Em Rusciano: I won’t uproot my family to Sydney when the radio show may not last
Listeners to Em Rusciano’s new Sydney radio show “don’t give a shit” that she won’t be moving to the city, the outspoken presenter has said in a live Facebook chat to her fans.
Speaking the night before the launch of The Em Rusciano Show With Harley Breen on 2Day FM, she said another factor was uncertainty in how long the show would be on air.
The duo are the fourth lineup to occupy the slot since Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson defected to Kiis FM three years ago.
But Rusciano and Breen will not be moving from their home state of Victoria to present the show in Sydney.
The video:
In Sunday night’s live video, a tearful Rusciano said she was feeling nervous about the show.
She told her fans: “I wanted to talk about the media’s obsession with the fact that Harley and I won’t be living full time in Sydney. I don’t think you guys care where it’s out of – if it’s good, it’s good.
“I sat down with my family in a family meeting and I said ‘do you guys want to move to Sydney?’ and they all said no.
“I’m not a selfish person and I’m not going to make my children uproot their lives for a job – look, who knows how long its going to last, let’s be realistic.”
She added: “Sometimes we’ll be in the Sydney studio, sometimes we won’t. Some people will try to make a big deal out of it but it’s not a big deal, I don’t think you guys give a shit.”
It is not the first time Rusciano has presented breakfast radio. She did four years on air for fellow Southern Cross Austereo station 92.9, before falling out with management.
She told her viewers: “I’m nervous. Breakfast radio and I did not leave on good terms, to say the least.
“I did quit when my boss called me the C-bomb. Hopefully that doesn’t happen again. New team, same station. Interesting.
“I’m a bit nervous. I’m a bit teary. It’s going to be fine…”
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Got to say I love the sound of this woman. With so many people selling their soul and happiness and family unit to chase the corporate dollar it’s great to see someone who knows their own value and values what’s important to them.
Best of luck for all parties.
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Good on her. Family comes first and if she performs well, Sydney will listen regardless of where she is. Sandilands was based in LA for a large part of his show on Today, and that worked….
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Good for her to do this for her family, but I think it’s a mistake. You can’t compare Kyle being in LA to this set-up. He spent 10 years in Sydney everyday, establishing their audience. Plus, him being in LA fits in perfectly with the show as it’s based around celebs. The audience gets a feeling that he has his finger on the pulse, and he is living the celeb lifestyle. (Even though he probably isn’t) A breakfast show needs to be in the town that it’s broadcast from. You need to live it, breathe it and be in it to understand it and the audience. You can’t read out the weather and say, “sucks to be you in the Western Suburbs of Sydney as it’s going to be hot”. Your biggest audience is in the Western Suburbs, you need them on your side from day 1. They already know it’s going to be hot. They don’t need reminding from someone in Melbourne. I really want SCA to do well, but I just can’t see it, or hear it here.
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This is like watching a train smash in slow motion….You just know its going to end badly for all.
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I heard parts of the show this morning. OMG it was terrible!
Too much laughing at their own jokes (that weren’t funny).
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When was the last time a radio ‘star’ did the weather report on any of the major networks? They have news people of traffic and weather at SCA. No one wants to listen to Em Rusciano to hear her read the weather in the western suburbs.
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Look, if she can get herself up to Sydney for a couple of days each week – mid-week or something – then I don’t think it matters too much. She’s a sweetheart and comes across as a very real sort of person. See what happens.
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She is correct – why uproot your family for a show destined to fail. But I think she is wrong about a Sydney audience not caring that she is broadcasting from Melbourne. Even regional centres have local talent doing breakfast because it matters. Perhaps if one of them were based in Sydney, it may have stood a chance.
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Whether they are based in Sydney or not is irrelevant after listening today. The show is not entertaining. Simple. It will fail.
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If she hasn’t got the sense to escape Melbourne (which is a sentence, not a word) and settle in Sydney, what chance does the show have?
Zilch, nada, none, etc!
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Yeah.
I wish her well but the station has to be not only fully committed but fully briefing her and keeping watch.
Melbourne people are so obsessed with their football teams and personalities, they will need to remember NOT A WORD.
What abut them Bulldogs, eh?
Legend Tim Burrows recently complained, er, OBSERVED that the recent car rampage in Melb was barely reported in the Sydney press.
Maybe.
But compare with ABC Breakfast News (based in Melbourne) who reported incessantly and only barely mentioned oh yeah, Baird resigned or something.
Meanwhile back to the Bourke St remote…
People who work on radio, especially drive shifts or breakfast (and I include TV here) need to feel the PULSE of the city. The pulse of THEIR city.
Maybe Em and Harley could stay in Sydney for their first little while – living near Blacktown and commuting along the M4 or sumfink!
Once they GET IT they can slink back to Box Hill or Werribee or wherever.
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