Adelaide breakfast show goes as ARN cull continues
Hayley & Max has only been on air since January
ARN has axed Adelaide breakfast show “Hayley and Max” on Mix 102.3. News of the move was reported by Mediaweek as trade journalists met with ARN execs ahead of the radio network’s annual upfront event on Wednesday evening in Sydney.
The demise of Hayley Pearson and Max Burford’s show comes just days after news broke that the Robin, Kip & Corey Oates breakfast show on KIIS in Brisbane was also being cancelled
Pearson and Burford’s final show will be December 12. Both the axed shows had been in the breakfast time slot for less than a year.
In a note to staff circulated to media, ARN seemed to expressly deny the Brisbane move was a preparation for the Kyle and Jackie O show — telling staff the replacement show will be a “new, live, and local breakfast show that will be bold, entertaining, and fast moving.”
According to reports, the same is true of Adelaide — there will be a live, local replacement — leaving ARN’s expensive Kiis breakfast flagship to continue in Sydney and Melbourne.
The Melbourne simulcast of Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson’s show has been a long slog, with some recent signs of progress.
The most recent radio survey — released two weeks ago and covering the period between August 24 and September 28 — saw the pair pick up 6% of the audience share for the competitive Melbourne breakfast market, with a cumulative audience of 427,000 listeners in the city. For comparison’s sake, Sandilands and Henderson lost 1.7 points in Sydney last survey, but still managed to hold 13.6% of the audience. This marked the 54th straight survey the duo has won in Sydney’s FM breakfast market.
For Adelaide’s Mix 102.3, Hayley and Max commanded 10.4% of the city’s breakfast audience, ranking fourth overall in the timeslot. The show drew a cumulative audience of 188,000 listeners.
At Brisbane’s KIIS 97.3, Robin Bailey, Kip Wightman, and Corey Oates held 10% of the breakfast audience during the most recent survey, sitting fifth overall in their timeslot with a cumulative audience of 267,000.
On the weekend, Bailey took aim at ARN for axing her show, writing on Instagram that “seven amazing, talented, kind and compassionate people lost their jobs last Thursday. Our industry cares more about money than connection.”
There are still two radio surveys left in the year, and the next set of results — delivered on November 25 — will be do or die for a number of shows teetering on the ratings edge, as the radio networks look towards 2026.
ARN will reveal its 2026 plans during its first-ever upfront presentation on Wednesday, October 29.
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