Duchess Kate hoax call: Ratings mattered more than anything else for radio station
Australia’s radio network Austereo, which recently stirred a lot of controversy for the hoax call made to the hospital where Duchess Kate was being treated for severe morning sickness, has had a ratings-at-any-cost culture much before the royal incident took place, it has been revealed.
Australia’s radio network Austereo, which recently stirred a lot of controversy for the hoax call made to the hospital where Duchess Kate was being treated for severe morning sickness, has had a ratings-at-any-cost culture much before the royal incident took place, it has been revealed.
A former Austereo host was offered $25,000 and the radio network meant business as a baby would mean ratings, and therefore ad revenue.
Once the media storm regarding the prank call passes, all this will flourish again because Austereo’s schadenfreude philosophy has won it as many listeners as it has critics, helping to make it one of Australia’s media powerhouses.
Hoaxes are common but what has set Austereo, and in particular Sydney’s 2DayFM network, apart is the extremes it goes to promote and encourage humiliation.
Former Triple M presenter Peter Berner doubts there would have been much thought behind the royal prank call.
“FM radio people sit around, they spitball ideas, and somebody has said ‘Hey, let’s try to ring the hospital and pretend to be Prince Charles and the Queen’. That would have been the level of consideration given to it, I guarantee it,” News.com.au quoted him as saying.
Another former Austereo star, Amber Petty, butted heads with management over the persistent push for stunts in poor taste.
According to Melbourne University pop culture expert Dr Lauren Rosewarne, pranks calls would always have a place on radio as long as people continued to find humour in the humiliation of others.
“The radio stations aren’t going to keep making prank calls if people switch off,” he said.