HT&E held its annual general meeting and released its full year results today.

Speaking to radioinfo after the AGM, CEO Ciaran Davis explained the results, talked about the income being earned from podcasting and speculated about acquiring new stations if the opportunity arises.

This time last year the world was a very different place and we were all very uncertain about the pandemic. Lockdowns. economic activity, confidence were obviously rock bottom... last year's AGM, some would say, was a bleak place.

HT&E have appointed Angela Ewers to the newly created position of Chief People Officer, a position that will also see her join ARN’s Executive Leadership Team.
 
Angela will commence her new role in November, based in Sydney, where she will lead both HT&E and ARN’s People & Culture function to support growth and ensure ARN is not just Australia’s number one radio and digital audio business, but also one of the best places to work.
 

They say if you're paying tax, at least you're making money.

The same goes for government subsidies, if you're not eligible, you must be doing ok.

ARN's parent company HT&E has calculated that it will make enough money in coming months to exclude it from the Jobkeeper subsidy.

After a tough few months of stand-downs, redundancies and restructuring, where many radio industry staff in all sectors have lost their jobs, some stations are planning to return salaries to normal as advertising slowly increases and sentiment begins to turn around.

Today the nation's unemployment figures improved, showing some signs of green shoots as Australia begins to regain control on the pandemic.

ARN have promoted Lauren Joyce to the newly created role of Chief Strategy & Connections Officer, a role that will also see her join the Executive Leadership Team.
 
She will lead the innovative evolution to amplify ARN’s commercial and content offering through the creation of mutually beneficial relationships between brands and audiences.
 

Like so many others around Australia, ARN CEO Ciaran Davis is working from home for at least part of his week during the COVID 19 pandemic. He speaks to Steve Ahern about the priorities of the company and the effect of the virus on the business.

With a background of shelves containing books about negotiation and innovation, Ciaran Davis is quick to answer the question whether he has ever seen anything like this pandemic in any other businesses he had ever worked.

Peter Saxon profiles Gary Roberts