Is Talk Radio a ‘Boys Club’?

In todays Daily Telegraph, there is an article written by Joel Christie and Amy Harris headlined 'Radio needs to dump boys club'.

It is specifically referring to Talk Radio, and whilst 2GB was the catalyst for the article, it references that there are no women on either 2UE or  2GB anchoring a program. What it doesn't mention is that nor are there any there any women anchoring a program on 3AW, SEN, 4BC or 6PR.

There are a number of women on the ABC talk stations, and 5AA has a female afternoon announcer, Belinda Heggen. 

Some time ago, Wendy Harmer wrote an article on Radio Today about the lack of females on talk radio (read here), and Scott Muller also discussed the issue here.

Is it a 'boys club'? And should there be more females on Talk Radio? Or given that the 'Talk' format has a strong male skew, is the status quo completely fine. Your thoughts are welcome below. You can read the Telegraph article here, or read it below.

'RADIO NEEDS TO DUMP BOYS CLUB'

(daily telegraph 13/6/12)

HOW noble of 2GB bosses to pull advertising from Alan Jones' radio show this week to protect advertisers.

The media loves its advertisers. It, sorry, we, need our advertisers to sustain us. In these challenging times we've been known to worship them.

If only 2GB felt the same about women.

It seems there is no such love for them – and not just at 2GB. How ironic in a week in which the term misogynist has been thrown by the government and media alike, all after the debate was kick-started by Jones.

It seems women are welcome to commercial radio in one capacity only – as listeners.

There is not a single woman anchoring a program on either of Sydney's two highest-rating commercial radio stations. It's not much different anywhere else in the industry for that matter. What does that say about the way radio bosses regard women?

In radio, only men are permitted to be boorish and mind-numbingly opinionated.

Quick to act in the best interests of advertisers this week, 2GB wasn't so quick to act when allegations were made against afternoon presenter Chris Smith for sexually harassing four female staff members at a Christmas party in 2009. It took a series of reports in this column to move management to act but not until then program manager Ian Holland denied the claims before saying there was no need for disciplinary action.

Owner John Singleton simply laughed it off as standard Christmas party behaviour.

Only executive chairman Russell Tate took the matter seriously, though not enough to send Smith home for good.

There have been other bullying allegations levelled at blokes on air on radio, yet they remain, for the most part, hugely supportive of one another.