Nine has sacked two of its star presenters in a move that has shocked the industry.
Popular presenters Julie-Anne Sprague and Tod Johnson have been sacked as part of a review of the Perth-based media company’s 6PR radio station, as advertising revenue continues to dry up.
Sprague, the station’s only female presenter, signed on to head up the station’s critical ‘afternoon’ slot to much fanfare just 18 months ago after outgoing host Steve ‘Millsy’ Mills was promoted to the breakfast show.
Johnson, a legend of the Perth music scene since his days fronting local 80s band V Capri, has joined the station as presenter of its show ‘The Nightshift’ from 8pm in a major revamp of the evening programming in February 2021.
Sources within the station said both presenters were caught completely off guard when given the call this week after Nine Radio’s head of content, Greg Byrnes, flew in from Sydney to oversee the cuts.
None of the presenters will be replaced and instead other presenters’ turns will be extended in a desperate bid to cut costs.
Mills and her breakfast show co-host Karl Langdon, who are normally on air from 5am, will now be able to get some sleep with their start time pushed back to 6am and their show now running until 10am
Popular Perth presenter Julie-Anne Sprague as part of drastic overhaul at embattled establishment
Tod Johnson was also shown the door after his show Nightshift was cancelled.
The shake-up means Gary Adshead’s ‘morning’ show will now air until mid-afternoon at 2pm after starting an hour later at 10am
The ‘afternoon’ show will be scrapped entirely, with presenter Oli Peterson going on air from 2pm before ending in its current slot at 6pm, and the Wide World of Sports on station will then be extended to two hours.
Johnson’s old slot will now be filled by Tony McManus’ Money News show broadcast from 3AW’s studios in Melbourne from 8pm to 12am
His program had previously been presented on the night shift from midnight to 3 in the morning.
In an internal email to all station staff, Nine Radio boss Tom Malone said the review was necessary to cut costs at the cash-strapped media company.
Sprague (pictured with former Deputy Prime Minister Julie Bishop) had been the station’s only female presenter.
Gary Adshead’s strangely named “morning” show will now be extended until mid-afternoon as 6PR staff are asked to work longer shifts to cover cuts.
“The advertising market in Perth has been difficult – down 16% in the last five years and rising costs have added additional pressure to our financial performance,” he said in the email.
‘To ensure the sustainability of the station, we are making adjustments that will help us return to profitability over the next 12 months, while continuing to deliver the quality content our listeners love.
‘Unfortunately, this means we will no longer be able to hear Julie-Anne Sprague or Tod Johnston on our airwaves.
‘This is a sad and tough day for the Tardes y Noches teams along with our listeners, and we deeply appreciate their contributions to 6PR.‘
6PR late night listeners will now tune in to listen to Tony McManus’ show from Melbourne
Nine Radio boss Tony Malone announced the shock changes in an internal staff email on Wednesday.
Nine staff said they were concerned the 6PR changes were a precursor to similar cost cuts at the company’s other stations – Brisbane’s 3AW, 2GB and 4BC.
“Forget the presenters – not even the shows are safe anymore,” a Nine Radio source told Daily Mail Australia.
“This shows how desperate they are to destroy our budgets and that nothing and no one is sacred.”
‘The worry is that if it works it will mean more cuts across the company and more heads will roll.
“And not only the presenters, but also the producers who make these shows are in the line of fire.”
The shocking reconfiguration at the talkback station is so recent that 6PR’s website was still promoting Sprague and Johnson’s shows Wednesday afternoon.
Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine have taken the hit at Nine’s Brisbane-based talk station 4BC after a disastrous ratings collapse in the critical breakfast time slot.
The changes echoed those at 4BC, where four presenters disappeared in the space of just two weeks.
The station’s breakfast hosts Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine were sacked last month, just a week after Daily Mail Australia revealed they were in the crosshairs following a devastating ratings slump.
The trio, household names in the Sunshine State, joined 4BC two years ago when the station switched to a classic hits format in the critical breakfast time slot.
They initially achieved an impressive 11.8 per cent audience share (and third place) on their debut in the Queensland capital’s fiercely contested breakfast radio contest.
But the decision to move the station away from talkback in favor of “light entertainment” alienated listeners and ultimately proved to be a disaster.
Popular 4BC presenter Peter Gleeson called it quits last month after taking on a new role as boss of Queensland’s Q greyhound racing complex, while his executive producer Luke Cooper revealed he was also leaving to join the ABC.
Veteran journalist Peter Gleeson has resigned from 4BC amid a staff shake-up to take a new job running Queensland’s new state-of-the-art greyhound racing complex.
Amid the turmoil, the station’s highly respected breakfast news presenter, Steve Barker, also announced that he was heading out the door.
Nine bosses indicated the station would return to its talkback roots by giving hard-hitting 4BC Weekends presenter Peter Fegan the chance to prove his worth in the crucial breakfast slot until the end of the year.
Then veteran presenter and former Liberal MP Gary Hardgrave parachuted in to replace the outgoing Gleeson.
Nine cut about 200 company jobs in August as part of $30 million worth of cuts, and interim CEO Matt Stanton has promised to cut another $50 million from this financial year’s budget.