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Nine has sacked two of its star presenters in a move that has sent shockwaves through the industry.
Popular hosts Julie-Anne Sprague and Tod Johnson have both been axed as part of an overhaul at the media company’s Perth-based 6PR talkback radio station as ad revenues continue to dry up.
Sprague, the station’s only female presenter, signed on to front the station’s critical ‘afternoons’ timeslot to much fanfare just 18 months ago after outgoing host Steve ‘Millsy’ Mills was promoted to the breakfast program.
Johnson, a legend of the Perth music scene from his days fronting local 80s band V Capri, joined the station as host of its ‘The Nightshift’ show from 8pm in a major revamp of the evening line-up back in February 2021.
Sources within the station said both presenters were caught completely off-guard when given the tap this week after Nine Radio’s head of content, Greg Byrnes, flew in from Sydney to oversee the cuts.
Neither of the presenters will be replaced and instead other hosts’ shifts will be extended in a desperate bid to crack down on costs.
Mills and his breakfast show co-host, Karl Langdon, who are usually on-air from 5am, will now be given a little sleep-in with their start time pushed back to 6am and their show now running through until 10am.
Popular Perth host Julie-Anne Sprague as part of a drastic overhaul at the embattled outlet
Tod Johnson has also been shown the door after his Nightshift show was exed
The reshuffle means Gary Adshead’s ‘mornings’ show will now be on-air until the middle of the afternoon at 2pm after starting an hour later from 10am.
The ‘afternoon’ show will be scrapped entirely, with drive host Oli Peterson hitting the airwaves from 2pm before wrapping at his current knock-off time at 6pm, with the station’s Wide World of Sports then being stretched out to two hours.
Johnson’s former timeslot will now be filled by Tony McManus’ Money News program piped in from 3AW’s Melbourne studios from 8pm until 12am after.
His show had previously run in the graveyard shift from midnight until 3am.
In an internal email to all station staff, Nine Radio boss Tom Malone said the overhaul was needed 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 host
Gary Adshead’s awkwardly named ‘mornings’ program will now run until the middle of the afternoon as staff at 6PR are asked to work longer shifts to cover for the cutbacks
‘The advertising market in Perth has been tough – down 16% in the past 5 years, and rising costs have added extra pressure on our financial performance,’ he said in the email.
‘To ensure the station’s sustainability, we’re making adjustments that will help us return to profitability over the next 12 months, while still delivering the quality content our listeners love.
‘Unfortunately this means that we’ll no longer get to hear Julie-Anne Sprague or Tod Johnston on our airwaves.
‘This is a sad and tough day for the Afternoon and Nights teams along with our listeners, and we deeply appreciate their contributions to 6PR.‘
6PR’s evening listeners will now tune in to hear Tony McManus’ show piped in from Melbourne
Nine Radio boss Tony Malone announced the shock changes in an internal staff email on Wednesday
Staffers at Nine said the changes showed no one at the network was safe amid the company’s ongoing, aggressive cost-cutting.
‘Forget the hosts – not even the shows are safe anymore,’ one Nine Radio insider told Daily Mail Australia.
‘This demonstrates just how desperate they are to take the axe to our budgets – and that no one and nothing is sacred.
‘And it’s not just the presenters – it’s the producers who make these shows who are also in the firing line.’
The shock reconfiguration at the talkback station is so fresh, 6PR’s website was still promoting Sprague and Johnson’s programs on Wednesday afternoon.
Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine were given the chop at Nine’s Brisbane-based 4BC, talkback station following a disastrous ratings collapse in the critical breakfast timeslot
The changes echoed those at 4BC which saw four hosts go in the space of just two weeks.
The station’s struggling breakfast hosts Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine were given the axe last month – just a week after Daily Mail Australia revealed they were in the crosshairs following a devastating ratings nose drive.
The trio – household names in the Sunshine State – joined 4BC two years ago as the station switched to a classic hits format in the critical breakfast timeslot.
They initially claimed an impressive 11.8 per cent audience share – and third place – on debut in the Queensland capital’s fiercely contested breakfast radio contest.
But the decision to steer the station away from talkback in favour of ‘light entertainment’ alienated listeners and ultimately proved a disaster.
4BC’s popular drive-time host Peter Gleeson wrapped up last month after taking on a new role as chief 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 quit 4BC amid the staff shake-up to take up a new job running Queensland’s new state-of-the-art greyhound racing complex
Amid the turmoil, the station’s highly regarded breakfast newsreader Steve Barker also announced he was heading for the door.
Nine bosses indicated the station would return to its talkback roots by giving hard-hitting 4BC Weekends host Peter Fegan the chance to prove himself in the crucial breakfast timeslot until the end of the year.
Veteran presenter and former Liberal MP Gary Hardgrave was then parachuted in for the outgoing Gleeson.
Nine axed about 200 jobs from the company in August as part of $30million worth of cuts, with interim chief executive Matt Stanton vowing to chop a further $50million from the budget this financial year.
