Alan Jones, the controversial king of Australian talkback, continued to dominate the radio market in the past 12 months despite some dips in audience share and a couple of typically Jones-ian foot-in-mouth moments – like blaming the Boston Bombings on “left-wing radical students” and suggesting Australia should reconsider its intake of foreign university students as a response.
He may not be well loved among the young trendsetters in the media and marketing sector, but AM talkback, and 2GB and Jones in particular, pull enormous punch with the punters – aka the non-white collar workers, which in the end is where the spending power lies and on-the-ground brand-buying decisions are made.
Indeed, Macquarie Radio Network director Jack Singleton, incensed at how some in the media were reporting radio results, said as much back in May: “Every survey for 10 years 2GB has been number one in Sydney, yet the SMH, AdNews and others say ‘2Day is back on top’.
“That is true, if you want to invent a convenient category called commercial FM. If we wanted to invent our own bullshit figures, we could. While journalists may conveniently forget about AM, listeners don’t. And listeners are kind of important.”
