Business of media
Perth Telethon sets another record as 2024 total passes $80m
The West Australian’s Tim Clarke has reported on an incredible $83.2 million raised at the 2024 edition of Telethon.
For more than 26 hours, broadcast live on Channel 7, stars of stage and screen mingled with political and business leaders, who mixed with parents and kids from all over the State.
As this year’s donations relentlessly ticked over, the total raised since the first Telethon in 1968 reached an astonishing $650m.
And for the first time in all those years, Telethon’s community fundraisers — the kids, schools, clubs, families and groups who bake cakes, sell lemonade and hold movie nights — raised more than $1 million.
Announcing this year’s final total, Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes thanked all those involved — particularly the WA public.
“If you want to be anywhere in the world and you have a problem with children, this is the place to be, because we have a generous community that supports the activities and helps us help all those families and children,” Stokes said.
NRL, AFL personally lobbied Anthony Albanese against gambling ad ban
NRL executives lobbied Prime Minister Anthony Albanese weeks before he claimed in parliament that lotteries caused more gambling harm than bookmakers as justification for not pursuing a total ban on online gambling advertising, reports The AFR’s Ronald Mizen.
Shortly after the meeting and Albanese’s remarks, NRL chairman Peter V’landys used the same statistics to make the same claim, which has left some gambling experts perplexed.
Documents tabled in the Senate on Friday show that the NRL and the AFL have gone around Communications Minister Michelle Rowland directly to the prime minister to make their case against Labor’s gambling reforms.
The government has proposed a total ban on social media ads, but does not propose to extend the prohibition to TV. Instead, it would limit ads on TV an hour before and after live sport and a limit of two ads per hour until 10pm.
See also AFR: Gambling ad ban – listen to the facts, not the vested interests
Anthony Albanese, Peter Dutton gather in the court of Kerry Stokes
On Saturday night, mining and media billionaire Kerry Stokes hosted his Seven West Media Telethon Ball in Perth. It’s an annual dual-purpose social event that raises millions of dollars for sick kids, while also functioning as a transparent attempt by the nation’s elite to bend the knee to the state’s kingmaker, reports The AFR’s Mark Di Stefano.
Noticeably absent from the invite list were fixtures of the past. Mineral Resources boss and chopper enthusiast Chris Ellison wasn’t there, and considering the revelations of offshore tax shenanigans spilling out in these pages, who can blame him. Neither was Gina Rinehart, who rumour has is in the United States getting into Donald Trump’s circles.
If anyone needed reminding there’s a federal election on the horizon (and the west is crucial to both sides), both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton made the trip with their partners. Albanese and Jodie Haydon were seated alongside WA premier Roger Cook and Woodside and AFL chairman Richard Goyder, their buddy act having been cemented through their years enabling Qantas.
One politician who remains on the payroll is Perth lord mayor and Liberal aspirant Basil Zempilas, again the event’s compere. His ribbing turned on the prime minister, giving him a copy of the real estate section of The West Australian while quipping that this is the one room where “it’s not a problem to have a $4 million home”.
Former Nine junior female staffer reports alleged sexual assault involving senior male manager
A senior male manager at Nine Entertainment is the subject of an investigation into an alleged rape reported by a junior female staff member as part of the media company’s independent review, reports The Australian’s Sophier Elsworth.
The Australian reports that lawyers at firm Ashurst this month spoke with the woman – who has engaged her own legal team – about an alleged incident that took place after end-of-year celebrations in 2019 near Nine’s then headquarters at Willoughby on Sydney’s north shore.
It is claimed the male manager and the woman left the work function together and returned to the woman’s home, where the alleged sexual assault subsequently occurred.
The woman initially provided details of the alleged incident as part of consultancy firm Intersection’s review into Nine’s workplace culture. The woman has since provided Ashurst with details of the alleged incident, including her claims of bullying that resulted in her leaving the company in early 2022.
Channel 7 wins unprecedented suppression order over ‘salacious’ emails
Channel 7 has won a bid for an “unprecedented” media blackout over court documents, including potentially “salacious” communications after a former Spotlight journalist, Amelia Saw, sued the network, reports News Corp’s Samantha Maiden.
Justice Nye Perram had previously noted that the case could involve “the washing of a large amount of dirty linen in public”.
On Friday he published a judgment confirming that Seven had won its bid for a suppression order over parts of a statement of claim, as well as an amended statement of claim, which have been filed with the court.
The Channel 7 legal moves follow the release of a bombshell report detailing claims of bullying and sexual harassment at rival network Channel 9.
Three media organisations, including Nine Entertainment and the ABC, opposed the suppression order.
A Seven spokesperson previously said Seven denied Saw’s allegations.
“Seven Network strongly and categorically rejects the allegations by Amelia Saw,” a spokesperson said.
That mediation is to take place between 1 November 2024 and 30 November 2024. A defence is due to be filed by 18 October 2024.
News brands
Crikey columnist sacked over ‘grope’ comments to ABC radio program
Prominent Crikey columnist and correspondent-at-large Guy Rundle has been sacked after its publisher was told about an offensive text he sent in to Radio National’s Breakfast Show this week, adding to years of messages sent to the program, reports Nine Publishing’s Calum Jaspan.
Rundle’s message, sent to the show on Thursday, said rising sexual assault complaints are because “every grope is now a sexual assault”.
This led to ABC managing director David Anderson expressing his concern in a note to Crikey publisher Private Media’s chair Eric Beecher and chief executive Will Hayward, highlighting the message, alongside a long-term pattern of messages directed at the Radio National breakfast show and its host, Patricia Karvelas.
Fran Kelly delivers the 2024 Andrew Olle Media Lecture
Former Triple R Melbourne broadcaster Fran Kelly started her lecture talking about her interstate move:
When I moved to Sydney thirty years ago for a three-month gig on Triple J‘s daily current affairs program the Drum (the original!) I was young, green and wildly inexperienced. But I was also dead hungry … and this was my big break.
Not surprisingly, it didn’t take long – in a new city, in a new career – for my bravado to crash and risk burning me along with it, forcing me to realise I was actually raw, unblooded and all but unskilled. In other words, utterly out of my depth.
My good friend and mentor…and presenter of the Drum at the time … Helen Thomas, a fantastic journalist whom many of you know and respect and who was later the manager of ABC News Radio, took me aside. “Just listen to Andrew Olle on 2BL every morning, Fran. Really listen. And make sure you catch his political cross with Paul Lyneham. If you want to know what a good story is, and what good radio is, that’s the place to start.”
Radio
Steve Price: ABC in freefall, woke 3AW — here’s how I’d fix Melbourne radio
The month of October is known in Australian media as the killing season — especially in radio, writes Steve Price in the Herald Sun.
Radio hosting is not for the faint hearted. I’ve never actually been sacked but I have had to sack plenty of on-air talent in the past and I’ve had my fair share of on-air failures, the most recent a little-listened to show called Australia Today on SCA (Southern Cross Austereo) and in 2010 a brave but failed attempt to take on 3AW with MTR (Melbourne Talk Radio).
After 52 years in the media, and more than 32 years in radio, including 12 years as program director of Melbourne’s No. 1 radio station 3AW, I think I’m qualified to argue the standard in 2024 is not what it was.
Today, ABC radio audiences are in free-fall around Australia and on FM, executives keep sacking talent and replacing them with cheaper no-names to save money.
3AW has been the No. 1 station in Melbourne for almost every survey since we got there over more than 30 years ago. The legendary Ross Stevenson who can quite rightly claim the title of the most successful radio broadcaster in the history of Melbourne — bar none — holds the success of AW in his hand.
The problem for AW is what happens when Ross decides to quit?
I know from personal feedback the loss of John Burns has sent some listeners to SEN breakfast, but the number must be small given the AW breakfast dominance.
Russel Howcroft, who took over from John, seems like a jolly bloke, but he adds little to the content. His giggling at Ross’ remarks is annoying beyond belief and he sounds like a privileged Melbourne-supporting toff. Nice bloke, wrong job.
I’d move him on and put regular fill in Mark Allen — former pro-golfer and ex-SEN broadcaster — in the seat.
See also: Running Melbourne’s #1 radio station – Stephen Beers on 3AW’s magic mix
Comedian Nikki Osborne rumoured to replace Susie O’Neill
Big changes are coming to Nova’s top-rating Brisbane breakfast show, with sources revealing comedian Nikki Osborne, aka “Bush Barbie”, is set to replace Olympic legend Susie O’Neill, reports News Corp’s Georgia Clelland. While Nova hasn’t officially announced the new co-host of Ash, Luttsy & Susie O’Neill, insiders claim Osborne is locked in to join the team in 2025.
According to sources, Osborne has all but secured the coveted radio spot, with one insider calling it “the industry’s worst kept secret.”
Television
Flop or genius? The Channel 7 reality TV series no one asked for
It is either a brave, expensive and brilliant marketing move or a vanity project, but Melbourne mum Rebekah Behbahani is determined to show via her own reality TV show the path she has taken to fledgling pop stardom, reports News Corp’s Fiona Byrne.
Rebekah, whose stage name is Behani and who is engaged to Melbourne billionaire Alex Waislitz, stars in Behind Behani, an eight X 30-minute episode reality series that she and Waislitz have executive produced.
Meanwhile, Rebekah’s pop career is at the heart of a multimillion-dollar legal dispute with her sister.
Rebekah and Waislitz are currently being sued by Venus Behbahani-Clark, a Real Housewives of Melbourne star, who alleges that her sister owes her a Toorak townhouse for her help in launching her singing career.
Comedian Merrick Watts returns to SAS as first Australian directing staff member
Australia’s most brutal TV show is returning next year with ex-British Special Forces operative Ant Middleton once again helming SAS: Australia, reports News Corp’s Fiona Byrne.
And in a surprise it can be revealed that comedian Merrick Watts will be joining the show’s directing staff (DS) team.
Watts will be the first Australian DS member on the show. Watts impressed Middleton when he took part in SAS: Australia as a contestant in 2020.
“Merrick Watts, he is coming on as one of the DS, the directing staff, he is going to be by my side on the next SAS,” Middleton confirmed on Friday.
SAS: Australia has been rested for a year by Channel 7 but it is expected the show’s return in 2025 will be confirmed by Seven at its Upfront presentation next month.
Meanwhile Middleton’s documentary Killer K2 with Ant Middleton screens on 7Plus on Thursday. It follows Middleton as he climbs K2, the second-highest peak in the world.
Sports Media
Herald Sun chief football writer Robbo reflects on 14-years on Fox Footy’s AFL360
Mark “Robbo” Robinson’s 14-year tenure with Fox Footy’s AFL 360, which ended last month, places him alongside a unique group in the history of Australian sports television, reports News Corp’s Jon Anderson.
That group includes Lou Richards, Bob Davis, Jack Dyer, Eddie McGuire and Sam Newman, one made up of experts involved in a football show in this city that has run continuously for at least 10 years.
And in Robbo’s case, up to four nights a week for more than 1400 shows.
What about the relationship between you and Gerard (Whateley)?
MR: We had a damn good working relationship but rarely, if ever, saw each other socially. People, if they knew us, would say it was a curious relationship. Gerard is quite reserved and I’m quite boisterous. Before the show we would speak for roughly five minutes about the run down and never discussed what we were going to say. That’s how the show was originally set up – be spontaneous.
You have had a big couple of months.
MR: It’s funny, Ando, people say they are sad to see me go, and there’s sadness for me as well. But I had a fantastic 14 years. But let’s keep it real. About six weeks back, I lost my dad, and four days after his funeral, we lost our dear friend and colleague Sam Landsberger, and then three weeks back lost my Aunty Betty. Then I got told I was no longer required on AFL 360. What’s really the least important out of those four things, Ando?
So what happens now, Robbo?
MR: I look forward to 2025 with the Herald Sun. And Fox Footy said there might be other roles, so they will be spoken about.