Alan Jones not as popular with radio listeners or sponsors even before his latest distasteful remarks?

 

The Age 8 October 2012

Radio station 2GB has the Alan Jones show on air in the 5.30am to 9am time slot from Monday through to Friday.

 

Both 2GB management and the Murdoch press would have us believe that Jones is undisputed king of the airwaves during the early morning in Sydney.

 

However, all is not as rosy in the 2GB stable as it seems.

 

Even though this radio station appears to hold a commanding market share lead with 14.2 per cent of a potential 4 million strong metropolitan audience, it was slipping down the listener popularity ladder before its 22 September 2012 public relations disaster.

 

Additionally, Nielsen’s regular metropolitan radio market surveys show that:

•        Alan Jones had dropped 1.7 points of potential airtime share for his morning time slot between 24 June and 1 September 2012, down 2.4 points on the comparable survey period twelve months ago.

•        His listener age demographic (popularly believed to be predominately those 50 years of age and older) has also been quietly falling away from the radio station since at least early 2010. 

While 2GB’s parent company, Macquarie Radio Network Ltd,  told the Australian Stock Exchange that its 2012 financial year gross earnings were down 12 per cent on the previous financial year and, that core radio revenue attributable to 2GB and 2CH fell by 4 per cent on prior year levels.

 

Tellingly, in August 2012 it told the stock exchange that with regard to expected 2012-13 income, Forward booking are about as short as we’ve seen them..

Which indicates that the company expected its advertising revenue to be down as well.
 

So by the time Jones' USLC keynote speech became public knowledge and caused widespread community outrage, the commercial climate already existed which made it easier for corporate advertisers to decide that they would no longer tolerate having their brands coupled with the Jones' name in the minds of 22.7 million Australians.

The fact that up to seventy advertisers decided to do so is hardly surprising.

After all, it was less than three years ago that many of these same advertisers had to weather the fallout from the Administrative Decisions Tribunal finding that he uttered on-air racial vilification in the days prior to the Cronulla Riots, a little over five years since the Australian Communications and Media Authority publicly stated that it was not persuaded that the relevant comments were presented reasonably and in good faith, and not quite seven years since the riots themselves which Jones helped foment and only seven and a half years since the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption threatened him with legal action over his alleged contempt of proceedings.

It is of particular interest that this week's Essential Report indicates that 67 per cent of its regular survey respondents have 'not much' or 'no trust' in Alan Jones as media a commentator or journalist.

For Alan Jones and 2GB to now complain that community response to his behaviour is a case of cyberbullying does not take into consideration the very real possibility that ordinary Australians may have finally reached their tolerance level for his particular form of bitter, far-right demagoguery and, that the digital revolution has finally allowed these same people to understand the power of their voices.

Macquarie Radio Network is about to learn the same lesson as Jones' previous employers - he is an expensive asset to maintain. Perhaps it may rethink its association with Jones when his current contract comes up for renewal next year.