Alan Jones (radio broadcaster)

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Alan Belford Jones AO (born 13 April 1941 or 1943^[1]) is an Australian commercial radio personality of the genre known as shock jock. He has had a parallel career as a rugby union and rugby league coach and administrator. Before this, he was a teacher and later became a speech writer for politicians, including the then Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser.

Jones was born and raised on a dairy farm near Oakey in south-east Queensland and attended primary school in the area before high school at Toowoomba Grammar School as a boarder.

Like his colleague and competitor John Laws, the huge and ongoing popularity of Jones' program (a mixture of talkback, interviews, opinion and commercial endorsements) has made him one of Australia's most highly paid media personalities. Unlike Laws, Jones is highly politically motivated and uses his program and his popularity to advocate his conservative politics; he is often described as one of the most influential broadcasters in Australia.^[2]^[3] In 2006 journalist Chris Masters outed Jones as homosexual (something that had long been the subject of rumour) and accused him of concealing this to retain his power base.

1 Early career: teaching and politics
2 Rugby (Union and League)
3 Radio and the media
4 Controversies
- 4.1 Jonestown
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Early career: teaching and politics

After leaving school, he trained as a teacher at the Kelvin Grove Teachers College (now part of the Queensland University of Technology) in Brisbane. After this training, in 1961 he taught first at a state primary school, then in 1963 won a position at the Brisbane Grammar School for boys. He was studying part-time at the University of Queensland for a Bachelor of Arts degree, which he was awarded in 1967.

In 1970, Jones was appointed Senior English Master at The King's School at Parramatta in Sydney, where he coached the rugby union side to victory in 1974. Jones was later asked to leave.

A parent at Kings who owned the New South Wales based airline, Skyways, offered Jones the opportunity to branch into management, and he left Kings in 1975. Later that year, another parent at Kings, Doug Anthony, leader of the Country Party (now the National Party of Australia) in the Australian Parliament, offered Jones a position with the party in Canberra. The next year, he sought party preselection as the candidate for the parliamentary seat of Eden-Monaro, but he was unsuccessful at the election.

Jones studied further in 1977 at Oxford University, completing his education with majors in English and French language and literature, politics and education. He excelled at tennis, in which he won a University Blue.

Returning to Australia, he was the candidate for the 1978 by-election for the NSW state seat of Earlwood for the Liberal Party of Australia, formerly held by deposed Liberal leader Sir Eric Willis. The formerly safe seat was lost, and Jones' antics at a Greek cultural event were called into question. Jones then worked for several years as a speech writer for NSW Opposition leader John Mason, meanwhile standing for preselection for the Federal seat of North Sydney.

In 1979, Jones again moved to Canberra, where he was a speech writer for the Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Fraser, until early 1981. He then moved back to Sydney to be Executive Director of the Employers’ Federation of NSW, which he held until 1985.

[edit] Rugby (Union and League)

1982 was the beginning of Jones' association with semiprofessional Rugby, firstly appointed as (part-time) manager of the NSW Rugby Union team. The next year he served as First Grade coach for the Manly Rugby Union team, which won the Premiership for the first time in 32 years.

In February 1984, Alan Jones replaced Bob Dwyer as coach of the Australian Rugby Union national team, and he was to coach the Australian team for 4 years victories in 102 matches including 23 victories in 30 Tests and four of those losses were by only a point. He is one of the most successful Australian coaches ever. The side included Mark Ella until his retirement, but quickly added Nick Farr-Jones and two Manly players Peter FitzSimons and James Black. Also in 1984, Australia's national team, the Wallabies, won the Grand Slam victories over England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, and a side made up of the best players of those countries and France.

The 1986 Bledisloe Cup victory against New Zealand was the first time that had been achieved in six years, and only the third since 1949. Jones was awarded the Rostrum Speakers' Award as the Communicator of the Year, and named the 1985 Confederation of Australian Sport as Australia's Coach of the Year. However, Jones also pulled out of the Liberal preselection for the Federal Division of Wentworth in Sydney.

In 1988, Jones was made a Member of the General Division of the Order of Australia for services to Rugby Union Football. 1989 saw Jones elected to the Confederation of Australian Sports' Hall of Fame in recognition of his contribution to Australian Sport as the Australian Rugby Union coach.

In 1990, he was appointed coach of the Balmain Tigers rugby league team, without accepting a fee. He resigned in July 1993 with these results: 1991 - 8 wins, 12th place; 1992 - 10 wins, 10th place; 1993 - five wins, 12th place. The next month he was appointed Director of Football for the South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league team, also without a fee.

[edit] Radio and the media

1985 saw Jones join Sydney radio station 2UE as the morning show host after John Laws left for 2GB. He moved to the 5.30am to 9.00am Breakfast slot in February 1988, and achieved the largest breakfast audience and also the largest radio audience in Australia.

His opening and closing theme music from both stations has been the hit Gloria by Laura Branigan, whom he met and was the inspiration for using the song.

In 1990–93 and 1995–97, Jones was awarded the title Australian Radio Talk Personality of the Year.^[4]

In 2002, Jones joined 2GB as breakfast announcer, reportedly also taking a financial interest in the station. When passionate about a topic, he occasionally discusses it on air and during ad breaks with his panel operator Ross Geddes. Afternoon announcer, Philip Clark occasionally appears on Jones' show to show support to big news items. Jason Morrison is a daily contributor with two appearances to discuss news items. Along with his radio show, he also does a segment making editorial comment on the Nine Network's Today.

In 2004, Jones received a Queen's Birthday Honour - an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) partly for his service to the media and sports' administration, but also helping many charities, including Youth off the Streets, the Children's Hospital, Starlight Foundation, the Sir Edward Dunlop Medical Research Foundation and the Heart Research Institute.

[edit] Controversies

In December 1988, Jones was arrested in a public lavatory block in London's West End. He was initially charged with two counts of outraging public decency by behaving in an indecent manner under the Westminster by-laws. Jones pleaded not guilty and was granted unconditional bail. The charges were eventually dropped and costs were awarded to Jones.

For a time until 1990, Jones had been writing for The Sun-Herald but it announced that Jones’ column would no longer appear following a petition by staff calling for his removal as a contributor. This followed Jones' publication of a column predicting an oil crisis, in which a large amount of material had been taken from Frederick Forsyth's novel 'The Negotiator' without attribution or indication that their source was a work of fiction.^[5] Following his dismissal, Jones was hired by the Sun-Herald's rival paper, the Sunday Telegraph.

Later that year, Jones in his role with 2UE was ordered by a court to pay more than $55,000 damages for defaming David Parker, a former councillor of the NRMA, the NSW Motorists’ organisation; 2UE was also ordered to pay $80,000. Parker claimed he was defamed during the NRMA election campaign in October 1986. July 1991 had Jones commenting during a conspiracy to murder trial, of Tom Domican and two others; about the key crown witness, a self-confessed heroin smuggler, Jones said, “Why is he the witness and not the defendant?” Contempt is not proved; what Jones did is said to be "dangerous".

1992 brought several events:

Jones is rebuked by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption for making attacks on Dr Terry Metherell during evidence in an inquiry relating to Metherell’s appointment to a government job.
Media Watch shows how on-air comments made by Jones about the Rio summit and the Green movement align with those made by B.A. Santamaria in The Australian. Santamaria later says Jones had contacted his office for permission to quote from the article.
Jones and 2UE are found guilty of contempt of court after the criminal trial of ex-policeman John Killen was aborted following an interview with a former Drug Enforcement Squad officer.
Matthew Thompson hears Jones ranting on about "Hard On Culture", in particular, the name of the Australian band The Hard Ons, and is prompted to start Young People Against Heavy Metal T-Shirts.

1993 was another year of controversy:

In January, Jones described the choice of Mandawuy Yunupingu (an Australian Aborigine) as Australian of the Year as an "insult" and said he’d been granted the award simply because he was black.
In February, Jones is awarded a 1992 Advance Australia Award for his services to the community.
In March, Jones and 2UE were prosecuted by the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions for contempt of court and fined $77,000, of which Jones’ share was $2,000, after Jones caused the trial of a policeman to be aborted: The policeman was facing a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice on the same day as Jones conducted an interview with the Police Association and dealt with allegations that police had suffered at the hands of false accusations.
In June, leading Australian Aborigine Charles Perkins and Jones clash in a live TV and radio debate. Jones says Australians are "getting no say when you (aboriginal people) say this is your nation; it's not, it's Australia’s nation"... "They (average Australians) are being asked to pay taxes to fund people who are seeking title to productive land to which they’ve made no contribution to its productivity". Perkins called Jones racist and a redneck and comments "You’ve sat on your white bum at 2UE in Sydney all your life so you wouldn’t know what goes on out there".

1994 also had its moments:

In April, after only 13 weeks and 64 episodes, the Network Ten program Alan Jones Live was pulled due to low audiences and criticism. It was intended to be similar in purpose and content to Larry King Live.
In July, Media Watch highlights Jones’ on-air promotion of Optus.
In November:
- The managing director of a Manly hotel sued Jones and 2UE claiming a broadcast falsely suggested he was a heroin trafficker, allowed the hotel to be used for heroin trafficking, and that he was party to conspiracies to frame someone for murder.
- Separately, Don Mackay, president of the NRMA sued Jones and 2UE alleging Jones made a number of false imputations against him.
- Further, Jones had a public spat with his fellow 2UE broadcaster John Laws. In an interview with Laws, then Prime Minister Paul Keating said of Jones "You know, he’s got a good-rating program, even though it’s basically, you know, most of the stuff is middle-of-the-road fascism". Keating had refused Jones' requests to appear on his program all year.

In the late 1990s, Jones suffered more public humiliation when unedited studio recordings of pre-recorded material he had taped at 2UE were leaked to the ABC radio station Triple J.[1] Although the tapes were admittedly highly selective and were no doubt chosen to show Jones in the worst possible light, these recordings -- similar to the infamous leaked tapes of U.S. radio personality Casey Kasem -- have since become something of a cult item with Jones' critics, especially since they present Jones as egotistical, ill-tempered and fond of using bad language.

Between 2002 and early 2004, the "Cash for comment" investigation was conducted. Jones had been accused of contracting to have personal commercial support in exchange for favourable "unscripted" comments, principally for Telstra and QANTAS, during his radio show. The independent Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV show, Media Watch, was heavily involved in exposing these practices. The Australian Broadcasting Authority finally decided that disclosure had to be made, hence the "Commercial Agreement Register" at the Jones portion of his station's web site. (Jones was investigated along with John Laws from 2UE.)

Also in April 2004, a stream of flattering letters to Jones from Professor David Flint, Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Authority, came to light. This called into question the impartiality of Flint, and the then Federal Minister for Communications, Daryl Williams, was embroiled in media speculation as to the future of Flint. With an inquiry imminent, Flint resigned. In an appearance on the ABC's Enough Rope, John Laws accused Jones of placing pressure on Prime Minister John Howard to keep Flint as head of the ABA, made comments that many viewers took to imply a sexual relationship between Jones and Flint and broadly hinted that Jones was homosexual like Flint, who is openly gay.^[6]

In December 2005, in the lead-up to the Cronulla riots, Jones used his breakfast radio programme to read out and discuss a widely-circulated text message calling on people to "Come to Cronulla this weekend to take revenge... get down to North Cronulla to support the Leb and wog bashing day". Media commentator David Marr accused Jones of inciting racial tensions and implicitly encouraging violence and vigilantism by the manner of his responses to callers even while he was verbally disapproving of them taking the law into their own hands.^[7]

At approximately 2:45am on November the 5th 2006, Jones was being chauffeured on Melbourne's Tullamarine Freeway when the windscreen was shattered by a rock. Neither the driver nor Jones were injured.^[8]

[edit] Jonestown

On 29 June 2006, ABC Enterprises decided to cancel publication of Jonestown: The Power and the Myth of Alan Jones, an unauthorised biography of Jones by Australian journalist Chris Masters. ABC Enterprises director Robyn Watts stated that publication was being withdrawn because it would "almost certainly result in commercial loss, which would be irresponsible." This was widely believed to be a veiled reference to the fact that Jones' lawyers had threatened an expensive defamation lawsuit if the book reached publication.^[9] The biography deals in part with Jones's homosexuality, which has never been publicly acknowledged by Jones.^[10] Publishers Allen & Unwin have since signed a contract with Masters to publish the book. Many ABC personalities have criticised the Board's decision, including a petition against the decision, with signatories including Richard Glover and Phillip Adams. Ironically, in stark contrast with the prediction of ABC Enterprises, the book has sold 12,700 copies and earned almost AU$600,000 in its first 6 days since publication - allowing it to top the bestseller list.^[11]

On 20 October 2006, The Sydney Morning Herald published a seven-page edited extract of Jonestown. The extracts, with italicised links by former Media Watch host and author David Marr concentrated largely on Jones' homosexuality, questionable behaviour while Senior English Master at The King's School at Parramatta in Sydney and the "cottaging" incident in London. The lead paragraph claims the masking of his homosexuality is "a defining feature of the Jones persona".^[10]

In the introduction to Jonestown, Masters described Jones as having concealed his sexuality "more for the sake of preserving a dishonest power base" than for reasons of personal privacy, an explanation he repeated later when accused of being motivated by prurience.^[12] In his final chapter Masters quoted a study performed by Roy Morgan Research that reported that "46% of [Jones'] listeners believe that homosexuality is immoral, compared to 35% of all Australians." ^[13] Nonetheless, Masters' frequent references in Jonestown to Jones' sexuality as an explanation for several aspects of his behaviour left him open to accusations of homophobia — an opening many conservative commentators have chosen to exploit, [2] in an ironic endeavour to defend Jones' reputation.^[14]^[15]

James Packer has vehemently stood by Jones who is also affiliated with the Nine Network for his editorials, as well as Jones's radio colleague and close mate Ray Hadley, who has gone on air on record in saying that they are the closest of mates for over 20 years and the book has been written by someone who has not personally met Jones.