The departure of Bill McDonald from 4BC is, perhaps the most surprising, but not the only Brisbane media movement at the moment.
The Sunday Mail is reporting what The Australian has been saying for several weeks — that Reece D’Alessandro (pictured above, left) will return to 9News Brisbane as chief political reporter, replacing Tim Arvier, who left to join the Dark Side (i.e. government PR).
And 4BC has announced that Jason Matthews (pictured above, right), who was McDonald’s executive producer, will fill in on the Mornings shift until the end of the year.
Inevitably, there have been rumours that Jessica Millward, Nine’s London correspondent who is returning to Brisbane at Christmas time to be with her husband, 9News co-anchor Joel Dry, may score the radio gig next year. She has previously denied that she had been offered the job.
I wish success to Matthews, because he has big shoes to fill. McDonald — apart from being a true professional and a good bloke — was one of the best performers ratings-wise 4BC has had in its current incarnation.
His audience share in the most recent published survey was higher than the Breakfast show — something that is usually interpreted as a weakness in the prime-time product. (Thus, the adage: “If you haven’t got a successful Breakfast show, you haven’t got a radio station.”)
In fact, in the fifth survey, McDonald’s 9am-noon Mornings show had the highest weekday daytime ratings on the station, and the biggest ratings increase. The 5.30-9am and 4-7pm sessions both lost share.
Saturday was the last day of survey six, with figures for July 20 to September 27 to be released on October 14. Because of the way the survey works, McDonald’s input will be evident in both that survey and, partly, in survey seven.
McDonald is the latest in a long line of great talent to leave the talk radio station’s studios in the eastern suburbs. One industry insider calls it “the curse of Cannon Hill” — good people come, they get instructed to change the thing that they do well, and then they leave.
My informant says this has applied not just under Nine’s management but has happened again and again since the station moved from studios in the city to the suburbs — thus the “curse” concept.
The turnover has been incredible, with some of the best names in the business spending quite short amounts of time there.
In related news, Amanda Meade in The Guardian has reported that Nine Entertainment is exploring options regarding its Nine Radio division, of which 4BC is part.
“Nine has commenced a comprehensive strategic review of its audio business with the intention to identify the best strategic approach that will unlock ongoing growth in audio,” a spokesperson told Weekly Beast. Nine said all options were on the table, including investing in the division or selling it off.
Meanwhile, it seems the Nine for Brands website (once again) didn’t get the memo about McDonald’s departure on Friday. Although the 4BC website has (mostly) removed references to him, at the time of writing (on Sunday, September 28) the brands site has not.
Spencer’s back
If the voice on 612 ABC Brisbane sounds familiar but different this morning, it’s because Spencer Howson — the former and forever King of Brisbane Radio — is filling in on the Breakfast show this week.
No doubt, he’ll be right on top of the good news about the Lions and Broncos. You can share your comments on social media with the hashtag #spencerissport.
By the way, I was on 612 on Saturday, in the Hot Takes segment with host Sally Rope and Landline’s Halina Baczkowski. You can hear it here, starting about 50 mins from the end of the show.
Party time?
The permanent cancellation of the Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRAs) — the industry’s “night of nights” — stunned a lot of people.
I reckon the radio people should look at this as an opportunity to create new, more inclusive, awards that cover not just commercial radio, but public broadcasters ABC and SBS, community radio, and podcasters.
This could work — even if it means having a more modest ceremony with, God forbid, a cash bar.
As usual, I’m available to consult on this important initiative.
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Sufficient surf talk
I received a couple of pieces of feedback regarding my piece about surf reports on radio and television — both relating the same story about the highly regarded Coastwatch segments hosted by Ken Brown.
The boating, fishing and surfing reports were a fixture on 4KQ and Channel Seven for many years. However, research by the radio station showed that, as good as Brownie’s insights were, the people who really wanted that information received it from ring-arounds with mates, not from the radio or TV.
P.S.
It was great to see The Sunday Mail yesterday acknowledge its rusted-on readers. While the headline, “Fagan’s heroes”, for a story about the Brisbane Lions’ AFL grand final win, works in its own right, only those who were around in the 1960s and 70s will understand that it’s inspired by the TV show Hogan’s Heroes.
Disclaimer: Brett Debritz spent a year and a bit as a producer at 4BC and also worked for The Sunday Mail many years ago.
If the blokey execs at Nine left every decision to chance and just flipped a coin, they would at least get 50% right… but they have a talent for getting every decision wrong. That’s a special skill in itself.