Nine Radio’s Bill Barrington calls time on four decade career

Bill Barrington is retiring as General Manager of Nine Radio Syndication at the end of March after 47 years in the industry.

Managing Director of Nine Radio Tom Malone paid tribute to Barrington in an email to staff saying:

“The word legend is easily bandied about, but there’s no doubt Bill is a legend of our industry – well-liked and respected by colleagues and peers alike. 

It was a radio career that began at 2NZ Inverell as Announcer back in 1977. After a few years Bill moved on to the roles of Announcer, Production Manager, Promotions Manager and then Program Director – all at 2HD Newcastle. He began in Sales and Operations in 1990 at at Sky Radio Sydney – part of the 2UE business, and after a brief stint at 2SM, returned as the General Manager of Sky Radio, which became Radio Active Syndication, Southern Cross Syndication, Fairfax Radio Syndication, Macquarie Media Syndication and finally Nine Radio Syndication – he’s updated his business card a few times over the years!

Some of the examples of Nine Radio’s leading innovation under Bill’s leadership include.. 

• one of the first companies to introduce live content distribution via satellite, using its own proprietary software and systems;
• the first company to introduce digital distribution of commercial and general audio content (Digital Courier) – prior to us it was analogue tape;
• the first company to introduce watermark tracking of audio content on radio (Radio Monitoring);
• established its own media buying service for direct advertising using in-house developed management and booking software; and
• ACRAs for engineering excellence.

As you can see, despite multiple owners, Bill has been the constant, syndicating our great content – programs and news – around the country, and providing production and sales services. That’s because Bill has built a reputation of trust and excellence among our customers and his colleagues.”

Vicki Christo takes over from Barrington on March 31, 2024.