2UE appoints Bob Miller as GM

Marketing guru, Bob Miller, has accepted the position of General Manager of 2UE, Sydney – effective immediately.

Southern Cross Group GM, Graham Mott, told radioinfo “Shep (Ian Sheppard) and I were discussing who would make a good GM and Bob’s name came up, so we invited him to lunch and offered him the job. At first he thought we were kidding, then he said, ‘you’re serious aren’t you’, and it went from there.

When radioinfo suggested to 2UE Program Director, Sandy Aloisi that Miller was very dynamic, she replied, “That’s a word that’s been mentioned a lot about him”.

Miller has an impressive background as one of Australia’s leading marketers having led the Toyota brand to number one in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. Since then he’s been operating his own business, “Australia Street Consulting” with clients such as Telstra, Samsung and Mitsubishi.

Those that know Bob can attest to the passion he holds for media, and in particular radio. If nothing else, 2UE is certainly headed for an interesting time. Miller’s own bio on his website states, “Bob is an acknowledged agent of structural change. As three times President of AANA (Association of Australian National Advertisers) Bob was instrumental in changing forever the structure of advertising as a whole, when he led the charge to do away with the industry’s long-standing ad agency accreditation system. In 2000, he advised the NSW Department of Education & Training on an historic change to the format of its senior secondary education system in a world-first change to the future of government/ automotive industry co-operation.

“Bob was appointed visiting Professor at Macquarie University, lecturing in Marketing Communications, in January 2000. He lectures third year undergraduates and also conducts the Masters in Marketing programme there”.

Some are suggesting that John Laws, a long time friend of Miller’s since he was instrumental in setting up the association between Laws and Toyota, may have had some influence over the appointment. Either way, it can’t hurt to have a GM that has the respect of both the ad industry and the talent. To read what the print media had to say about this and other radio issues go toPaper Clips

As General Manager Bob Miller will share responsibility for ensuring compliance to the station’s licence conditions on Cash for Comment. He will certainly be aware of his responsibilities, as he was closely involved with the Bankers Association deal that began the issue in the first place.

For those who have forgotten, the ABA Cash for Comment enquiry detailed the Bankers Association deal in its final report like this:


Mr Laws and the Bankers Association

In May 1998, Mr Christopher Stewart (who had recently commenced working for the Bankers’ Association), wrote to Mr Laws suggesting that he may have a potential sponsor for a series of short radio scripts on Australian historical topics which Mr Stewart had written. Mr Tony Aveling, Chief Executive of the Bankers’ Association subsequently proceeded to promote to the Bankers’ Association Council the idea of sponsoring key media opinion leaders to assist in the improvement of the banks’ image and also of sponsoring a John Laws radio project for the next year.

Independently, Mr Bob Miller (Managing Director of the advertising agency Australia Street Consulting Pty Limited; ‘Australia Street Consulting’) had initiated negotiations with Mr Stewart in September 1998 to determine whether the banks might wish to do some advertising using Mr Laws. Mr Miller was seeking to become the agent for the Bankers’ Association in an advertising arrangement on 2UE. Negotiations between the Bankers’ Association, Australia Street Consulting and 2UE continued throughout October, November and December 1998.

In February 1999, Mr Aveling wrote to the Bankers’ Association Council and to non-member retail banks, reporting that negotiations had been completed for a package (split between Mr Laws and 2UE) costing $1.35 million. The Bankers’ Association Council subsequently met and approved the deal. The agreement between Australia Street Consulting and Radio 2UE included a total of 150 live reads by Mr Laws over 40 weeks, to be broadcast over the 74 stations in the network, for a total fee of $707,550.

The final written agreement between the Bankers’ Association and Australia Street Consulting included:

Mr Laws recording of 150 advertising spots under the name ‘The Whole Story’; and
The granting to very senior bank and Bankers’ Association executives the opportunity to discuss ‘their side of the story’ on particular issues with Mr Laws on-air.
Mr Laws was not, during the course of the agreement, to broadcast any advertisement that denigrated Australian banks or the Australian banking industry. Nor was there any obligation to pay Australia Street Consulting if the Bankers’ Association considered that Mr Laws had brought the reputation of its members into disrepute during 1999.

It appears that the terms of the agreements between Australia Street Consulting and the Bankers’ Association, and Australia Street Consulting and Mr Laws may have been wider than those expressed in the written documents. It appears that the agreements also included a regular practice of referring listener complaints to the Bankers’ Association or individual banks for their response, and Mr Laws, on at least some occasions, putting those responses to air.

In mid-February 1999, Mr Aveling made a pre-arranged (and scripted) telephone call to Mr Laws on-air, referring to Mr Laws’ comments on Australian history the previous day, and offering the banks as a sponsor for a history series. Between March and July 1999, Mr Laws performed live reads for the Bankers’ Association four times per week as part of the ‘Whole Story’ campaign. The segment involved Mr Laws reading a script about a historical event or character, written by Mr Stewart. Part way through the script, Mr Laws would break from the story and read a script provided by the Bankers’ Association, usually concerning a topical issue in banking.

On 19 July 1999 the Bankers’ Association Council decided to terminate its agreement with Mr Laws through its contractual agreements with Australia Street Consulting. The termination of the agreement resulted from the pressure of negative publicity resulting from the allegations raised on the ABC program ‘Media Watch’ on 12 July 1999.