I agree, and this can be either a positive or a negative depending on the type of content.
For your typical Hit network show, which is going to focus on pop culture, celebrity interviews, funny stories etc which don’t have a local focus there’s not as much difference, and the “regional” feel is more likely to be shown by the show not being as refined. This is why the Hit network has always fared much better with networked drive and nights.
However, for a typical Triple M show which is more focused on news type issued - be it sport, politics or local issues in a talkback-lite format, then the difference can be huge. The focus from a metro station will always be much more general - especially if broadcasting to multiple states which mean state based issues can’t be explored in depth. Cliff’s drive show from Bunbury which covered a range of regional issues including farming and mining was a clear example of how a state based show can be more relevant than a generic national show.
Major thing we all missed in Marty Sheargold’s vile on-air Matildas rant
This all started on Monday, when Mr Sheargold and co-hosts Troy Ellis and Will Ralston discussed the national women’s soccer team, the Matildas, on their radio show.
Throughout the 35-second segment, there is repeated blokey chuckling at Mr Sheargold’s oh-so-daring quippery. Why did they chummily go along with it?
While neither is heard agreeing with him, neither does either of them in any way push back. Neither of them offered any sort of even feeble rejoinder. Neither man has, as far as I’ve seen, commented or expressed any regret for not having spoken out at the time or done a better job of handling the situation.
Will Troy Ellis and Will Ralston also be departing Triple M?
Depends - how much did they egg him on? If they showed no attempt to pull him up on his crap and laughed with him, one could argue they’re just as bad and should be shown the door.
Probably the same things that happened with Kate Ritchie, Meshel Laurie and Fifi Box. The only one who has spoken about it publicly has been Meshel.
“Congratulations Triple M Melbourne and Southern Cross Austereo,” Laurie’s post began. “An Australian commercial radio network has actually “parted ways” with a male presenter over his toxic attitude towards women. “I honestly never thought I’d live to see the day.
“I must admit, I wouldn’t have advised Leisel Jones to speak out about this, because I went to my radio bosses many times over many years about the men I worked with, and in the end, I became unemployable in the industry, while they just kept doling out formal warnings to the offenders, and kept employing them.
“Is it possible the industry is actually changing? Well done Leisel Jones and well done Triple M. This is huge. “Love to all the talented and hard working women working in radio. Keep pushing! Time for a female-led national drive show? Dare we dream?”
I’m honestly surprised by how united the media seems with this (not in a bad way). Only opposing view I’ve seen is from Ben Fordham, who says he listened to the podcast a lot as bubblegum radio, easy to listen to and not news-related. Thought maybe Sky News or others might defend Marty or point to “cancel culture”.
But the PM commenting? All the major breakfast shows and even other radio networks?
When was the last time there was such a public outcry and firing of a media personality of this magnitude? I struggle to think of anything apart from say the Lie Detector test on Kyle & Jackie O, maybe some of The Chaser sketches?
I’ve never been a fan of Marty Sheargold. I find his style of humour to be crass and unfunny so I don’t listen to his show.
I am female. From what I’ve seen and heard his comments were very inappropriate but that’s his style of radio. Similar to Kyle Sandilands I guess. It’s not my style but I’m not in his target demographic either.
Dare I say it but his vulgar comments were based on what has been reported in the media. Their coach got them into the World Cup semi final however after Paris they parted ways early due to their poor performance. Players complained that they didn’t like his style of coaching, with rumours that some players felt they no longer had to put so much effort into training. It was also reported that there was infighting amongst some of the players. Sam Kerr is extremely popular however her body language during her recent legal issues in the UK did her no favours and could impact the Matildas by association.
Triple M is a male skewed station and some of the listeners would’ve found his comments funny, however you’ve got to read the room and unfortunately for Marty he failed to do this.
‘Parting ways’ with Triple M was the right thing to do, but the media pile on needs to stop. Sadly, nowadays famous people who may think he’s an idiot but choose not say so publicly are criticised for not speaking out. Even the PM has commented and the media is squeezing every drop out of the story to get as many views as possible.
The Royal Prank phone call from Michael Christian and Mel Greig was huge and resulted in the suicide of the nurse involved. It was a terrible.
Interestingly Michael Christian has successfully continued his career in radio as if nothing happened, yet no station will go near Mel Greig, despite them both being responsible.
One consequence of all this is that it has further entrenched Triple M’s reputation as a bogan and old blokey station. Yes their reaction was swift and correct, but at the end of the day it will have damaged their reputation. Perceptions are hard to change, and this hasn’t helped.
the issue here to be honest is not the remarks. yes, they sparked the fire, fanned by the media outrage but the dry bush that caught alight was the fact SCA is obviously looking to cut costs (the recent axings indicate that).
Triple M could have kept sheargold and his pay-packet on the books, got some backlash with the “all publicity is good publicity” mentality and kept going along (and if this was 6 months ago, that’s what i expect would have happened) after maybe taking a hit on sponsors for a month.
but now with them looking to cut costs it became an easy line item to eliminate and MMM comes out looking pretty good.
I suspected the same thing, it may have been an easy way out for one of both parties.
SCA seem to be doing okay with publicity due to their swift response, I think this could have played a part into it in some form of quickly crafted PR work