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Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.

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Speaker 1: It's Monday, October twenty seven, twenty twenty five. Australia's most

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Speaker 1: influential retailers are uniting to support Australian manufacturers and producers

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Speaker 1: against an onslaught of cheap disposable products from e commerce

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Speaker 1: giants like Timu and sheen their warning of serious economic

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Speaker 1: taxation and environmental consequences if the government doesn't level the

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Speaker 1: retail playing field. That storys live now at the Australian

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Speaker 1: dot com do AU and it's part of News Corp

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Speaker 1: Australia's campaign Back Australia aim to support local jobs and industries.

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Speaker 1: In the world of radio, they don't get much more

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Speaker 1: influential than TWOGB, the century old Sydney talk station that

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Speaker 1: no politician can ignore. But now one of its hosts

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Speaker 1: found himself in the middle of a complicated business deal,

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Speaker 1: and today the Australians revealing it involves someone with a

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Speaker 1: very colorful past. Today why this is a big deal

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Speaker 1: for nine Radio's crown jewel and why it's star broadcasters

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Speaker 1: might soon be reporting to a new boss.

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Speaker 2: Hey that right, that.

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Speaker 1: TGB is one of Australia's oldest and most significant radio stations.

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Speaker 2: That's That's Big Bats.

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Speaker 1: Carmona, Sydney's home of big personalities, big opinions and big

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Speaker 1: claims to influence TV. Every big personality in broadcast has

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Speaker 1: made to GB their home over the years.

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Speaker 3: I've actually engaged two media deco lawyers and the John

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Speaker 3: law Show, the undefeated champion of Australian radio. Do you

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Speaker 3: understand Julia that you are the issue today because there

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Speaker 3: are people now saying your name is not Julia but Julie.

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Speaker 3: How can that be bloody justice? If there's a court

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Speaker 3: system anywhere in the world but the allows is to happen,

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Speaker 3: it's bad justice.

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Speaker 4: You're reading from the Nope, No, I'm not reading. Excuse me,

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Speaker 4: Prime Minis, excuse me.

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Speaker 1: And the latest big TWOGB character to make the headlines

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Speaker 1: for perhaps the wrong reasons is morning's host Mark Levy.

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Speaker 1: Steve Jackson is the Australian's Media Diary editor Jacko. Who

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Speaker 1: is Mark Levy?

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Speaker 2: Mark Levy is a guy that listeners of two GB

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Speaker 2: and their sister networks across Australia three AW four BC

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Speaker 2: over in Perth six B will know because he's been

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Speaker 2: a presenter on the national wide World of Sports program

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Speaker 2: in New South Wales. He's a bigger deal. He's part

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Speaker 2: of the continuous Call team, so rugby league audiences will

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Speaker 2: really know him. But more importantly, since last December, he's

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Speaker 2: the guy who's replaced the radio king Ray Hadley as

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Speaker 2: a host of one of its most important shows. There's

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Speaker 2: Breakfast with ben Fordham, now there's Mornings with Mark Levy.

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Speaker 3: We'll check some news headlines with Erin in just a moment.

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Speaker 3: But I'm a little nervous because yesterday we were talking

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Speaker 3: about Chumeric lates and she's brought in a Chumeric and

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Speaker 3: Honey late and she wants me to try it now.

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Speaker 1: Listeners this week might have been slightly confused when Mark

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Speaker 1: Leevy came out with a statement about his ownership of

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Speaker 1: a restaurant.

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Speaker 4: Why was he suddenly talking about this?

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Speaker 2: If the listeners are confused, I was bemboozled. It was

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Speaker 2: so hard to keep track of everything that was going

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Speaker 2: on in Mark Levy's life in the past week. So

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Speaker 2: his restaurant, which he opened last July Pronto, Sylvania, just

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Speaker 2: south of Sydney, down towards what we call the Shai

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Speaker 2: here he opened at last July. In August it was

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Speaker 2: shut temporarily apparently, you know, the couple of problems going

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Speaker 2: behind the scenes. What we saw happen last week was

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Speaker 2: that the business behind his restaurant, Saint George Hospitality, was

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Speaker 2: wound up in the Supreme Court and Levy is now

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Speaker 2: the process of selling off the restaurant and all the

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Speaker 2: equipment to repay the debts that are owed. He has

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Speaker 2: stressed they will be paid. He's out of the restaurant game,

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Speaker 2: he says, because he needs to focus on his number

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Speaker 2: one job. He's number one priority, broadcasting.

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Speaker 1: And now in today's media, Dari in the Australian, you're

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Speaker 1: revealing another twist.

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Speaker 4: What is it?

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Speaker 2: He's now been alleged to be the middleman in a

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Speaker 2: six figure high interest loan between a boxing promoter made

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Speaker 2: of his and a trucking company boss who's got historic

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Speaker 2: ties to the notorious Nomad's Outlaw motorcycle Gang.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so let's just step through that closely. Why would

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Speaker 1: someone like Mike Leeby become the middleman in alone?

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Speaker 2: I've been told one of his close friends, Oliver Jozzeski,

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Speaker 2: has come to him and asked for help finding a

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Speaker 2: six figure loan. I'm told it's about one hundred thousand dollars.

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Speaker 2: They've known each other for years. They go back through

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Speaker 2: their days having mutual involvement in a Macedonian rugby league

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Speaker 2: football club that's based out of Sydney, and Levy helpful

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Speaker 2: guy has decided to put him in touch with some people.

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Speaker 2: These people turn out to be very successful businessman who

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Speaker 2: run a national bulk hallage company and trucking fleet called

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Speaker 2: NJ Ashton and Leave. He's put him in touch and

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Speaker 2: said can you help my friend out? And it gets

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Speaker 2: more complicated. Oliver is also a boxing promoter who's working

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Speaker 2: with Anthony Mundine, former world champion fighter, on bringing the

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Speaker 2: Bare Knuckle Fight series to Australia, which is just premiered

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Speaker 2: in Brisbane last month.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 1: I saw the Downton ab You movie last week. I

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Speaker 1: thought that plot was complicated. This is getting even more

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Speaker 1: hard to follow.

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Speaker 2: No, grab your notepad, Claire, because on the other side,

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Speaker 2: the trucking boss who gave the loan his business partner

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Speaker 2: brother has historic ties to the Nomad's biking gang.

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Speaker 4: Right, Not only that it's so Sydney.

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Speaker 2: Not only that twenty years ago, he got sentenced to

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Speaker 2: a nine year stretch in prison for maliciously stabbing an

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Speaker 2: enemy in the street and also holding an entire arsenal

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Speaker 2: of firearms at his Western Sydney house after he got

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Speaker 2: shot in the buttocks in a Sydney nightclub in a

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Speaker 2: targeted hit by the Hells Angels.

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Speaker 1: Another thing that's very Sydney about that is that this guy,

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Speaker 1: Norman Yamine, the former nomad, has now had a bit

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Speaker 1: of a redemption story and can be described as an

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Speaker 1: entrepreneur and philanthropist.

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Speaker 2: It's an amazing redemption story. He grew up in a

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Speaker 2: really tough environment. Obviously made mistakes and he admitted it

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Speaker 2: as much in court. But what happened was he went

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Speaker 2: to prison and while he was in there he taught

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Speaker 2: himself to read and write. Since he's come out, he's

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Speaker 2: built a really successful trucking empire with his brother. Not

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Speaker 2: only that, he's now commander of the Knights of Malta,

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Speaker 2: an order that does charitable work throughout Sydney, feeds the

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Speaker 2: homeless twice a week on Martin Place and the CBD

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Speaker 2: and down at Wilhelmloo. He partners with the Police Citizens

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Speaker 2: Youth Club on a whole heap of projects like giving

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Speaker 2: presents to underprivileged kids at Christmas. He is a remarkable

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Speaker 2: redemption story.

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Speaker 4: How did Levy pardon all this come to light?

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Speaker 2: Well, not only did he affect the introduction between the

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Speaker 2: trucking boss and the boxing promoter, it's understood he also

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Speaker 2: agreed to become a personal guaranteur for the loan. So

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Speaker 2: when the debt's not repaid, he's called in and he's responsible.

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Speaker 4: And what's Mark Levy saying about it all?

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Speaker 2: Well, he's not saying anything about it, and he never

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Speaker 2: will because a day after scant details about this case

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Speaker 2: appeared in the Daily Telegraph. Just last week, all of

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Speaker 2: a sudden debt repaid, every unsigned nondisclosure agreements. Nothing to

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Speaker 2: see here. But the big question is for nine Radio,

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Speaker 2: your host who's presenting the morning show, who caused politicians

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Speaker 2: to account and says the Treasurer can't manage the economy.

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Speaker 2: It's difficult for him to call out public figures when

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Speaker 2: he himself is being called before the courts for his

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Speaker 2: own financial arrangements.

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Speaker 1: There's no suggestion you means past has any connection to

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Speaker 1: his brother's present dealings with Jiseeski or Levy, and of

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Speaker 1: course there's no allegation there's been any criminality in this

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Speaker 1: whole affair. It's just one of those great media yarns.

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Speaker 4: Coming up.

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Speaker 1: Mark Levy might soon have a new boss as nine

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Speaker 1: looks to offload talk radio, so who'd want this legacy broadcaster.

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Speaker 1: Earlier this year, Nine Entertainment, which owns the nine TV network,

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Speaker 1: the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Financial Review,

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Speaker 1: it sold its property advertising business domain. Now there's also

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Speaker 1: talk Nine might offload the radio business, so why and

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Speaker 1: who'd buy it?

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Speaker 2: When Nine Entertainment merges television operation with its couple of

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Speaker 2: metropolitan tabloid newspapers and the talkback radio division, the idea was,

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Speaker 2: and we all know the word synergy. They are going

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Speaker 2: to find all these efficiencies between the three businesses. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 2: they all have very distinct markets, so they've now sold

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Speaker 2: off their potentially greatest growth asset domain, which does seem

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Speaker 2: an unusual choice. Nine radio is an older audience. Nine

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Speaker 2: television is a younger audience. We're talking married at first

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Speaker 2: sight on television against people complaining about the pothole at

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Speaker 2: the front of their house. Very distinct audiences, some overlap,

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Speaker 2: but The bigger problem is with advertisers. The same advertisers

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Speaker 2: aren't trying to target both those demographics. They want the

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Speaker 2: one that's on TV. So what we've seen is that

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Speaker 2: Nine is now contemplating offloading their existing talkback radio network

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Speaker 2: and potentially getting into a model that has greater growth

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Speaker 2: in a younger demographic, potentially commercial FM radio, and letting

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Speaker 2: someone else take on the talkback radio network division. Now,

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Speaker 2: there are a number of interested parties, and we've reported

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Speaker 2: on this quite extensively, but they include names like John

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Speaker 2: Singleton and who a lot of listeners will be aware,

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Speaker 2: used to own nine Radio back in its days as

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Speaker 2: Macquarie Media, and he might make a return to the

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Speaker 2: freight and if he does, Ray Hadley would come out

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Speaker 2: of retirement. But then there's also Maurice Newman, former chairman

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Speaker 2: of the ABC. He would also like to take it

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Speaker 2: on with the company called Austraine Digital Holdings.

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Speaker 1: John Singleton is in his early eighties now, but he

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Speaker 1: is the original colorful Sydney media identity. He has been

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Speaker 1: married multiple times, He's got opinions about everything, So personally,

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Speaker 1: I'd be hoping it's Singleton buying that network just.

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Speaker 4: For your purpose. As Jacko. You've wrote a lot of

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Speaker 4: good media diary items about.

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Speaker 1: Him, But what's in it for Singleton apart from bringing

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Speaker 1: his favorite son, Ray Hadley back to the airwaves.

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Speaker 2: It'd be another wonderful story in a collection of wonderful

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Speaker 2: stories about this great entertainer. He owned the network, sold

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Speaker 2: it for multiples of million. We're talking one hundred and

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Speaker 2: sixty million. I think he's last third share in the

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Speaker 2: company went for and if he could pick it up

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Speaker 2: for forty million dollars, it's like Kerry Packer saying you

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Speaker 2: only get one alum bond in your life. John Singleton's

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Speaker 2: worth more than eight hundred million. It would just be

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Speaker 2: a plaything for him.

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Speaker 1: Would you anties about any other changes to the lineup

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Speaker 1: if Singleton were to return.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I'm led to believe he's already mapped it out.

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Speaker 2: We know what the changes will be. Goodbye Live and

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Speaker 2: Local in Brisbane, you'd have Ben forda breakfast in Brisbane.

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Speaker 2: You'd have Ray Hadley back on air. In Sydney and

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Speaker 2: in Brisbane they might keep some Live and Local in

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Speaker 2: the afternoon. Melbourne Safe as houses. They're doing a great

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Speaker 2: job down there. Don't interfere don't intervene, let them do

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Speaker 2: what they're doing. Six PR blow the whole thing up

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Speaker 2: and start again.

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Speaker 1: Steve Jackson edits The Australian's Media Diary. You can check

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Speaker 1: it out right now at The Australian dot com dot

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Speaker 1: au