ABC TV and radio star salaries a drop in the ocean compared to commercial rivals

TV and radio $2 million man Kyle Sandilands earns as much as nine ABC presenters combined Source: News Corp Australia

Yesterday it was revealed that 7.30 presenter Leigh Sales pockets $280,000 per year. Sydney news presenter Juanita Phillips gets $316,000 and Melbourne's Ian Henderson $188,000. Tony Jones, of Lateline and Q & A, tops the TV talent salary list with just under $356,000.

You could hear the screams of 'waste of taxpayer money' within seconds of the details being published.

To many people those salaries seem outrageous but the bottom line is that Sales, Phillips, Henderson, Jones and their ABC colleagues are getting a fraction of the money of their commercial television and radio counterparts.

Film industry figure Pat Fiske made the point on Facebook with a picture of $2 million man Kyle Sandilands. The radio shock jock and Australia's Got Talent judge was lined up against nine ABC TV and radio identities whose combined salaries met that mark.

Sandilands isn't the only commercial identity to be making big bucks. In 2011, Larry Emdur signed a new deal with Channel 7, reportedly worth $800,000 per year - and he isn't even in prime time.

Emdur, who co-hosts Seven's The Morning Show with Kylie Gillies, had the good fortune to be in the sights of rival Nine as a replacement for Karl Stefanovic on Today. There's nothing like a bidding war to boost your price.

New Zealander Paul Henry earned a reported $1 million to front Ten's dismal Breakfast which didn't last the year.

If you believe the rumours, Today's Lisa Wilkinson earns $600,000, Seven's Sydney news anchor Chris Bath is on $900,000, David Koch pockets $1 million and Melissa Doyle was on $700,000 before having to take a $150,000 pay cut when she left Sunrise.

You would have to think that A Current Affair presenter Tracy Grimshaw is earning at least two to three times Sales' salary.

3AW breakfast radio presenter Ross Stevenson was said to be earning $1 million per year as far back as 2004.

That makes ABC radio presenters Virginia Trioli, on just under $236,000, and Jon Faine's $285,000 look like very small beer indeed.

So why the staggeringly big dollars?

Just ask Natasha Exelby who was unceremoniously dumped as co-host of Ten's new breakfast show Wake Up. Exelby went from chocolates to boiled lollies in less than three weeks.

You want a shot at stardom, try TV. You want job security, find another vocation.

In TV especially, things can be brutal. Stars live or die by the ratings which network executives get every morning just before 9am.

If the figures are good, a star will be treated like a god. If the figures are bad, you might as well have the plague.

No wonder so many radio and TV identities are insecure. Deep down they know they could be gone at any second.

The ABC kids itself sometimes that it is not ratings driven but you can bet there are big smiles on executives faces when they see the stellar figures for Sales' 7.30 and other hits including Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and The Doctor Blake Mysteries.

ABC boss Mark Scott knows his network's stars have a long and inglorious history of being lured to the commercial networks with bigger money deals than he could ever afford.

Mike Willesee, George Negus and Richard Carleton were some of the earliest ABC talent to switch networks and over the years everyone from Andrew Denton to Jane Turner and Gina Riley's Kath & Kim has jumped ship at one time or another.

Not all of them succeed. The ABC can offer a 'money-can't-buy' amount of creative freedom that its commercial counterparts can't, or won't, match.

You would have to think that comedian Chris Lilley has been offered some huge amounts to switch networks since the success of We Can Be Heroes and Summer Heights High but he has stayed to create Angry Boys and the current Ja'mie: Private School Girl without any outside interference.

Aussie TV and radio have always been high-stakes games where the stars can win big or lose big. The ABC is part of that roll of the dice. The best of its talent deserves to win the lottery.

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