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Introduction
On 4 December 2012, between 07:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. (AEST), an Australian commercial radio station aired a prank call in the Hot30 Countdown show that was believed to have contributed to the tragic death of a hospital nurse in Britain. Within days, 2Day FM radio station found itself in the eye of a global storm and soon after the show had to be cancelled. The crisis-response strategies adopted by the radio station earned it third position in the 2012 PR disaster list, published in The PR Report (2013). Focusing on the issue lifecycle model (cited in Regester and Larkin, 2008; Jaques, 2014), this study offers an empirical analysis of the crisis and develops a crisis lifecycle model.
The commercial radio sector is one of the oldest of the media sectors in Australia. Since the first broadcast by 2SB in Sydney on 13 November 1923, Australian commercial radio has played a vital role in the Australian music and non-music industry (Music in Australia, 2007). Approximately 260 commercial radio stations operate in Australia, mostly in non-metropolitan areas. According to the industry body, Commercial Radio Australia (CRA), the commercial radio sector is an AUD $947 million per annum industry funded primarily through advertising and sponsorships, and accounting for around 8 per cent of total media advertising expenditure in Australia (Commercial Radio Australia (CRA), 2014).
Commercial radio stations, as part of major network companies such as Southern Cross Austereo (SCA), compete for audiences with the national broadcasters (ABC and SBS), over 350 community radio stations and nearly 2,000 open narrowcasting radio services, making radio “the most competitive media sector in Australia today” (Music in Australia, 2007). The enactment of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (Australian Government ComLaw, 2015) streamlined the process for allocating radio broadcasting licences, leading to the mushrooming of radio stations.
Radio is generally seen as a secondary medium, but Tacchi (2000) argues that radio is part of our everyday lives and has become so naturalised that it is difficult to establish its significance. Tacchi (2000) further contends that radio is a deceptively powerful medium, able to engage with people’s emotions, and is emotionally evocative and reassuring. Cantril’s (1940) research on mass panic in the USA following an Orson Welles’ Invasion from Mars broadcast...