Radio 2UE denies Breakfast with Dicko and Sarah will be axed
The content director of 2UE Clinton Maynard has categorically denied claims that the Sydney talk station’s Breakfast program, hosted by Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson and Sarah Morice, will be axed.
The most recent round of rumours appears to have been sparked by Bruce Goldberg, who administers the ‘Australian Radio Industry’ Facebook group of 1,850 members, claims a source has told him the Sydney breakfast show will go.
Radio 2UE’s Maynard told Mumbrella there was no truth in this rumour and it has, “caused quite a bit of laughter in the office”.
2UE’s 2013 breakfast team of Ian Dickson and Sarah Morice
“We realise we have been the subject of a fair bit of industry gossip all year because what we have done has been rather radical, so we attract a bit of attention,” Maynard told Mumbrella.
Ratings for the Sydney breakfast show have dropped in the latest Nielsen ratings from around five to six per cent share of the audience mid-last year, under previous breakfast host Jason Morrison, to 3.4 per cent share in the last survey.
2UE is owned by Fairfax Media. But although Fairfax’s 3AW dominates Melbourne, 2UE has seen its market position eroded in recent years, falling well behind its AM talk rival 2GB and also behind FM competitors. 2GB’s breakfast host Alan Jones rated 17 per cent in the last survey.
Maynard maintain the 2UE breakfast duo just needs more “time to bed in”.
“Ratings in the last survey have definitely dropped over the first half of the year, but they have not been dramatically lower than they were in the back half of last year.
“Dicko and Sarah has been on air for seven and a half months – no radio organisation would can a breakfast show after that time. It takes a decent amount of time to bed in.”
The appointment of the duo was seen as left field at the time, with Dicko best known for his TV work and Morice a newsroom journalist. The style of their show steers away from traditional AM talk radio confrontation to a more conversational FM style.
Today’s The Daily Telgraph reports that breakfast content manager Sophie Onikul has moved off the show.
The rumours come after the last week’s resignation of evening host Murray Wilton and also the publishing of a letter, said to be written by a member of 2UE staff on radio website RadioInfo, claiming morale at the station is at an all time low. Station general manager Chris Parker told the website he had difficulty accepting the letter was from a current member of staff.
The radio station has been through a number of relaunches in recent years. In 2011 Peter Brennan, brought in as program director with a brief to deliver generational change in the lineup, blamed the previous management, saying “the fish rots from the head”. At the stage GM Tim McDermott pledged the station would get up from a 5.3 per cent audience share to 8.5 per cent.
In the most recent ratings, 2UE’s Monday to Sunday share was 4.8 per cent with 2GB on 13.5 per cent.
Megan Reynolds
Seems to me Mr Goldberg would be wiser to put his time into a Journalism 101 course – or find better sources.
Keep at it UE, some of us value not being yelled at first thing in the morning.
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Well if it’s not happening now it will happen.
Show is terrible and won’t be putting anything near it.
Adam Lang will have to step in as it reflects badly on his judgement.
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Any news is good news.
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Rule number one for radio executives: Ignore social media. Remember last year the “died of shame” controversy where there were online petitions calling for Alan Jones’s sacking and outrage on Facebook and Twitter? The young leftists on the Net thought they had a victory but in reality it helped Alan Jones and 2GB considerably with a boost in ratings and advertising revenue as a result.
In this latest case we have someone I have never heard of saying on Facebook that 2UE breakfast will go. I would suggest these people keep listening to their Morning Crews and silly antics on the FM band and leave talk radio to the adults.
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Goldberg has been in the radio biz for a long time .
The facebook page he administers has a huge commercial radio following.
Social media is they way it is all going.
Goldberg is always controversial on that board.
Not that i agree with everything he posts.
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Have the 2UE execs listened to this show?
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Someone always has to be last.
2ue is last because they sound terrible.
Why is everyone so intrigued?
I don’t hear the same shock at the downfall off 2sm.
It happens when the wrong people are chosen to manage stations
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well it’s terrible, dicko tries hard but is clueless with common place subjects, there needs to be something done quick, Stuart Bocking is the only drcent jock at 2UE
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2UE may not have confrontational radio at breakfast but it certainly has “right wing ranting” at drive. As if a music station would play rock music at breakfast and dance music in the drive shift.
2UE has multiple personalities.
That’s the real problem.
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‘Stuart Bocking is the only decent jock they have’
That’s the problem
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These guys have serious money problems. I am told that the money they are paying their talent is not enough to attract serious talent for a market such as Sydney. They need to pair Dicko with someone who has more to say and has more edge. If management comes from sales they often don’t have the ability to understand the nuances that matches talent with the market. They are right in trying to find the approach which differs from the old aggressive John Brennan model. They just need to do it better. I really hope they get it right.
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It’s interesting to note that Bruce Goldberg is no longer associated with any radio station. Wasn’t he working for 2ST in Nowra yesterday? Looks like they have disowned him.Let me guess… another wanna be talk radio host without a job. I guess that’s what the internet is for!
Perhaps the ‘industry pundits’ on Facebook should reflect on their own success and failures in radio and remember it takes time to create great content. Lets’ give them a break and let them gt on with it.
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Everybody has a personal opinion that is a democracy. Many posters are correct in their assessments.
1: Top management is to blame for ill informed decisions.
2: Incompetent executives get to their level of administration by sucking up to the right people.
3: The “right” people hire them as they are of little threat to the status quo.
4: 2UE is going “Down Down” because they have poor content direction and refuse any outside programming help and do not want to pay for it. A journalist is not a professional Me3dia content manager.
5: Then there is the final insult, Dicko is rumoured to be earning $750K PA for what appears to be a working class British immigrant exhibiting little real talent working on Australian Radio in the largest metro market with an irritating common accent.
By the way I have spent a lifetime in or associated with Media in Australia.
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Sounds like they knocked your offer of help back Brian. Think I woul have too. $750k would be more like $150 btw.
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Am I the odd one out here, I think Dicko and Sarah are a breath of fresh air, love to wake up to them in the morning!! Who wants to wake up to serious, unfunny, heavy political crap from the dark side, and I happen to agree with him but, too serious for me, love Dicko and Sarah 🙂 I really think the station should look at their sports content, too much, weekends are so boring now, with only George and Paul, sorry they are boring, they have passed their use-by date, they are OK, but it is the same old same old every day, and then sport, footy, ad nauseum, so much sport this winter, which other stations cater for adequately, some of us dont care about it and want to be entertained otherwise. Thank you.
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