I believe Hadley is on another station up here (4RO, basically relaying 4BC), and the best of Jones’ program can be heard there.
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It continued today. Presumably SCA has told Macquarie there is a problem??
Apparently it’s not just Triple M in Orange, listen to this Ray Hadley’s spray at Triple M & SCA in general
I could understand the removal of the program for legal reasons if it was an interstate-based radio program talking about a case before the courts in NSW, but how can discussion about a court case be allowed on the radio in Sydney but not in Orange? I don’t get it.
Also, what are the legalities for 2GB running such discussion through it’s online streaming that (presumably) people who live in Orange can listen to.
Isn’t the point of a suppression order, or just avoiding discussion of matters before a court, to avoid tainting/prejudicing prospective jurors?
If whatever the matter is about is due to be heard in Orange the view may well be jurors are likely to come from nearby but not as far as Sydney, and any appeal would be heard before a judge rather than a jury.
PS: But @SydneyCityTV you’re right streams & websites should be making a best-effort attempt at blocking access to prejudicial information for prospective jurors.
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Does anyone have any more information about that actual case? The most I can find is that isn’t relating to a case involving an employee of West Orange Motors. If like Ray says, it’s just reporting and not prejudicial, there should be some articles that can be shared here.
Given that juries and supression orders are state-based, I find it hard to believe that something can be broadcast in Sydney but not Orange. And given that 2GB haven’t got in trouble for it, I suspect that there is no content that legally can’t be broadcast.
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It’s probably time for Southern Cross Austereo to remove the Ray Hadley program. Triple M may have overreacted, but Hadley as usual has gone overboard with his public reaction. He does it all the time. He claims to have calmed down, but the evidence is that he hasn’t. He needs to have a rest, take a break
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Sadly it rates.
I reckon a more regional talkback show similar to what they do in Tasmania with Brian Carlton would be good. No Sydney traffic and weather reports, more focused state news and talkback.
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Triple M Orange probably did that because it involves a prominent local advertiser and they did it to protect against a potential loss of revenue.
I think the court business is just a smokescreen as @SydneyCityTV and @webguy said, if it can be aired in other NSW markets, I don’t see how a suppression order can be applied to just Orange.
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Hadley stated that the Fairfax local paper had ignored the story for the same reasons he claims Triple M have, but they hadn’t ignored the story. They just ignored his on-air tantrums about Triple M.
4 October 2017:
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It’s also interesting to that it sounds like this is happening in all SCA markets taking the show - the link above notes a caller from Coffs Harbour who was also getting the music instead of the show.
I suspect this is because SCA have a central point (I believe Albury) where they ingest the program and cues into their SCASat system with cues for distribution to local stations, meaning they don’t need local panel ops. While this is technically easier, it seems to have exacerbated the problem since listeners outside of the Orange area have also been affected.
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So I believe the series of events are:
Last Week: Driver given right to appeal his licence suspension. Reported by local newspaper.
This Week: Appeal was heard and was successful - so he got his licence back. Not reported by local newspaper.
It seems bizarre not to continue the story and have an article about the latest events - but hardly constitutes censorship. If anything the only censorship is that the newspaper is not reporting the driver’s link to his employer (for who, he is alleged to have been driving for at the time), but that’s not uncommon.
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He had a few local business owners call up and they said they won’t be advertising on Triple M anymore, wonder if it’ll be on today?
He got cut again in the Central West.
Toto came on 
UPDATE: he left out the SCA network on his station round up.
The story is old news now, so Hadley is just doing it to get a reaction from SCA. Time to move on Hadley.
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SCA should just drop him and move on with music or something original for those markets.
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Agreed. Hadley’s too much of a loose canon to put on air without management having any control over the content. The problem is he rates well, so whatever replaced him would have to appeal to the same audience. They’re also no real chance of listeners moving elsewhere to hear Ray - the only competition they have in those areas in Bill’s stations and they’re hardly about to dump Laws for Hadley.
SCA could even look at syndicating the show to other stations such as 2XL, 2GN and 2ST.
In Mt Gambier they could take Leon Byner which would be more relevant being an SA show anyway.
In Qld, they could team up with Resonate to extend Rural Queensland Today - which is a great show given it’s run on minimal resources.
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Would be easily done given that it’s hosted from the Triple M Brisbane studios
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The only problem being that it only goes for an hour and I’m pretty sure it’s voice tracked (happy to be corrected though), so I’m not sure how a longer, live show would fit in with Dobbo’s schedule - but I’m sure it could be worked out to do a 2 hour show pretty easily.
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Southern Cross Austereo broadcasts the Ray Hadley Show live in a number of its regional radio markets including Orange NSW pursuant to a supply agreement with Macquarie Media, the producer of the program.
On several occasions this week as a result of legal advice SCA has decided not to broadcast parts of the program. These decisions were based solely on legal advice and were not influenced by any commercial considerations, including the fact that West Orange Motors has a commercial relationship with SCA.
Attempts to frame this issue as one of censorship and free speech are misleading.
On Monday 11 October the broadcast of the program contained discussion of a case currently before the Orange Local Court in which a young man has been charged with dangerous driving causing the death of an elderly man. The incident occurred whilst the man was at work test-driving a truck owned by his employer – West Orange Motors.
While SCA appreciates the significance and the impact on the Orange community of this case, SCA was concerned that the material broadcast was potentially in breach of Australian contempt of court and defamation laws.
In relation to contempt, media organisations in Australia are required to exercise extreme care when reporting on stories which are currently before the court. The law states that once a person has been charged with an offence, reporting is limited to the bare facts of the case and what is said and heard in open court. This is to ensure that the accused has a fair trial; that the merits of the case are not debated in the public arena during the trial; and that witnesses and jurors do not come to the trial with a preconceived notion about guilt or innocence.
In SCA’s view Monday’s segment contained material which went beyond the parameters of legal court reporting of a trial.
Given the live nature of the program and the host’s public opinion that he does not consider his comments to be of concern, since Monday, SCA has declined to air any part of the show that refers to the case because of the risk that further problematic material may be aired.
Furthermore, given the risk of further defamatory statements being made, SCA has extended the decision not to broadcast parts of the program relating to the case to all of its stations that air the program.
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