Mel Greig on radio’s “culture problem”

Staff Writer

Radio personality Mel Greig has hit out at Australian radio’s “culture problem” in light of the news that John ‘JC’ Caldwell is taking ARN to court over allegations he was discriminated against for being gay.

In a piece penned for Yahoo! Lifestyle, the former 2DayFM host writes: “Each time the radio industry is surrounded by controversy the same question is asked, ‘does it have a culture problem?’ and the answer is YES.”

Greig, who was part of the infamous Royal Prank in December of 2012, says that most announcers won’t speak out against their industry because they “don’t want to black mark themselves” for future employment.

“It astounds me that when radio networks are faced with serious allegations, they’ll almost look at you with a blank face and be genuinely confused as to why you are troubled, that’s something I experienced first-hand with the royal baby prank call in 2012,” she writes.

“I’ll never forget being bullied into a TV interview with one of the radio executives saying to me, ‘If you don’t do this you’ll never get to say sorry’.

“At the time I was too unwell and distraught to say no, and I did want to say sorry, so I did the TV interview, but manipulation is a tactic that is often used as they know you are emotionally battered down.”

Grieg admits that some of the “bad culture” rubbed off on her, but maintains that “bullying was never taken seriously, we were made to believe it was normal.”

The problem comes down to “a core group of executives that have been in the industry for over 20 years and don’t take the welfare of employees seriously,” she says.

“Even sacking radio announcers from shows that are rating number one because they have a new flavour of the month, just disregarding people with no second thought or support.”

Greig also says that the only network that she was treated well at was Nova.

She sums up by saying “radio is an incredible platform, we have made so much positive change in the community and truly changed lives.

“But what about the employees that give the industry their heart and soul and are then subjected to disgusting treatment and thrown away with no regard?

“We all know where the culture problem has come from and to those people involved, it’s not too late to clean up this industry and make positive changes.”

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Nick
26 Nov 2018 - 4:37 pm

Good point. SCA are a bunch of cowboys.

Realio
26 Nov 2018 - 7:30 pm

Everything Mel says here is 100% correct, except the Nova bit. HR departments and upper management cover up the programming execs who bully, manipulate and intimidate staff. How long will we keep taking payouts for inappropriate behaviour and start calling these PD’s and network PD’s out? These a holes need to go, there are too many continuing to run stations/networks who if they went before Fair Work Aust wouldn’t have a job.

Scott Thomson
26 Nov 2018 - 9:50 pm

Who bullied you into doing a TV interview?

This is totally meaningless unless you actually give names of who you are referring to

jenny
27 Nov 2018 - 7:28 am

Radio execs find it much easier to get rid of someone for complaining about bad culture. Mel is brave for speaking out about this when nobody else will. The bullies in radio get protected and the others have to walk away. When will the networks get serious about this? Bullying shouldn’t exist in any industry but we seem to promote these people and continue to let them get away with bad behaviour.

Zach
27 Nov 2018 - 7:53 am

For someone who doesn’t like the industry, she sure talks about it a lot.

Huh
27 Nov 2018 - 8:48 am

Sorry when did she work at ARN?

@ Huh
27 Nov 2018 - 10:26 am

Formerly a daytime announcer on Mix 102.3 (Adelaide)

Anonymous
27 Nov 2018 - 2:23 pm

Some of the behaviour I’ve seen in my career is sickening. The radio industry needs a union.

Elizabeth
27 Nov 2018 - 8:43 pm

I am over those that havent made it going on the negative slant constantly as some sort of expert. Yawn. Move on, take some ownership.

@ Elizabeth
28 Nov 2018 - 9:08 am

Whether you like Mel or not, she is right. Radio, you have a problem!

Anonymous
28 Nov 2018 - 11:26 am

Nova were absolutely appalling to me. No one cares unless you’re an announcer.

Darren Moss
1 Dec 2018 - 8:42 am

Not sure I would call it a general culture problem for the industry, it’s a select few who still think radio works the way it did 20 years ago.

Those same people are the problem.

Most talent don’t care about game playing and politics because they are on their own journey and some bullying twat isn’t going to deter them.

If you are being bullied or if you see it in the workplace, regardless of the industry, dob them in. Go find the right person and make a complaint. If nobody wants to listen, talk to an employment lawyer.

Nobody deserves to be treated like crap in the workplace and nobody has any right to dish out that treatment.

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