The day Jeff Kennett quit 3AK and DCL

Jeff Kennett has quit the board of Data and Commerce Ltd and will no longer be heard on 3AK after a dramatic board room coup at the AGM this morning.

20-stone Perth engineer Jeff Chatfield continued his shambolic leadership of DCL by combining with the former proprietor of the appropriately named second hand retail outlet Going Going Gone, Mr Ron Hall, to sack the two independent directors, chairman Kevin Campbell AM and Prof Yianni Attikouzel AM.

Jeff Kennett then got up and quit out of sympathy so who knows who will be on air when his shift starts on 3AK at 3pm this afternoon.

The proxies came in at 16 million in favour of the independents and 45 million against so they were gone, even though Kennett voted his 5 million shares in favour of their re-election.

Chatfield controls about 25 million shares and Ron Hall a further 10 million.

3AK has just finished its biggest marketing campaign to advertisers using Jeff Kennett's photo and endorsement (without his approval) but are tipped to lose up to 50 per cent of the estimated $800,000 in advertising commitments the marketing drive brought in.

The meeting was full of disaffected former 3AK staff and presenters who have been sacked by the erratic Chatfield, who gave Jeff Kennett a couple of backhanders for the fact that there were 26 board meetings last year, more than $1 million in corporate overheads and lower ratings than when he joined.

Mark Day, who along with Andrew Fairley sold 3MP to DCL for $6.5 million last year, got up and had several swings at Chatfield as the meeting ended in a shouting match between the friends and supporters of Chatfield and the anti-forces led by Day, Crikey, sacked television commentator Peter Laurance, sacked breakfast producer Mike Frazer, one of Jeff Kennett's few listeners and the sacked sales manager at 3AK Clyde Simpson.

After shareholders gave the entire board a good bollocking it only then became apparent that the board coup was on when the professor's proxies were read out.

I latched onto this straight away and asked what was going on but was told to wait for statements a bit later.

Then we had the chairman's proxies read out and they proposed that the executioner, Jeff Chatfield, would chair this part of the meeting.

I successfully beat this proposal and got Jeff Kennett up to chair the debate on the axing of the chairman and it was then that Kennett admitted that he supported the chairman but Chatfield did not.

Jeff was smiling much of the way through and predicted jovially that "this could be better than anything you'll hear on radio."

And so it was. Once the poll was taken, the board reassembled after a 30 minute break and the defeated chairman Kevin Campbell read out his statement explaining how he'd been shafted with just 72 hours notice and in breach of an undertaking given in October.

Jeff Kennett then got up and read out a much more dramatic statement blasting the Chatfield forces and severing all connections with the company because of the lack of directors and officers insurance and independent directors.

Kennett expressed his "abject disappointment" with how the independents were shafted and then blasted Chatfield for double dealing, failing to provide the resources promised for his own program and also using his name and endorsement for a recent advertising campaign without permission.

The Age and the Herald Sun were both at the meeting but this will get a big run nationally as it was the most shambolic and dramatic AGM I've ever seen and the result is that Jeff Kennett's radio career is over.

Chatfield and his head-kicking CFO Craig Lovelady, another colourful lad from Perth, will struggle to pull the on-air talent in these circumstances and advertisers will probably back out such that the shares are a good chance to go to zero.

John Singleton is the obvious buyer but is refusing to deal with the erratic Chatfield and is waiting to pick up the stations from the receiver.

Whilst management claim they are close to breaking even with $6 million in annual sales, the stations cost $7 million to run and a stack of advertising cancellations and a poor final ratings survey for the year in 10 days time could spell the end for Data and Commerce Ltd, a company that today shafted three of its 5 directors, including the legendary former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett.

Still, at least this will clear Jeff up for another tilt at politics if he so desires. Or what about Jeff to replace Stan Zemanek on the Drive shift at 3AW?

DCL shares were down 2c to 10c this morning so it is already starting to look ugly.

Jeff was worth more than $5 million when they peaked at 44c earlier this year because he has 13 million options over shares at 13c a pop which will now be cancelled just one year into his four year contract.

Copyright © 2022 The Mayne Report. All rights reserved

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