Following our story on Monday, “Kick FM kicks out entire announcing staff”, Kick 87.6FM management have hit back at claims made to radioinfo and to other media by ex-staff. General Sales Manager, Tim Williams has issued the following statement to clarify management’s version of events and what he believes were inaccuracies and distortions in the previous story.
Dear radioinfo,
It is incorrect to say that “KICK has given the boot to all of their experienced announcing staff”. Two announcers, Jason Bouman and Kerry Denten, one journalist Lindsay Fisher and one “roving live cross” person Ross Hutchison did not have their contracts renewed, in some cases after protracted negotiations broke down. All our other announcers Duane Brown, Dennis Sales, Kevin Graham, Dan Patterson and Paul Stasinowsky remain on air, with David Archer (our former Drive announcer) opting for the off air role of Music Director.
Bernard Bratusa, who is our new Breakfast host, has been the managing editor of the Western Week-Ender for the past 15 years. While Bernard may not have been on radio before, he brings a wealth of local knowledge and contacts, and his Breakfast show is being produced by someone with many years radio experience.
Troy Dodds (formerly from the Western Week-Ender), who is our new Drive Announcer, has been our afternoon news reader for in excess of twelve months and has presented our Saturday morning Sports Watch program for the past eight months. He also brings with him great local knowledge and significant news, sporting and entertainment contacts.
Neither Bernard nor Troy is an “inexperienced journo”.
Our Penrith LPON licence was not purchased from Ross Hutchison. The licence was purchased from Radio Rio Pty. Ltd. trading as Penrith Valley Radio. Ross Hutchison was simply an employee of Penrith Valley Radio.
Tim Williams (the writer) was never our morning announcer, or indeed on air in any permanent capacity except as our relief announcer. He continues with the station as our General Sales Manager and our weekend afternoon announcer.
The comment that Wayne Tunks is a personal friend of “our new Drive anchor” is interesting. Radio jobs are often filled by friends and acquaintances from former stations, as was the case with Jason Bouman, Lindsay Fisher, Kerry Denten, David Archer and Duane Brown here at KICK 87.6. Wayne does have previous radio experience.
Our announcers were never offered Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs), but we had been negotiating new common law contracts with them. When agreement had not been able to be reached on aspects of these contracts with some of the announcers involved, we made the decision to terminate our discussions with them. There was ample opportunity offered for agreement to be reached.
We are no longer advertising for announcers, and the statement that our “audience will have experienced a complete turnover of the on-air team three times in less than 18 months” is simply incorrect.
In the four to six weeks since these changes were made, we have received extremely positive unsolicited feedback from the local community, and we are absolutely certain that we have made the right moves in relation to our on air team and the direction of our programming, incorporating more local content, discussion and interviews.
Tim Williams
General Sales Manager
KICK 87.6fm