Macquarie Radio to cut 10% of staff with Fairfax execs Parker, Frangi and Forbes going
Four of the most senior executives from Fairfax’s radio stations have become the latest casualties of the merger with Macquarie Radio Network with Clark Forbes, Chris Parker and Anthony Frangi all departing.
The move comes as the new merged entity moves to a new management structure and looks to cut duplicated roles across the organisation, with about 10 per cent of the workforce being made redundant.
In an email to staff this afternoon obtained by Mumbrella it was revealed Fairfax national content director Clark Forbes, national news director and Melbourne acting general manager Rob Curtain, Sydney general manager Chris Parker and Brisbane general manager Anthony Frangi have left the business.
The latest round of redundancies follow on from the sacking of production staff and on-air presenters at Magic 1278 in the middle of last month and the closure of the 2UE newsroom which was merged with the 2GB newsroom to save costs, as well as sacking several presenters. Some staff have described the merger as a “hostile takeover”.
Sad that station who failed in ratings for years can’t reconcile the fact they only have themselves to blame. Ratings losers are LOSERS. No nice way to express the truth. Fairfax – the whole organisation is a basket case.
Yes in the radio game its ratings and nothing else matters, same on TV
The say that the Melbourne Cup is the race that stops a nation.
The radio rating at 9.30am AEST on those Tuesdays, is the event that has everyone attention in radio, well commercial radio.
if you start fiddling around with the 3aw lineup it will be at your peril, 3aw is a huge part of thousands of listeners in victoria, our day starts and finishes with fabulous presenters leave the format alone.
ARN did this a few years ago. The “change managers” did their sacking thing, and then they themselves were ejected (and friendless). I was one of many recipients of the “change managers” sacking spree. It hurt like hell, but eventually the company got its act together and is now the strongest player in the market. Time will tell.
Wow, Clark Forbes has been a part of 3AW forever, and he has kept it at the top of the AM ratings tree for most of that time.
This could be a very dangerous move by the new owners, AW listeners are known to be more protective of their station than a mother tiger and three times as dangerous.
The new owners are fairfax?? Also 2GB has gone through numerous PD changes without losing it’s #1 status which demonstrates the power is in the announcers not the PD