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Tom Malone named managing director of Nine’s radio assets

Nine’s director of sport Tom Malone has been named the new managing director of radio for the media company, in preparation for the business taking operational control of Macquarie Media on November 8.

Macquarie Media has been without a leader since CEO Adam Lang left the business on October 25. His departure was announced shortly after it was clear Nine had enough shares to become the owner of the radio business.

Malone will lead Nine’s newly-acquired radio assets

Malone has led Nine’s sporting division for four years, overseeing the growth of Wide World of Sports and building its relationships with major sporting codes. He also oversaw the 2018 switch from cricket to tennis.

Macquarie Media owns stations including Sydney’s 2GB and Melbourne’s 3AW. Over the past week more senior management have been let go from the business, with Nine reportedly preparing to bring in its own talent.

A review of content was also recently announced for Macquarie Sports Radio, as all its talk programming was axed due to low ratings.

2GB in Sydney is also undergoing a content review after its star breakfast host, Alan Jones, caused another round of controversy.

Nine CEO Hugh Marks said the new role will give Malone a chance to return to his roots.

“Tom has a stellar track record as both a content creator and a media executive. For him this is a return to his roots in radio and I am confident he is the right person to lead Nine’s radio division,” said Marks.

“He brings an important skillset as we move forward and look for the opportunities that are created by having powerful radio brands like 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR within the Nine family.”

Malone is a former executive producer of 60 Minutes and the Today Show. He has also previously worked in radio, beginning his career as a cadet at 2UE. In 2016, 2UE became Talking Lifestyle, which heavily relied on branded content. In 2018, Talking Lifestyle was retired in favour of Macquarie Sports Radio.

Malone also spent several years producing breakfast radio.

“I’m excited to be returning to radio,” Malone said.

“2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR are all powerful voices in their respective cities with deep connections to their communities, and we will seek to expand on that.

“The move to full ownership of Macquarie opens up real opportunities to build on that foundation and creates new ones to engage with listeners in each state.”

Malone will oversee the entire radio division, but Macquarie Media’s newsrooms will fall under Nine’s director of news and current affairs, Darren Wick.

Malone is looking to build relationships with the managing directors in each market, and further optimise the business for growth and integration with Nine’s other assets.

In an email to the Wide World of Sports team, Malone said the job was a “highlight of his life” and that it was the people inside the business who made it great.

“We have done so much together that I am incredibly proud of. We reshaped our cricket coverage in our final two summers, returning to iconic voices and cricket-focussed storytelling. We made the bold call to switch from cricket to tennis, knowing that it would be better for our business, and we delivered an outstanding first summer of tennis, giving Nine its strongest start to the year in more than 19 years, and which has us on track to win the ratings year for the first time in 15 years,” said Malone.

He went on to say he was sad to be leaving the team, but excited for the new challenges ahead of him.

A replacement for Malone will be announced in due course.

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