Australian duo's prank call results in network's voluntary suspension of advertising

According to PHD Australia trading director Lucy Formosa Morgan, after some advertisers asked to pull out, SCA decided to take the lead and voluntarily pull all advertising for the Sydney Station, 2Day FM. The decision was made Saturday afternoon after the news of nurse Jacinta Saldanha's reported suicide reached Australia on Friday evening. 

It is believed that Saldanha was the receptionist who patched Greig and Christian's prank call through to the nurse who disclosed private details regarding Kate Middleton's treatment. 

This isn't the first time SCA has dealt with a crisis following the actions of one of its "shock jock" DJs. Last November, DJ Kyle Sandiland verbally attacked a journalist on air and threatened her safety, leading to public outcry and sponsor Holden and advertiser Vodafone pulling their advertising. 

"The network has learnt their lesson and they're much more responsive," said Morgan. "As soon as the news broke they took the lead."

Morgan added that she believes the network's advertisers appreciate the station's upfront stance and its move to protect their interests. 

"This is the last thing any advertiser wants to be mixed up in," she said. 

Morgan was unable to estimate the potential loss of revenue the station is facing over this crisis but  said it would be significant, "particularly at this time of year".

But while the network's actions were much swifter in this crisis than in previous occasions, Simon Lloyd, head of consulting at AccessPR, feels the network could have done a better job of crisis management. 

"What they've done so far has been appropriate and sensible, and they did issue their first statement at 5.40am in the morning, but they left the Twitter and Facebook accounts of the two DJs up and running, both still publicising the prank," said Lloyd. "It took the network quite awhile to take down those accounts."

While no one could anticipate the nurse's tragic response to the prank, in light of the controversial nature of the prank call, the network should have had processes in place for a more agile response, argued Lloyd. 

"While the news was breaking overseas about the tragedy in the UK, the network was still publicising the prank in Australia," he said. "Given the reaction that the stunt caused overseas, it was naive of the network not to be monitoring the news in real time around the clock—especially as they were publicising it on social media so heavily." 

But how serious is this crisis for the network? The call was, after all, nothing more than a shockingly poor imitation that should never have worked in the first place. 

Pretty bad, agreed Lloyd. "The network is going to have to answer questions that will be put to it by the communications authority here about their approvals processes," he added. 

According to Australian privacy laws, radio stations need the permission of Australians before broadcasting their voices. As Mumbrella has pointed out though, international calls, and even calls outside of Sydney, fall into a grey area. 

Meanwhile, Lloyd recommends that the network continue to monitor the situation closely. "In a crisis of this magnitude things change hour by hour," he said.

Update: We Are Social provided figures on the topic's social media impact below