Time to switch off radio’s blokes’ club
Punching down isn’t funny, but SCA is having a laugh about being ‘local’
So, the “poor Marty” narrative has begun, with a prominent member of the BSD* Club swinging in for the defence of the indefensible.
Ben Fordham is sticking up for Marty Sheargold — and that tells you all you need to know about the state of commercial radio in Australia.
Sheargold “parted ways” with Triple M after making sexist remarks about women’s football — including saying “Have you got any men’s sport?”, despite that already dominating airtime on the station — and saying endometriosis is “made up”.
Fordham, a radio nepo baby, acknowledges that Sheargold was “punching down” but defends him on the basis that “he doesn’t mean what he says”. In this instance, Sheargold clearly also didn’t think about what he was going to say before he said it or make any effort at being funny in an original way. He just employed a lazy trope and then doubled down on it.
Fordham’s reaction, as reported, is also instructive about the toxic culture at Nine Entertainment, which owns 2GB where he is Breakfast host. It seems to persist despite last year’s “cultural review” and management pledges to act on it.
No prizes for guessing which division of Nine registered the most complaints of harassment and bullying in that review.
Oh, and there’s also this report about a female former Nine employee said to be launching legal action over her dismissal.
Friday, 6.45pm update: This interview, where Gold FM’s Amanda Keller speaks with former Triple M host Gus Worland about Sheargold, is on the money: Radio, especially those stations with a predominantly male audience, has a responsibility to change the narrative about women.
*It’s a crude reference to appendages that was once used widely in the radio industry.
Define ‘local’ …
Meanwhile, still in radioland, here’s a gem from John Kelly, the CEO of SCA, Triple M’s parent company:
“When the world goes global, we go local, and I think what we’re trying to do is even more hyper-local.”
SCA has sacked dozens of people and shut down many local shows — including a bunch of regional Breakfast shows on the Hit network and local Triple M Drive programs in Sydney and Melbourne last year so they could launch Marty Sheargold’s program this year.
Thanks to Sarah Patterson from Radio Today for pointing that out here. The comments are well worth reading.
Cruise case settled
I love cruising, so this won’t deter me. It’s been reported that Carnival Corporation will pay out more than $2 million in a case-action suit launched by passengers on a P&O cruise that sailed out of Brisbane during Cyclone Donna in 2017.
Disclosure: Brett Debritz used to work for Nine Radio and still has stories to tell.
Never tuned in. Fordham especially is the worst of the worst