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Channel 9 is no longer the one, the dramatic fall, the “spiritual death” if you will of Australia’s once favourite television network is the subject of Gerald Stone’s new book, Who Killed Channel 9? The Death of Kerry Packer’s Dream Machine.
Stone was on this mornings Weekend Sunrise talking about the book, the possible movie adaptation, morale at Nine and why it matters who owns and runs our television broadcasters.
10 replies on “Who Killed Channel 9?”
I would like to see this as a movie so much….. it does look like a bit of a tacky thing to discuss – on a rival network but then again, I would rather it on sunrisre then whatever channel nine has!
Does anyone know a UK online book-store carrying this, Amazon and WH Smith do not carry it.
Looks absolute amazing.
Oh the Irony of a rival network promoting the book!
You can see the gleaming smile on those anchors face! They (C9) died, and the are loving it!
Kill the whole channel and start again…
name the channel;
*NEW
NINE
Then when everyones sick of the taste of its shows and bring out…
Classic9
Then Diet9 for the girls and ending up with Ohh9 for the lads.
Anyhow I pray that NewsCorp doesn’t have anything to do with the channel by buying it up and making it from worse to crap.
(C)Me
I worked at Channel 9 in Sydney in the News Camera Department in the early to mid 90’s. The book was an extremely accurate portrayal of the station before the rot set in, although a number of things Stone mentioned in his book weren’t entirely accurate. Back then we in the camera department were forced to use outdated and extremely heavy equipment while out in the field shooting the news stories. All of the other channels had the latest equipment, yet I was forced to carry more than 20kg worth of equipment all day every day. 20kg might not sound much, but try running at full pelt while trying to get footage of a defendant running from the media at Supreme Court! Back then Nine also had no OH&S procedures, and no such thing as human resources. Our boss in News cameras was, quite frankly, an asshole, who threatened us with our jobs whenever we made a mistake, or complained about working conditions. “There are a million other people out there who would give their left nut to work here. You can easily be replaced” was his standard reply. We had no person or department within the station to bring our grievances to. I also was injured on the job and there was no opportunity to do light duties at the station. I ended up spending 6 months at home on compo when I could have at least worked in the news room in that time. So for Stone to say that Packer gave his staff all the resources they neede to remain number one is not true. Having said all of that, I can’t believe how evil John Alexander is!
Read the book, was enthralled all the way through. Brilliant. A must read. Certainly sheds some light on some of the supposed “big kahunas” that “ran” channel 9 into the ground. One can’t help but feel sorry for C9 employees who had to endure John A, Eddie M John L etc…disgraceful that executives can behave in a such a manner. Thanks to Gerald Stone who so brilliantly told this story.
I have just finished this book and I found it riveting from start to finish – Corporate bigwigs at their most interesting – and they think women are bitchy and backstabbers !!!! you do not need a publishing / corporate / media background to understand the nitty gritty of the boardroom shenannigins – someone at channel 7 get out there and make this a must see movie !!!!!! many of your current staff can infact play themselves !!!
Interesting Mr Stone never wrote this book whilst the big Kahuna himself was alive.
That’s because channel 9 still wasn’t dead, it was dying. 2006 onwards marked its end.