You make some excellent points, except for the biggie.

His audience is a cume of 455,000 per week, according to the latest radio research. What this means is that he has an average daily audience of 89,000. [It's actually an appalling indictment on the general radio scene, and it would appear that total morning radio audience is only half a mil in Sydney.]

Importantly, his 89,000 listeners are retired people who don't spend much, so why anyone would pay a high rate to advertise on his show is anyone's guess. Maybe 2GB heavily discounts its rate card

Your comments would be more valid but for this:

"I am not defending the comments. They were offensive"

We each choose when to take offence. It's not a virus that infects us. The comments were not offensive to me, because I chose not to take offence.

Sandilands and Jones should not be criticised on the basis of the choices others make about how they feel.

Alan Jones?
Who is he?
Some washed up old and about to retire, media tart/stranger to the truth, preaching to the already converted, or those so old and decrepit, they need someone else to do all their challenging/critical thinking for them?
Who comes across in his absolute certainty, as someone who patently believes he possesses a God like power, to create politicians in his own image?
And therefore, under constant howling attack by quadrillions of jealous people, extremely envious of his quite enormous power and exponentially expanding importance?
Seriously, I believe a commercial boycott is effective and ought to continue!
I mean just imagine, what a dip in sales figures could mean, particularly at this time?
However, given the time and trouble it takes to organise such a boycott, why not extend it to bring real competition back; and or, price reductions?
Imagine what would happen to fuel prices, if we the consumers were organised and constantly avoided particular brands; and or, all name or associated products or affiliates?
[Always assuming choice!?]
Well, my bet is, the "FOREIGN" cosy cartels, would simply fold back to, every man for himself?
Individual bottom lines, will invariably trump the affected loyalty of insidious cartels!
Ditto, almost exclusively oil dependant nation states, looking at total export numbers and tax receipts/revenue!
Moreover, it is hard to find so much as a single good or service; that doesn't have or rely on one or several fuel components, in the creation and or delivery; meaning, the price of fuel impacts on almost everything!?
We the people possess real power, but only at the ballot box; or as, united we stand savers; or divided, we each pay through the nose, consumers!
Rhrosty

“The orchestrated social media campaigns would do well to consider…”

This implies that you believe that they are rational. They are motivated by a blind hatred of anything not PC.

We all know that Gillard’s father did not die of shame, and Jones’ comment merely implied that he should have.

Before PC terminated humour, it would have been quite an acceptable comment.

Jones offered an apology, which Gillard, for purposes of her hate campaign, rejected.

Of course the ratbaggery of Political Correctness has caused, and will continue to cause inconvenience, but it will eventually, and inevitably, be overcome.

Jones’ supporters are back in force, and the advertisers who buckled to the nonsense have lost their slots to those who refuse to be intimidated by pernicious clowns.

Paul R,

Sorry to burst your bubble but cumulative audience does not count anyone twice:

"The cumulative audience rating is based on the cumulative audience as compared to the average or total audience and reflects the total potential audience tuned in to that program at least once during that quarter hour in the period."

The regular listeners on their way to work are not counted twice. Secondly, the listeners are not pensioners, but older listeners with an average income of around $100 000 p.a.

To have the ear of a spending pool of $40bn a year is why the marketers (who are not morons) pay top dollar to advertise with him. If advertisers leave, others including their competitors will fill their places and get their customers.

I would not denigrate old age, Rhosty, if I were you.

With old age comes the best chance of clarity of mind and a clearer perception of reality, something of which you are badly in need.

With the boost given to Jones’ popularity by the ratbags' negative campaign, he would not be able to wait for the next instalment.

Daniel said;
and the controversy over the (off-air) Gillard comments has been
inflamed by his completely disingenuous apology.

I think you are being rather disingenuous yourself.
I heard Jone apologise two or three times with a total admission of
bad taste and a full apology.

I was disappointed that the PM did not accept his apology, not
even in a minor way. She would have made a much better image for
herself if she had, instead of making a song and dance of it in parliament.

Rhosty said;
Well, my bet is, the "FOREIGN" cosy cartels, would simply fold back
to, every man for himself?
Individual bottom lines, will invariably trump the affected loyalty of insidious cartels!

Ahhh, to do what you would like, you have to have a market that is
struggling to sell everything it has.
The oil market is at maximum stretch. There is no slack in the system
and the only place where there is is the natural gas market.
The info I was told today, is that the industry is not interested in
vehicle conversion to CNG.
They prefer we buy electric cars and buy their electricity.
A reply I got from Martin Ferguson, indicates that the govt does not
know how much gas we would need to convert the car & truck fleet.
I think that means they have the same opinion as the industry.

If we put the screws onto the oil industry, they would be happy to
shut the rest of the refineries and go home.

@ shadow minister: I have no idea where you got the idea that I wrote a cume counts the audience twice. I think you took your definition of 'cume' from Wikipedia. which talks about quarter-hour periods.

However, the latest ratings of the Jones show show a cume 455,000 PER WEEK. In other words, roughly 20% of Sydney's radio audience listen to Jones once a week. In terms of listening ears, 455,000 Sydneysiders tuned into Jones on average EACH WEEK during the last ratings period - in other words, about 89,000 per day.

I also never said to dismiss anyone over the age of 60. I'm 61. Many pensioners (superannuitants included) do not spend the way a Triple-M audience, for example, does. In my media experience, advertisers are very canny about where their advertising goes and Media Buyers scrutinise ratings closely. So if a potential audience aren't great buyers, advertisers won't go there.

Jones' influence is mainly restricted to the Western Suburbs of Sydney, where he can increase the Liberal vote by a few percent - often enough to make a difference. That's the only reason he is taken seriously.

He's no journalist and not even a reasonable commentator - he's what is called a pundit.

Some of the things he says are totally outrageous or false but few are allowed to challenge him on air.

In the end, as they said in The Wharf Review, he's just a peddler of incontinence aids and Funeral Homes, telling a particular group what they want to hear and manipulating people through their emotions - mainly those who are addicted to outrage and like to have their feelings justified.

In response to "Paul R', without dismissing the general thrust of your comments, I have to correct your interpretation of Cume.

When calculating Cume, a listener is counted only once across a week, which means you can't divide a Cume of 455,000 by 5 and suggest that the resulting figure is the daily number of listeners. If you listen to 2GB breakfast each day monday-friday, you still only count in the Cume figure one time.

To suggest 89,000 people listen to Jones per day assumes that every one of his cumulative audience listen on only one occasion during each week, which not even the harshest of Jones critics would suggest would be accurate.

It would be like saying 1,000,000 cars cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge each week monday-friday, therefore an average of 200,000 cross per day. Clearly incorrect.

At 455,000 listeners per week, Jones is, whether you love him or hate him, one of the most listened to broadcasters in Australia.

Perceptive article. Just a couple of queries.

Re: “There is only one way the stated goal of the social media campaigners to have Jones and Sandilands sacked can occur. That is if their ratings become uncompetitive.”

Is this really the stated goal? For some maybe. Different campaigners seem to have have different goals. Destroy the Joint, for example, seeks to “unite us all to stop hate speech, sexism and bigotry and along the way stun business with the power of ordinary Australians.”

They do not want to see Jones sacked or 2GB go broke, just have the station moderate its hate speech. Some claim this is happening.

Others, however, do want Jones off the air completely. This has already happened at 2AY, 2QN, Territory FM and others which have dumped his show. So his total reach has dropped significantly.

For him to lose his show on 2GB is not necessarily just a matter of ratings.

If a small company finds itself having to deal with too many complaints and negative feedback from the public it may become just too hard to continue advertising with 2GB, even if the ratings remain high and sales are good.

Similarly, a large company like Mercedes Benz may not want to risk its national image by associating with a figure of scorn even if local sales generated among Jones’ Sydney listeners remain satisfactory.

If these become problems for 2GB, they will find a way to move him. Yes, he is a shareholder, but only a minority one.

AA,

It must burn you to see that your action has backfired.

Advertisers are back, more people are listening, and moving away from the left leaning ABC, and once the faux outrage has settled AJ will be back in business and stronger than before. To top this, the 2GB model is creating interest, and other broadcasters are looking to copy it.

People power has won. The hundreds of thousands of listeners to 2GB have given the finger to the noisy left winger activists, and the broadcasters and the advertisers are listening.

Wobbles, what you assert is nonsense.

If Jones were as you describe him, he would be nearly as bad as Gillard.

Leo Lane,
From your "insightful" comment I am guessing that you are one of his loyal listeners.