The last thing any serious journalist wants is to become the story. But that’s what happened to 9News Queensland’s Josh Bavas yesterday when he was verbally abused and physically threatened by MP Bob Katter.
Now, I know some people may agree with Katter on immigration and other issues. Some like him because of his outspoken ways and his often-entertaining turn of phrase.
But the bottom line is that his behaviour yesterday was unacceptable by any standard of public discourse. We saw a member of parliament behaving like a thug in a pub.
Katter was at a media conference to talk about immigration. He apparently, bizarrely, offered the opinion that every person who attended pro-Palestinian marches last weekend — and there were tens of thousands of them from all walks of life and backgrounds — should be deported.
When Bavas mentioned Katter’s own family background, as part of a question he never got to complete, Katter unreasonably exploded, made a physical threat and, later, accused Bavas of racism.
This is despite the fact that the Katter family — including the federal MP’s own son, Robbie, who is a state MP, and was with his father yesterday — have openly acknowledged their Lebanese heritage. (Katter’s grandfather, Carlyle Assad Khittar, migrated to Australia in 1898.)
I think 9News handled the story well and I applaud the network for standing up in support of Bavas.
Its report was presented by network heavyweight Charles Croucher, rather than Bavas himself, and Nine’s national director of news and current affairs, Fiona Dear, issued a statement saying:
“Mr Katter’s aggressive behaviour and threats were unacceptable. His baseless and offensive accusation of racism is an irresponsible attempt to shut down a legitimate line of questioning.”
Channel Seven’s report, which called Katter’s outburst “shocking”, included a clip of the late deputy prime minister, Tim Fischer, who was the Nationals’ leader when Katter was a member of that party, mentioning Katter’s Lebanese background.
Of course, footage of the incident has made its way around the world, on news bulletins and social media.
I know some people — including actual racists — are applauding Katter and the bandwagon he has opportunistically jumped aboard.
To my mind, he has presented himself, not for the first time, as an international embarrassment.
Stay tuned for radio news
The radio rumour mill is hot, hot, hot at the moment, with the persistent theme being that Nine will sell its current radio stations and buy SCA — but not necessarily in that order.
Mediaweek’s Dan Barrett makes some interesting observations in this analysis of remarks made by Nine Entertainment CEO Matt Stanton about the media giant’s 2024-25 results.
Barrett notes that Stanton and Nine’s acting CFO Graeme Cassells neither confirmed nor denied that the current Nine Radio stations, including 4BC and 4BH in Brisbane, were for sale, or that Nine was eyeing a purchase of SCA, which owns the Triple M and Today stations (including B105 in Brisbane).
But Barrett also notes that Nine and its pay-for-view offshoot, Stan, are doubling down on sport, and recently picked up the rights to the English Premier League and FA Cup. Barrett posits that SCA’s Triple M network would be a good fit in this strategy.
So, although I suggested in my previous newsletter that Nine might swap 4BC for B105, it could be more complicated than that.
A purchase of SCA could happen before a sale of the current Nine Radio assets (which would be required by law, as each owner is limited to two licences in any market).
In that case Nine could shuffle the deck by holding on to its talk stations — 4BC, 2GB, 3AW and 6PR — and selling the Today network and its existing music stations, 4BH, 2UE and Magic. Ace Radio, which manages the music stations, would be a natural potential buyer.
Complicating all this is issues around real estate and other assets. I believe Nine owns the property at Cannon Hill that houses the 4BC studios and broadcast equipment for 4BC and 4BH, but I’ve been told that Ace owns the 4BH AM transmission site at Wynnum.
SCA only leases its studios at The Barracks in Petrie Terrace, in a deal that currently runs to 2028 or 2029.
To further muddy the waters, my spies tell me that Craig Hutchison, whose company SEG owns the SEN network, has been seen lunching with some of the Nine management team, suggesting he may be somehow involved in any carve-up of the radio stations. SEG announced a modest profit yesterday.
I think it’s safe to say that something will happen over the next few months — and not just in terms of ownership.
All the radio networks have well and truly started to think about their on-air line-ups for 2025. Indeed, some announcements have already been made. The ratings figures to be released in the second week of September will be crucial to final decision-making.
What all the rumours point to is a change at KIIS 973. I’m going to be careful here because I got it wrong last year, but I will say that many people believe the local breakfast line-up of Robin Bailey, Kip Wightman and Corey Oates will be replaced by Kyle Sandilands and Jackie “O” Henderson. In an interviewed published yesterday on Mumbrella, ARN boss Ciaran Davis said, “I know Kyle would like to do it. We continually assess it.”
The idea that KIIS in Brisbane may be converted into a Gold station — despite being denied by ARN — has resurfaced. So maybe there is a chance that the networked Christian O’Connell breakfast show will be heard on FM as well as DAB+ and online.
If either that or the Sandilands/Henderson move were to happen, it’s been suggested that Bailey and/or Wightman may be moved into a daytime role to keep up a “local” presence on the station.
As always, the message is: stay tuned.
P.S.
Adding to the basket of things that might have been is the story doing the rounds that Nine Entertainment briefly considered ditching talk on 4BC and instead providing an AM presence for Nova Entertainment’s music station Smooth, which is on the FM dial in other major markets but only available on DAB+ and online in Brisbane,
Mister Brisbane is free to read, but if you appreciate what I’m doing here, and/or
at The Wrinkle and Radio Bert, you can buy me a coffee.
Correction
In reference to my newsletter earlier this week, James Cridland correctly corrects me that the most recent radio station sale in Brisbane that required the offloading of surplus station was when ARN bought a package of stations from Grant Broadcasting, including Ipswich-based River 949, which overlaps the Brisbane area.
That was an unusual deal. Because ARN only half-owns KIIS 973 (Nova Entertainment owns the other half), it could have sold just half of 4KQ (or River). Instead, it sold the lot to SEN, which turned it into a sports station.
So, both ARN and Nova Entertainment have one-and-a-half licences, which could mean they are, separately or jointly, potential players in any future market shake-up.