Media Diary: Nine’s secret millions to keep Ray Hadley off the air
Nine Radio has quietly brokered a covert deal rumoured to be worth millions of dollars to keep Ray Hadley – one of its biggest personalities – off the airwaves until the end of next year.
Talk about more dollars than sense: Nine Radio is secretly paying one of its biggest and brightest stars millions of dollars not to be on air – even as it lurches through a drastic double-digit collapse in advertising revenue.
Diary can reveal the talkback radio network will continue to fork out big bucks to former 2GB morning show host Ray Hadley until the end of next year as part of a covert deal rumoured to be worth well in excess of $2m.
Nine sources told Diary that Hadley managed to negotiate the gargantuan golden handshake arrangement before hanging up his headphones and mic for the final time last December, just six months into his final 2 ½-year contract at the station.
Some insiders downplayed the cost, insisting it was a “small fraction” of the amount Hadley signed on for – in what was billed as “one of the richest deals in talkback radio history” – back in May 2023, with his total package said to be worth up to $9m once all his bonuses were factored in.
Hadley’s highly confidential ongoing arrangement with Nine Radio somewhat curiously also includes an iron-clad mutual non-disparagement agreement and provisions prohibiting Hadley from appearing on any rival networks until the start of 2027.
The deal means Hadley likely remains one of the highest-paid talkback radio hosts in the country … even though he’s not on talkback radio anymore and hasn’t been for eight months.
The staggering golden goodbye arrangement comes after embattled former 2GB show host Alan Jones struck a similar eye-watering deal on his way out the door back in May 2020 – also just six months into a new multimillion-dollar deal with the network – when Nine Radio agreed to pay him $4m not to appear on the network – or any others – for the final 13 months of his contract.
Of course, that seemed the best economical option at the time.
After all, the troubled broadcaster had been costing the media company millions in lost revenue every month amid a mass exodus of advertisers following his peculiar on-air sledge about then New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern and what then Australian PM Scott Morrison should apparently do to her with a sock (ie “shove” it down her throat).
Still, given Jones is currently facing a raft of aggravated indecent assault allegations, all of which he vehemently denies, that whole brouhaha now seems like the least of his worries.
Admittedly, it’s a rough comparison for Hadley.
He was still very much popular with advertisers – and listeners – when he decided to pull the pin on his two-decade-long career at 2GB late last year following what Diary hears were some rather rigorous conversations with management about the future direction of the talkback station.
What’s more, he’s more than likely to be called as a witness when his one-time radio stablemate’s criminal case eventually goes to court.
Either way, the revelations about his farewell deal come at a tough time for Nine.
The media giant’s chief executive, Matt Stanton, was forced to give a dismal trading update in May advising that the third-quarter broadcast advertising revenues for the business’s radio arm had “proved weaker” than expected and that the division had recorded “a decline in the low double digits” despite the influx of ads surrounding the federal election.
Sadly, Nine Radio weren’t up for discussing the specifics of Hadley’s ongoing arrangement with us when we got in touch on the weekend … which is a shame because we were quite keen to find out how much they’d pay us not to appear on the network, too.
ABC’s hair-raising ban
Let’s hope there’s not a stiff breeze the next time an ABC reporter is out and about doing a piece to camera – because their colleagues are apparently now forbidden from telling them if they have so much as a single hair out of place.
In a gobsmacking missive that’s beyond bizarre even by ABC standards, staff at the public broadcaster have been informed that they are prohibited from making “unsolicited comments” about reporters’ appearance – or, indeed, their “broadcast voice”.
Which really puts producers in a bit of a bind, given their job on shoots largely revolves around letting reporters know whether they look – and sound – all right on camera or whether their delivery needs a little tweak.
Or at least, it used to be part of their job – because the ABC’s South Australian deputy metro editor, Jacob Kagi, reckons it’s not anymore and has told them so in a lengthy email that also happened to drop into Diary’s inbox this month.
“After our workplace culture training a few months back, I wanted to send a little reminder about appropriate comments and conversations in the workplace,” he said in the all-staff memo.
“There may be times where it is appropriate to advise a colleague before they go on air that their collar is crooked or their tie is off-centre, or something of that nature.
“On the other hand, no one should be remarking on a person’s hair, makeup or other elements of their physical appearance.
“Similarly please refrain from offering unsolicited feedback about a person’s broadcast voice.”
Kagi went on to tell his newsroom that even “well-intentioned” feedback could wind up being considered “bullying and/or harassment”.
“People may be offended without saying or acting as though they are. The onus isn’t on people to call out that behaviour – it’s on all of us not to make comments like that,” he concluded.
Hmmm … something’s certainly askew here, and it’s not just a reporter’s tie.
We hear Kagi’s edict has been poorly received by certain sections of the broadcaster’s newsroom who are, shall we say, dissatisfied with some of management’s recent decisions.
We’d offer a little unsolicited feedback of our own on the ridiculous catch-all and totally impractical directive … but we wouldn’t want to risk offending anyone.
Hide and seek
It seems lost-and-found German backpacker Carolina Wilga has proven even harder to find since she was miraculously rescued after wandering off into the West Australian Outback than she was when she was missing … even though it was widely reported she was holed up in a Perth hospital.
Diary hears the 26-year-old has been at the centre a fierce bidding war between Nine current affairs heavyweight 60 Minutes and Seven’s rival Spotlight program, with both shows desperate to secure the rights to share her amazing tale of survival after spending 11 nights lost in the notoriously inhospitable Karroun Hill nature reserve in Australia this month.
Or at least she would be … if either of them could locate her.
Turns out both programs have apparently struggled to make contact with Wilga since she was found walking barefoot, dazed and confused, on an outback track through the WA wheat belt by local farmer Tania Henley on July 11 – the day after her car was found abandoned in the reserve and many gave her up for dead.
Word is both Sixty and Spotlight dispatched teams to Perth’s Fiona Stanley Hospital – where Wilga spent about a week recovering from her ordeal after losing 12kg and suffering from severe dehydration – with orders to bag the exclusive rights to her story at any costs … or, more specifically, any cost up to $60,000 (which is a hefty sign-on fee for a television exclusivity agreement these days).
Somewhat embarrassingly, Diary hears neither program apparently managed to make direct contact with the backpacker while she was tucked away in hospital and that she somehow managed to slip out of the facility under their journos’ very noses last Wednesday, before continuing to evade media attention while hiding in plain sight at Perth’s popular Cottesloe Beach.
Speculation is rife Wilga has now exited the country and is heading to Germany to reunite with family. Auf wiedersehen, Oz!
Whether she will return to cash in on the lucrative television offers, only time will tell … but with her story an almost guaranteed ratings winner, we doubt either program will be calling off their search for Wilga any time soon.
Kate’s home again
It’s been almost six months to the day since former Home and Away favourite Kate Ritchie was spotted having a very public meltdown in a Sydney park and announced she was taking a break from her Nova breaky radio show duties to focus on her mental health.
And Diary hears Ritchie is now poised to make her long-awaited return to the airwaves alongside co-hosts Ryan “Fitzy” Fitzgerald and Michael “Wippa” Wipfli, with insiders telling us she was seen back at work and sitting in on production meetings at the radio station’s Sydney studios for the first time again last week.
Word of her impending radio homecoming couldn’t come at a better time for the team at Nova as it looks to strengthen its programming for the second half of the rating season.
Ratings revolt at Ten
Can you hear the people sing? Singing the songs of angry men (and women)?
If so, you’re probably somewhere in the vicinity of Ten’s Pyrmont headquarters.
After all, network insiders reckon staff are on the verge of revolt over the spectacular failure of the network’s new nightly current affairs program, the ironically named 10 News+.
The show’s reception has been absolutely abysmal since it premiered in its hotly contested 6pm timeslot three weeks ago, replacing axed woke nightly gibberfest The Project in a move that’s proved doubly disastrous given it prompted the network’s only star, Sarah Harris, to quit the channel rather than stay on and front the piecemeal new program.
And it seems Harris made the right call.
Ten’s new program – fronted by Seven News defectors Amelia Brace and Denham Hitchcock – has sunk so low in the ratings it is now being thrashed by a bevy of shows Diary wasn’t even aware were on television, let alone up to besting a prime-time offering.
Indeed, in the past week alone, 10 News+ has been pummelled in the overnight ratings by something called How Disney Built America on SBS, A+E After Dark on Nine, Long Lost Family on the ABC, a Kiwi film named Together Forever Tea on Seven, a random Ten show called Elsbeth and, of course, WIN News – even though that one doesn’t even air in the country’s five-city metro markets.
The show was even trounced by The Adventures of Paddington Bear when it came to the capital cities – though, to be fair, the adventures of Denham Hitchcock on 10 News+ did come out ahead, by a marginal 2000 viewers, once regional audiences were factored in, and also managed to top fellow children’s cartoon Super Monsters by a close 4000 viewers.
But when your shiny, new prime-time current affairs program is struggling to top kids shows on the ABC’s “Family” multichannel, you know you’re in trouble … and the team at Ten are certainly more than aware of that.
“You could literally put just about anything on air right now and it would beat 10 News+,” one insider told us this week. “Some show called Pointless was 10 spots ahead of us – whatever the heck that is – which basically sums up what working here feels like at the moment: pointless.”
Another 10 News+ staff member said there was now “open hostility” inside the network about the show’s rushed rollout, furious infighting about who was to blame for the flop, and that many of the program’s new recruits were already dusting off their CVs and actively looking for more secure employment options elsewhere.
“We were sold a dream – but it’s actually turned out to be worse than a nightmare,” one 10 News+ staffer told Diary.
“When we turned up, there were no new crews or new editors … which shocked everyone.
“No resources. No direction. No vision. No plan. And no idea. The newsroom has gone from being forced to accept the show’s failings … to being openly aggro.
“Ten News doesn’t need a plus – it needs a pulse, and now a referee.”
Not-so-shock news
Seven finally confirmed the industry’s worst kept secret on Sunday after sending out a press release excitedly boasting axed Today show sports presenter Alex Cullen had signed with the network.
Surprise, surprise.
Of course, that’s old news to regular readers of the Diary – because we told you more than two months ago that Cullen had been reassuring friends he had scored a new job at Seven after being brutally punted by Nine in January.
The announcement came as the one-time Sunday Night reporter, who was fired by Nine for pocketing $50,000 from Melbourne raffle ticket seller Adrian Portelli as part of an ill-advised on-air publicity stunt, addressed the scandal for the first time on Sunday.
“It was a silly mistake, one I should have thought through. But I can’t go back and change any of it. It’s there for (all) to see,” he told News Corp’s Stellar magazine. “But I have a chance now to rewrite the next chapter.”
Seven’s national news chief, Ray “The Wolf” Kuka didn’t detail precisely what Cullen had signed up to do at the broadcaster while unveiling his appointment, instead simply saying: “We look forward to sharing more details about his new role as we finalise content.”
Not to worry, we already revealed that months ago too.
Cullen will be presenting a soon-to-be-launched national afternoon news program that is to be broadcast out of Seven’s new Melbourne studios.
Sounds of silence
When it comes to the most amazing stories on the planet, popular 60 Minutes staffer Micky Breen has just about heard them all.
After all, the soundo has been traversing the globe with the current affairs staple almost from the very beginning.
The 60 Minutes veteran recorded his first-ever story for the show with late founding reporterGeorge Negusway back in 1981, and was still on deck to work with Negus’s son Serge on his first yarn when he joined the program as a producer just two years ago.
But after a phenomenal 44-year run with the weekly news program, Diary can reveal Breeny has decided to hang up his boom and switch off his mixer for the final time and retire.
While many jest about the inordinate amount of time Sixty crew spend sipping champagne in first-class airline lounges around the world, Breeny reckons life on the road hasn’t all been about flying at the pointy end of the plane.
“The toughest story I think I’ve ever been on was in Afghanistan back when the Mujahideen were fighting the Russians,” he told Diary.
“We had to smuggle ourselves in from Pakistan and back in those days you had film tapes and a heap of batteries, we had to grow beards and we were with the Mujahideen. They were lovely to us, but it was a tough story.”
60 Minutes’ executive producer Kirsty Thomson paid tribute to Breeny’s phenomenal contribution to the show, saying he had not only been the ears of the program for more than four decades, but also its heart.
“We will miss Micky so much, and we thank him for the memories, the kindness, the laughter, the brilliant ideas – and, of course, for the beautiful sound,” she said.
Still missing in action
The ABC’s Canberra newsroom must be on the verge of assembling a search party and heading out into the wilds of the national capital in search of missing newsman Andrew Greene.
The public broadcaster’s senior defence correspondent hasn’t been seen for five weeks now following revelations he accepted a press junket from ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems and filed a yarn about its German shipyards without disclosing he copped return business-class airfares and accommodation from the defence contractor to cover the story.
We know they say the wheels of justice move slowly but we are starting to wonder whether they’re moving at all on this one.
Indeed, he’s been stood down for so long pending an internal investigation, the cost of his absence must just about exceed the value of the perks he accepted from TKMS in the first place.
We’re not sure how an investigation that revolves around just one person – Greene himself – could possibly take so long.
Either way, it’s time to slap the fella with a first and final warning and get him back to work – we’re all footing the bill for this drawn-out debacle, after all.
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