Radio Alive 2017: Panel weighs in on Hadley dilemma

Staff Writer

The decision by Triple M to take 2GB’s Ray Hadley off air in Orange generated a lot of talk at the Radio Alive 2017 conference in Melbourne.

Southern Cross Austereo says its received legal advice that it shouldn’t air his show when it referred to a local court case. It cited ‘contempt of court’ while Hadley called it censorship.

The situation came up during a panel discussion of ‘fake news’ and all that the phrase entails.  And panellist Jason Morrison took up the gauntlet.

The Director of News for Channel Seven Sydney says Hadley is 100 per cent right on this issue and Triple M has made a mistake in pulling him off air.

“He’s a smart man, Ray. He knows the rules, he navigates the law very, very well.”

“And for the many thousands of hours of talk radio, he doesn’t screw up. He gets it right”.

Morrison believes someone at SCA has lost their bottle and made a rash decision based on a fear what Hadley ‘might’ say, rather than what he has actually said.

But he argues, that doesn’t give Hadley enough credit as a professional broadcaster.

“Someone has a fear that he’s going to screw a  story up and tread the line of contempt, so they’ve made the decision to pull the plug. I think their legal advice is wrong.”

To pull his show off air shows a lack of nerve when it comes to actually trusting the person that brings you an enormous amount of revenue into your radio station and gives you fantastic figures”.

With Triple M standing firm on its decision, Morrison suggests they might want to remove him all together and find themselves another morning host.

“If you don’t trust him on this one, what can you trust him on?”

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Astrid
13 Oct 2017 - 5:44 pm

100% with Jason on this. SCA loves the money they make from Hadley.

Stan Thomson
14 Oct 2017 - 3:49 pm

This is nothing to do with trust. It’s a station looking out for itself and not wanting to end up in a court. Ray faces this challenge every day and no doubt has some strategies,so why can’t a relay station adopt its own preventative strategy? It’s no fun facing libel ,contempt and defamation challenges and can cost a station a lot of its revenue . So why the fuss? They knew the subject was up for discussion so if something had gone foul,they would have had little defence in knowing but not acting.
Why is Ray being so sensitive over this issue? Surely he has faced worse and survived.
Do what you have to do and get on with being a radio station….as long as it’s explained, then your audience will be supportive. I could say much more but could be sued for contempt!

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