Rally makes no difference as 2GB’s Chris Smith leaves talkback station with $500K payout
Chris Smith’s time at 2GB is over after the radio station’s bosses refused to change their minds on moving him to Steve Price’s night shift. Insiders are now warning more people could be on the chopping block.
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Talkback host Chris Smith has walked away from 2GB with a $500,000 payout after bosses refused to back down from their decision to move him onto the night shift.
Now insiders are warning that 2GB’s management team has handled Smith’s removal so badly that they could be the next for the axe.
Smith’s lawyers met with Macquarie Media bosses on Tuesday and they agreed to pay out the 18 months remaining on his $300,000 a year contract.
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Macquarie Media chief executive Adam Lang sent out an email saying: “2GB and Chris Smith today announce that they have agreed to end their working relationship.”
Smith was said to be “distraught” over plans to move him to Steve Price’s nightshift slot and allow Price to take over his noon spot.
The popular host, who has won 90 surveys, has twin boys at preschool and privately said he would not compromise his family life by moving onto the night shift. But bosses were determined the cost cutting move would go ahead.
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Smith forced Tuesday’s meeting in order to resolve the issue ahead of his trip from New York to Europe with listeners from his show.
“Smith will attend a pre-planned overseas trip for three weeks commencing tomorrow and following the trip, Chris will leave 2GB on 31 July 2019,” said the statement.
“Chris would like to thank 2GB listeners for their ongoing support.”
A handful of supporters gathered outside the radio station on Tuesday waving placards and calling for Smith to stay put.
The protest descended into farce as security barricaded the doors to prevent the mostly elderly fans from handing over a petition with 1160 signatures supporting Smith.
“Now they will find out just how badly they have underrated the audience of Chris Smith,” protester Jim Sternhill said.
“They will get a nasty shock in the ratings because listeners will turn off.”
Macquarie Media bosses pushed for the unpopular swap after new owners at Nine Entertainment insisted on an end to drawn out contract negotiations with breakfast host Alan Jones who has now been re-signed for $8 million for another two years.
Unfortunately Macquarie Media chiefs were so certain that Jones was gone they had offered his breakfast slot to Ray Hadley and told Price he could move off nights into Hadley’s morning spot.
Hadley kept the $1.7 million pay rise negotiated for moving to breakfast and agreed to wait until 78-year-old Jones retires in two years’ time but Price is understood to have agitated for a change.
“Smith was just collateral damage,” a 2GB insider said.
Desperate to claw back some savings the Macquarie Media bosses pushed for Smith to move so they could also run his show in Melbourne and axe popular 3AW host Denis Walter.
The public outcry is understood to have incensed chiefs at Nine Entertainment who are still reeling from the accusations of bullying by Hadley at the station earlier this year.
“This is the third strike against the management,” a highly placed insider told The Daily Telegraph.
“First Jones, then Hadley and now Smith. Nine bosses think this place is being run like a circus and want to put a broom through the management.”
Originally published as Rally makes no difference as 2GB’s Chris Smith leaves talkback station with $500K payout
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