RadioLive host Mitch Harris slams MediaWorks bosses, takes a dig at Paul Henry

Mitch Harris says he tried to warn the radio bosses that this day would come. Photo / File

RadioLive host Mitch Harris has slammed MediaWorks' decision to axe most of the shows on the station, criticising his employer in a lengthy on-air discussion late at night.

MediaWorks told staff yesterday that it plans to merge the RadioLive brand with its existing Magic network - axing most of RadioLIve's programming in the process.

During his Night Talk show on RadioLive on Thursday night, Harris told a listener calling in that his show "could have been successful".

"If I was still managing it, it would have been rating well and making a lot of money now," he said, referring to his past as head of RadioLive.

Harris - whose show is facing the axe under a radical restructure revealed yesterday - made the comments after 11pm during his 8pm to midnight radio show.

"Remember when we brought Paul Henry back to Breakfast? I'd already hired Paul twice before. He always leaves. He gets bored, he has a lot of money so he always leaves," he said, adding that Henry is "a good guy to work with".

"He came on and he did great on ratings in the morning, he really put it on the map."

Harris said that, while everyone was celebrating the ratings Henry was bringing in the morning, he could tell the overall results were "not great".

"The overall rating was sliding.

"We weren't even rating overall despite the fact that he was killing it with Breakfast.

"I said at the time this wasn't great. He's gonna leave and when he leaves we're gonna be in trouble," Harris said.

He says he was seen as "raining on the parade" but believes he was just being "realistic".

"They didn't listen to me and they should have. I really know this business."

Harris blames the results on "a bunch of people from television who knew nothing about radio" making bad decisions.

"They didn't want to listen. So that's why it's frustrating for me."

The radio show host went on to say that, despite media reports, "it's not about left and right" and the real issue isn't political.

"Talk radio is about ordinary working class people that are probably more conservative than what television people think they are."

According to Harris, the older, 50+, radio audience does not want to hear about issues such as the problems faced by the transgender community. "It's not hate, they're just not interested," he says.

"We're not talking to the people that actually listen to talk radio. Radio is about relatability. That's where we failed."