Greg Byrnes has been named head of content at Macquarie Media, joining from Sky News, where he was executive producer. He begins his new role on Tuesday.
Tom Malone – who recently took the helm of Nine’s radio assets after it took full control of Macquarie Media – said in a note to staff that Byrnes will be responsible for all on-air radio content.
“I’m delighted to announce that Greg Byrnes is joining Macquarie Media as our head of content,” Malone, to whom Byrnes will report, said.
“Greg has a long and impressive career in media, and in particular radio, starting at 2XL Cooma in 1990. He joined 2UE in 1993 and spent 17 years there most noticeably as news director and program director.
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“For the past 10 years Greg has been at Sky News, as channel manager and national editor, and more recently the executive producer of their talk shows.”
The radio network has been undergoing a number of changes as it integrates with its new owner, Nine. In late October, CEO Adam Lang left the business, with the leadership role being made redundant thanks to the Nine takeover. Soon thereafter, 3AW operations manager Stephen Beers was let go, before Malone rehired him just weeks later as a station manager, the first decision Malone made in his new role.
In addition, Macquarie’s national executive producer, Michael Thompson, departed the business last week.
Macquarie Sports Radio is currently in the midst of a content review, with all of its talk programming axed due to low ratings. Sydney’s 2GB is also facing a content review after Alan Jones’ comments about New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern sparked a mass exodus of advertisers. Nine admitted the boycott had hurt the station at its annual general meeting earlier this month.
Chair Peter Costello said that “it’s a reminder to everybody that while you are a public broadcaster you have to be very careful what you say”. CEO Hugh Marks added that soft market conditions had been “exacerbated” by the boycott.