Supporters rally for Rabbitt
26Feb09

Source: Melissa Lyons, The Herald (Newcastle)

The Hunter sport community has vowed it won’t call game over following news 2HD had axed its six hour Saturday program dedicated to local sport.

The program’s host and NBN sport reader Mike Rabbitt closed the mic on the Saturday Sports Line program last Friday after an alleged pay dispute with the Sandgate station’s owner Bill Caralis. 2HD station and operations manager Guy Ashford said Rabbitt’s sudden departure left no time to find a suitable replacement.

“He has big shoes to fill, Mr Ashford said.

The loss of extensive sport coverage has enraged major sporting groups across the region, who are preparing a letter of protest to 2HD.

Newcastle City Council Sports Advisory Panel will also approach 2HD to request the local sport program return to air.

Presenter of the program’s women in sport segment, Helene O’Neill, said the loss of Saturday Sports Line tore at the heart of Newcastle’s social fabric.

“We are a sporting town. Whether it’s the players, the spectators or the grannies who are upset, we expect and deserve better,” she said.

Hunter Academy of Sport chief executive Ken Clifford said the program, which covered all sporting groups, was an essential arm in promoting sport in the region.

Mr Ashford said 2HD did not want to cut back on local content, instead provide the best content for its listeners.

Rabbitt said he would consider returning to 2HD for the sake of the region’s sport.

“It’s not about the money any more, I am worried there will be no local sport in Newcastle,” he said.

End of Herald story

Media Hunter adds:

The axing of Saturday Sports Line has proven to be a hot topic in the Hunter since we broke the story two days ago. A large amount of comments have flooded into this site protesting the management of the station.

The pay dispute between Caralis and Rabbitt is something that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Rabbitt has done a 3 hour show for over 15 years asking only a modest fee. Following the departure of other announcers who filled in the other 3 hours on a Saturday morning, Rabbitt was asked to double the length of his program. He stepped up and began doing just that. Apparently he also simply doubled his modest fee to be compensated for working twice the hours on air, not to mention the time spent each week preparing for the show.

Caralis allegedly objected to paying Rabbitt for 6 hours, and, true to form, expected that Rabbitt would love to work twice as much for the same 3 hour fee. As a result, Caralis stopped paying Rabbitt altogether.

Media Hunter has heard that in mid-January Rabbitt informed Caralis that if he didn’t pay his outstanding accounts he would not be fronting up for the next program. Caralis quickly paid up that time, but subsequently stopped paying again leading up to the ultimatum last week. Once again Rabbitt apparently requested his pay, but this time Caralis argued that they would have to negotiate a lower fee. Rabbitt decided to pull up stumps.

Rabbitt faxed the running sheet for the next day’s program to Guy Ashford, including the names and contacts for everyone involved. He is yet to hear anything from the station.

Rabbitt has always treated this program more as a community service than a source of income and has built a reliable and loyal audience. He and his audience deserve better.

The management at 2NURFM should call Rabbitt and take his program. They would see a large audience migrate over to their signal who would then be exposed to 2NUR’s broader programming. 2HD would then get the ratings decline it deserves for showing such contempt to its audience.

At some stage Caralis and his management must realise that holding a radio license involves some community committment, and the relentless cutting of costs and local content is contrary to their broacast obligations.

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Posted under Radio

10 Responses to “Supporters rally for Rabbitt”

Caralis and his cronies treat Newcastle radio listeners with utter contempt. Caralis could not give 2 hoots whether the programme is local or networked..it all comes down to the cheapest option and his cronies agree. You could just imagine the weekly meeting with Ashford, St John and little Luke sitting in front of Caralis getting dizzy from nodding their heads and smiling as they agree with every bit of crap that comes out Caralis’ mouth. These guys need to get a life.

Comment by Peta on February 27th, 2009

thay have a life in radio peta.
who cares about rabbit he is so far up him self………..

Comment by damo on March 1st, 2009

Where I live the community breakfast announcer actually flogs Bill’s guy(no pun intended)to death. Bill’s breakie guy is so bad he frightens off fruit bats – but he does multi-multi-task and eats a lot of peanuts.
Many of the regional towns Bill has stations in may only have ABC and their Community station – right now those little community stations are smiling because their local content is far better than the constant citycentric ‘Torkin’ Sport’.

Comment by Bill's Ex-Employee on March 1st, 2009

Damo (and your other aliases on various sites),

I’d prefer that this site doesn’t get bogged down in personal sledges of everyone. I know you feel that I am picking out Caralis for special attention, but really I am just posting about what happens.

Is it true King’s show was axed? Is it true that Rabbitt has left after a pay dispute? Is it true that Pete Davis is gone? Yes to all the above.

Unfortunately all these episodes have occurred in a short period of time, making for a lot of posts.

Personally, I wish these things weren’t happening within the industry but they are. I wish that we were talking about a competitive pair of stations at Sandgate who were making radio interesting again in this town.

The bulk of comments we receive however indicates that plenty of people are not happy with whats been happening. But the ratings and revenue shares are the real scoreboard, and they are a lot lower than they were 5 years ago.

Yes, if I hear of relevant industry news coming out of NX/KO I will post it. Likewise news from other media.

If you and your mates have something constructive to say, I am happy to publish it. Likewise, I am happy to talk to anyone at Sandgate to hear your side of the story.

So please, put your energy into building up a couple of really good radio stations Then I’ll have something I’d rather be writing about.

Comment by Craig Wilson on March 1st, 2009

damo-”who cares”………
The listeners care, that’s who.
that attitude doesn’t help the station one bit,why are you working there.

Comment by Lisa on March 5th, 2009

Hey just checked out newfms web sight an just seen the new breckie add an there now offering $10000 in fuel, ratings must be nearing real soon???? The station has inproved a great deal in the last month or two but shame that there still playing shit girly music.. start playing rock again.. This is a complement to you guys. You’re oviously starting to see that the station is in bad order an i can really see the small inprovements really just fix the music it makes me sick… Good Luck

Comment by cess on March 5th, 2009

Well some positive news at last out of NEWFM, apparently former Triple M personality Rob Duckworth is going to do a two week stint at the station with ‘room for longer’ according to station manager Guy Ashford.

Comment by Julie on March 5th, 2009

Rob Duckworth the planet rock legend well hopefully he can convince St john to play rock music rather than the girly dance he’s playing now… Craig geeat job ur doing keep it up mate

Comment by Cess on March 5th, 2009

Mike Rabbit
Why don’t you relocate to Melbourne and join the Sports Desk at MTR 1377/116 SEN instead of satying in Newcastle?

Comment by JASON FROM BORONIA VICTORIA on July 17th, 2010

I have just returned from NEW YORK where i was working with an EX Sydney-Radio Broadcaster who had recently completed a stint of work at NEW FM.He told me that a history of JOX that go through both NEW FM & 2HD have their longevity dependent on Steve St.John.That is,as soon as the offending staff member shows better Programming skills than Steve,better ideas than Steve,more Sales-radio knowledge than Steve,is funnier than Steve & gets on well with staff better than Steve does & more importantly has Women newsreaders pay more attention to other Announcers (than to Steve)the shorter the time span they spend at “BUNKER BILLS”.

My question to him was “& JUST WHO IS STEVE St.JOHN ?”

Comment by anitadrink on June 24th, 2011

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