Today Network boss: We tried to call the hospital five times before airing prank call
The CEO of Southern Cross Austereo has revealed that Today Network staff tried to call the hospital it prank called at least five times but decided to air the call anyway after failing to get through.
In an interview with 3AW’s Neil Mitchell, Rhys Holleran said: “We did attempt to contact those people on multiple occasions. We rang them up to discuss what we had recorded. We tried to contact them no less than five occasions.”
The media company is in deep crisis after a nurse in the UK was found dead, apparently having taken her own life, after having put a prank call through to a hospital ward where the Duchess of Cambridge was being treated for acute morning sickness.
Hosts Michael Christian and Mel Greig impersonated Prince Charles and The Queen during the call and tricked another nurse into giving out details of the Princess’ condition. The call was aired across the Today Network on the Summer 30 show.
During the interview with Mitchell, Holleran emphasised that he felt that the nurse’s death was tragic but unforseeable.
Asked whether there was a threat to the radio station’s licence, Holleran said: “I don’t believe there is.”
Asked about previous incidents involving Sydney breakfast host Kyle Sandilands, Holleran said: “I don’t accept that we have a cultural issue.”
At the time of posting, shares in the company were trading at $1.05, representing a fall of about $35m on Friday’s close.
Linkedin
Something smells fishy here. If SC Austereo really did attempt to contact the nurses at least 5 times, wouldn’t they mention this in the press briefing or media statement? Moreover, why didn’t they mention any of their protocols that they did follow during the production and aftermath of the prank? If they really thought they “didn’t break any rules” and still stand over the prank not being in bad taste, wouldn’t they solidify their claim by mentioning these protocols earlier? Wouldn’t this seem a bit out of place for 2Day?
Call me cynical, but I would not be surprised if this was a lie, or at the very least, a extremely gross exaggeration. (Stating “attempt to contact” could nearly mean anything. I could send out 5 telegrams and call that an attempt to contact the parties 5 times.)
User ID not verified.
Yeah, right, a hospital in the middle of London has nothing better to do than respond to phone calls from a bogan radio station in Australia. Pathetic. How dare they not suspend their normal work of saving lives to take the call.
It’s about time advertisers just said no to this stoopid bogan station. There are a lot of ways, and cheaper ways, to reach the audience.
User ID not verified.
So Holleran seems to be confirming that they did not get consent. And lets be honest here, did anyone with any brains really expect consent to be given?
It’s also interesting to watch the many voices in the media chime in about blame. Always so quick to apportion blame, telling us how to think and feel. But when the media is the focus, it’s time to close ranks. Maybe they know deep down that it could have been them making the call…
Anyone across this prank who didn’t try to stop it airing without consent, should also be hung out to dry.
And all for some laughs at someone else’s expense.
2dayfm: The ethics of a cockroach.
User ID not verified.
That Holleran cockroach should be sacked first, ahead of the 2 deplorable DJs.
They tried to call the hospital 5 times?…what does that mean..it simply means you have not been given consent to air anything. Just what low can you get by thinking you will be given consent to such deplorable act. You are already going to air it anyway no matter what, so dont give nonsense excuse.
User ID not verified.
So we tried to get consent. Couldn’t get it and ran it anyway. So essentially you didn’t care.
User ID not verified.
SCA are saying they tried to call the hospital 5 times. So clearly, they thought it was that important to get consent, they called that many times. After not being able to get through, they played the call anyway. Very strange SCA, very strange.
User ID not verified.
Stupidity of the highest order. What puzzles me is the DJ’s lack of comprehension of the potential damage to THEIR reputations should anything go awry. The station management approved it knowing that they had their scape-goats perfectly in place. What a cynical, exploitative mob of grubs. Anything for the ratings. I hope they are choking on their words because I am sure that at some point they uttered the immortal words “Any publicity is good publicity right fellas?”
User ID not verified.
Who cares if they tried… they broke the law because they didn’t get consent… Interesting to read all their media statements too and the general tone coming out of Austereo. You can tell that lawyers have led the charge here and not media consultants, for fear of them actually admitting that they did something wrong, rather than trying to gauge mood and opinion and essentially doing what is morally right which is acknowledge they f**ked up. At the end of the day, there’s no issue in admitting you did something wrong, if that’s what you did, which clearly they did from a moral, ethical and potentially legal point of view… deal with it there and then and don’t drag it out.
Austereo is digging itself deeper and deeper into a hole as well with the their latest line in trying to blame the hospital: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....nurse.html The hospital didn’t ask for this situation, Austereo created it… to start blaming them shows arrogance and a level of immaturity that staggers belief.
Rather than let lawyers write your statements and skirt around potential legal ramifications, their approach and response has been totally off whack with public sentiment and lacks remorse. They could have dealt with this far better, acknowledged their mistakes… all this quite frankly shows how a bunch of arrogant, obnoxious schoolkids run the show over there…
User ID not verified.
“We did attempt to call” ? Another fail from SCA which started with nobody saying “no” to the idea of pranking a hospital, approving then airing the call without consent of the two nurses, then the ineffectual crisis management after news of the death was first reported.
User ID not verified.
“”It is absolutely true to say that we did attempt to contact those people.”
you did, but you ran the audio anyway right? Pathetic excuse CEO Rhys Holleran, Pathetic
User ID not verified.
Wow – they just keep digging huh?
Expecting hospital staff to drop health care to fulfill the needs of bogan entertainment. Yeah that’s not exactly going to make you look better…..
User ID not verified.
“Your call may be recorded for the purposes of public global humiliation. Please inform our staff if you do not wish this to happen”
User ID not verified.
Imagine this stunt was committed by a footballer (pick a code, any code) and ended with the same result. They would have experienced social execution by the media without any backup from their club or association. The journalist that covered it with a completely one sided view would probably get a Walkley for their little tearjerker.
User ID not verified.
Let’s not forget that it was 6am London time when the prank call was made, and it was broadcast not long after. Who the hell do you try and call at 6am?
User ID not verified.
Who gives these people a licence to broadcast?
User ID not verified.
Show us the phone bill!
User ID not verified.
Really? Departments that check the content of a late night radio show before it goes to air??
Anyone who has spent 5 minutes working in commercial radio knows that the evening show is maybe an announcer or two and a producer chopping the content together.
User ID not verified.