arvier, with the local paper, The Courier-Mail, even speculating the highly regarded newsman could be tempted to defect to Seven in the wake of the snub.
We’re told any attempt to headhunt Arvier would come at a cost, and Seven would have to rummage around for about $300,000 down the back of their couch if they were to have any chance of signing him.
That would certainly trump the $250,000 Nine threw at Dry to poach him back from Seven.
Shock jock claims
Nine Radio’s Brisbane-based 4BC shock jock Peter Fegan has been spruiking himself as an “award-winning journalist” while renting himself as a master of ceremonies for events around town (for between $500 and $2000 a pop) and bragging on his official “Crowd Pleaser” profile: “I’ve never met a room I can’t read.”
Fegan’s official Nine Network profile also boasts he has “won a number of awards, including Queensland Journalist of The Year, The Kennedy Foundation (sic) and The Walkley Award for Television/Video News in 2021”.
And he reposted the claims on Instagram just last week.
Problem is, Fegan actually doesn’t have any of these gongs.
He did, briefly, have three Queensland Clarion awards and a Walkley before being stripped of them after it was revealed his entry had falsely accused former federal Liberal MP AndrewLaming of “upskirting” a woman while she was stacking a bar fridge – a claim that also cost his network hundreds of thousands in defamation damages.
As for a Kennedy Award, we flicked through every winners’ list going back to the contest’s inception in 2012 and he never even won one of those in the first place.
We reached out to Fegan and asked what all his mysterious awards were for, only to be told he didn’t “understand” the question.
Add your comment to this story
‘Unanswerable’: Ex-newsreader attacks racial discrimination claim
Former SBS newsreader Mary Kostakidis hopes to cut to ribbons allegations of racial discrimination based on a social media post stating Israel was ‘getting some of its own medicine’.
Battle stations ready as Telcos chase share
Australian consumers are set to benefit as Vodafone and Optus seek new ad agencies and prepare marketing offensives to take on Telstra’s dominance in the telco category.
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout