News October 27, 2015

On the dial: Changes to Broadcast Services Act; Hansen joins smoothfm; SCA: “no guarantees on tenure”

Seven West Media deny talks with Fairfax

Seven West Media has attempted to stop rumours that they are in talks with Fairfax Media. Seven West Media own nine regional radio stations in WA as well as Seven Television, Pacific Magazines, Yahoo!7, The West Australian newspaper and associated regional newspapers in the west.

The company released a statement to the ASX yesterday trying to stop rumours that Fairfax Media chairman Roger Corbett was looking to form an alliance with a fellow media company.

The statement said: “While it does not generally comment on rumours, Seven West Media Limited confirms that it is not involved in any discussions with Fairfax Media.”

Jennifer Hansen joins smoothfm

Smoothfm Melbourne has announced that former Network Ten news presenter Jennifer Hansen will join the station as the Breakfast News Presenter.

Hansen commented: “I am delighted to be a part of the smoothfm team. I’ve wanted to work in radio for ages, so to be given this opportunity is just wonderful. It’s very exciting to be taking on a new career direction.”

Broadbelt labelled “con-artist”

Former regional radio programmer Dene Broadbelt has been labelled a ’con-artist’ following the apparent collapse of an electronic music festival he was promoting.

Broadbelt, who also goes by the names Dene Mussillon and Dene Morgan, had a brief radio career working as Program Director for the Capital Radio Network in Goulburn, and as an Announcer at Zoo FM in Dubbo.

Since leaving Goulburn in controversial circumstances Broadbelt has been involved in a number of new business ventures, the most recent being his promoting of the Infinity Music Festival in Darwin.

The festival, which has been selling tickets to the public for up to $107 per ticket, has now shutdown its Facebook page, with many of the music acts withdrawing their support. The festival website is still live, although the video content promoting the festival has been removed.

triple j announce new House Party host

triple j are changing some elements of their Saturday night programming.

With Nina Las Vegas moving from hosting the 6pm-9pm show House Party to work on an extended version of Mix Up Exclusives, they needed someone to fill that early Saturday night gig. Kristy Lee Peters, aka KLP, has landed the shift.

Kristy won the Unearthed Field Day competition in January after she uploaded her debut song to triple j Unearthed but is no stranger to DJ’ing, having worked around the country for the past 4 years.

The ACMA can now decide when to investigate complaints

Last week the Government made changes to the 1992 Broadcasting Services Act, one part of which said the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) must investigate any complaint it received about TV or radio through the proper process.

The ACMA can now determine which complaints it will look into and will develop a new code of practice to cover this.

Fifi’s picture illegally used to sell diet pills

Fifi Box from Fox FM breakfast in Melbourne has gone on-air to complain about a weight loss company that is illegally using photographs of her and her daughter Trixie to promote diet pills on Facebook.

Fifi said: “I don’t have a personal Facebook account, I don’t see this, so I keep getting people tweeting me or contacting me saying ’Hey, how are you going with those diet pills?.’

“Now, one, I don’t promote diet pills. I think they’re disgusting. I am so inherently against what they represent.

“It’s so infuriating to me that a company are blatantly illegally using my image and one of the photos they use is one they’ve grabbed of me with Trixie.

“Now to use my daughter to promote diet pills is disgraceful!”

Fifi is trying to stop the photos being used and has contacted Facebook. She is also looking to sue the Panama-based company.

SCA boss “no guarantees on tenure”

Following his comments that the Southern Cross Media Board would ’discuss management’ following the 2Day ratings collapse, Chairman Max Moore-Wilton has continued to put pressure on SCA executives.

Moore-Wilton was asked by the AFR whether senior executives such as CEO Rhys Holleran, and Chief Content Officer Guy Dobson, would remain with SCA until the end of 2014, to which he replied: “Nobody has any guarantees, it’s business as usual [but] they’ll certainly be [present] at the board meeting”.

Despite not offering any guarantee of tenure, he did clarify that there was no intent to review senior positions in the company.

Moore-Wilton forecast extensive conversations with the market about the performance of 2Day saying;

“We were surprised by the extent of the declines and that obviously is a matter we are giving serious consideration to. This is something we need to look at in a very businesslike and professional way and talk to advertisers and stakeholders.”

MOVES

Pip Mooney is leaving smoothfm Melbourne to join Lifeview Residential as Media & Communications Manager. Her replacement on breakfast news will be former Network Ten news presenter Jennifer Hansen.

After nine years with Triple M Brisbane, Kim ’Bangers’ Blair and his partner Bec Northey, who is the B105 Tactics Manager, are relocating to Auckland to work in radio.

Triple M Brisbane has appointed Scott Menz to the role of Assistant Content Director and afternoon announcer.

Sam Vallins has scored his first on-air gig, doing weekends at Star FM Coffs Harbour. He also works as a digital content producer at the station.

Mark Rosenberg has moved from Fairfax’s Metro Media Publishing to 3AW to take up the role of Agency Account Manager in Melbourne.

The Macquarie Radio Network has announced the resignation of Managing Director Rob Loewenthal.

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JOBS

ARN has a vacancy for a Casual Journalist based in Sydney

ARN has a vacancy for a Senior Broadcast Engineer based In Sydney

Nova 100 in Melbourne has a vacancy for a Breakfast Show Audio Producer

Nova 96.9 in Sydney has a vacancy for an Integration Project Manager

6PR in Perth has a vacancy for a Nights Presenter

Nova 106.9 in Brisbane has a vacancy for an Integration Manager