Radio 5AA morning host Leon Byner made the front page of The Adelaide Advertiser two days in a row (Friday 23 Jan & Saturday 24 Jan) with allegations that he offered to put a positive spin on stories for the Adelaide Lord Mayor if he was given a PR contract, and that he was paid to advise the Lord Mayor.
Byner has denied that he did anything wrong and said if anyone claimed he was involved in cash for comment he would “sue the shit out of them.”
5AA general manager Paul Bartlett said he would not have allowed the radio station to be used for political purposes if the PR deal had gone ahead.
The followup story today (Saturday 24 Jan) says “Lord Mayor Michael Harbison has admitted he paid talkback host Leon Byner… about $6000… for media coaching and media advice throughout last year and as recently as January 1.”
Friday’s article, by News Limited civic reporter Andrew Hough, said Byner “offered to use his show to road test and provide positive coverage for Lord Mayor Michael Harbison in return for thousands of dollars in payment.” It claims that the Council’s CEO was against the idea and later resigned.
The Advertiser believes it has confirmation that after a lunch meeting between himself and the Lord Mayor, Byner wrote to the CEO offering his services for a fee.
Byner told the Advertiser: “I was invited to make an employment application and I did… It never went anywhere and that is the end of the story. This is nonsense.”
5AA general manager Paul Bartlett said he was “aware” of the lunch and the letter and told the Advertiser: “nothing happened . . . so there was no concern. At no time would the radio station be allowed to be used for political purposes. I would not have allowed it.”
The Adelaide Lord Mayor denied there was a promise of positive comment, saying: “The letter would’ve said various things, it certainly wouldn’t say that it would be a way of getting positive comment.”
Leon Byner adressed the issue in his program on Friday and station insiders told radioinfo he does not feel he has done the wrong thing.
Speaking to his listeners about the story, Byner said he did not offer positive coverage to the council. “I welcome any inquiry… by the ABA because I believe it would clear me completely of any taint of good news for cash… There is no way I could have worked with council as a broadcaster without there being full disclosure of any such arrangement.”
Under the tighter Commercial Radio codes of practice for current affairs programming and advertising, if Byner had been hired by the council for any work, he would have been required to formally mention that he had a commercial relationship with the council during interviews and talkback calls, and to divulge details of the business relationship on the station’s website. Major and minor deals all have to be acknowledged using various forms of words depending on the amount of the payment.
2UE’s John Laws was recently in trouble again from the ABA for not properly declaring his commercial relationships through a specific form of words.
Byner currently lists three commercial arrangements on the 5AA website :
· With Navisafe to Provide consultancy and personal endorsement. (Value $10,000-$100,000)
· With Peter Page Holden for Advertising Cars and Personal Endorsement (Value $10,000-$100,000)
· With Cable Flags for Consultant to company (Value $10,000 -$20,000)