2Day FM ditches Sam Frost and Rove McManus for new breakfast show fronted by Em Rusciano
Southern Cross Austereo has ditched its struggling 2Day FM breakfast show Rove & Sam for a new offering featuring comedian Em Rusciano.
Rove and Sam: Moving to national evening show
The Em Rusciano Radio Show with Harley Breen will go on air in Sydney from January 23. Rove McManus and Sam Frost will instead be given a national 7pm to 8pm slot across SCA’s The Hit Network from January 30.
The Rove & Sam show began in November 2015, but the show struggled to find an audience.
In the most recent ratings, released last month, the duo had a 3.8% share of the Sydney radio audience, well behind Kyle & Jackie O’s 10.5% share.
Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson moved their market-leading FM show from 2Day FM to Australian Radio Network’s rebranded Kiis FM in 2014 and immediately topped the ratings. A string of different breakfast lineups have failed to help 2Day FM recover its audience.
Em Rusciano has been tipped to take on the role since June last year after rumours emerged that SCA was contemplating moving Rove & Sam to an evening slot and promoting Rusciano from her weekend slot.
While McManus is an experienced broadcaster, at the time of Frost’s appointment she had no presentation experience, having come to public attention via Ten’s dating show The Bachelor.
Rusciano first hit the spotlight as a contestant on Australian Idol. She made headlines last year when she resigned her weekly column for News Corp after a story about her participation in Seven’s The Big Music Quiz. This year has also seen her publish a book, Try Hard, and embark on a national stand-up tour.
Rusciano, pictured speaking at November’s Mumbrella Entertainment Marketing Summit
Rusciano will also host the Mumbrella Awards in June.
In December, the Hit Network announced that Hamish Blake and Andy Lee would be leaving their national drivetime slot towards the end of this year, raising the possibility that Rove & Sam could then be promoted from the 7pm slot if their new show has connected with audiences.
After months insisting that the network would stand by its breakfast line up, today’s statement said: “The decision came after Rove & Sam along with SCA executives took some time off over the Summer and after review, decided that the best route forward for all was to move their show into another time slot.”
Hit Network’s head of content Gemma Fordham said: “Em connects with her audience brilliantly, her humor and honesty is obviously what’s driven her to have a combined social media following of over 350K and we look forward to Em and Harley waking up Sydney each day.”
The announcements:
Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) today announce changes to the Sydney breakfast show line-up, with Rove & Sam moving out of Sydney’s 2DAY FM breakfast and into a nightly national show that airs Monday to Friday from 7pm-8pm across The Hit Network’s 43 metro and regional radio stations, commencing nationwide on Monday 30th January.
The decision came after Rove & Sam along with SCA executives took some time off over the Summer and after review, decided that the best route forward for all was to move their show into another time slot.
Rove says “One of the pleasures of 2016 has been working with Sam so I am looking forward to continuing working with her in 2017 at a more civilized time of day”. Sam adds “I’m pleased to move on with my friend Rove to our next gig, as well as undertake other commitments outside of radio.”
Gemma Fordham, Head of Content, Hit Network says: “Rove McManus and Sam Frost continue to be key members of The Hit Network with their national show which will have a larger focus on entertainment content.”
And:
Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) today reveal that the talented comedian duo, Em Rusciano and Harley Breen are the new 2DAY FM Sydney breakfast radio hosts, starting at 6am from January 23rd with their show titled The Em Rusciano Radio Show with Harley Breen.
Gemma Fordham, Head of Content, Hit Network says “The feedback we’ve received around Em and Harley has been
incredible. Nothing is off limits and Em connects with her audience brilliantly, her humor and honesty is obviously what’s driven her to have a combined social media following of over 350K and we look forward to Em and Harley waking up Sydney each day.”
Having just stepped off the Summer breakfast show and after successfully hosting a Sunday night show for The Hit
Network, Em Rusciano says “I’m excitified at the thought of hosting breakfast radio in Sydney, that’s a combination of my two resting states: excited and terrified. I love radio, I’ve been in and out and in and out again for 12 years! I’m like the herpes of radio… wait, I probably don’t want those words near my name for all of time do I? This job is the holy grail, the one ring of Mordor! I’m bringing along one of my favourite comics and humans: Harley Breen
and together we hope to excitify Sydney!”
Em adds “Please note that I included a fusion word in my press release statement and three pop culture references. If that and the icy cold cans of Coke I drive around handing out to random people, for no reason, doesn’t convince you I’m qualified for this job: then I give up! Hear you soon Sydney pals!”
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin
Please Mumbrella – I am begging you – get a comment from Kyle Sandilands.
User ID not verified.
*Public attention ?
User ID not verified.
“The Em Rusciano Radio Show…..”
Just in case you forget where you’re hearing the show
slow golf clap
User ID not verified.
6 months max. She is insufferable.
Listeners are not morons.
User ID not verified.
Eeek. I heard them a bit over the break. It was terrible
User ID not verified.
Hi Manda,
Noted and corrected. Public is definitely what we were aiming for!
Vivienne – Mumbrella.
This seems kinda like Judith Lucy/Kaz Cooke 2.0 – genuinely empowered, intelligent & funny humans given the poison chalice, nothing left to lose style.
The off Broadway run on Sundays was often genuinely edge of the seat piss funny & subversive but Sydney breakfast has pretty straight/dull demands & standards, so good luck funny folk!
User ID not verified.
Any shares for Em and Harley or were they just for Rove?
User ID not verified.
Radio…fascinating
User ID not verified.
Good gig if you only want to do it for a year.
User ID not verified.
Judith Lucy funny???
User ID not verified.