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The radio star, the ex-bikie and the future of Nine Radio · The Front

• 0:03
  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
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: dot com do AU and it's part of News Corp
• 0:38
  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
• 1:49
  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
• 2:04
  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.
• 2:30
  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
• 9:37
  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.
• 10:34
  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
• 11:02
  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
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: if Singleton were to return.
• 11:13
  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
• 11:19
  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
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: in Brisbane they might keep some Live and Local in
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: the afternoon. Melbourne Safe as houses. They're doing a great
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: job down there. Don't interfere don't intervene, let them do
• 11:35
  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
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: it out right now at The Australian dot com dot
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: au