Kiis axes Matt & Meshel for Kiwi breakfast duo in breakfast, hires Perth’s Will & Woody to replace Hughesy & Kate in drive
ARN’s Kiis FM is ditching its national Hughesy & Kate drivetime show and dropping its struggling Melbourne breakfast hosts Matt Tilley and Meshel Laurie, Mumbrella can reveal.
Kiis will replace Dave Hughes and Kate Langbroek in the drivetime slot with Will McMahon and Woody Whitelaw, who currently present the breakfast show on Southern Cross Austereo’s Perth station Hit92.9.
And New Zealand duo Polly ‘PJ’ Harding and Jase Hawkins will host Kiis101.1 FM’s Melbourne breakfast program from the start of the year.
Kiis FM’s new national drive time hosts Will & Woody
The news ends a three year stint for Kiis’ Hughesy & Kate show, while the sixth-placed Matt & Meshel show only began at the start of last year.
Hughes and Langbroek’s contracts were set to end this year. But Duncan Campbell, ARN’s national content director, told Mumbrella last week the duo were still in negotiations.
Hughesy & Kate will leave ARN at the end of the year
In the most recent set of ratings, Hughesy & Kate topped the timeslot in Sydney with a 9.8% audience share. In Melbourne the show was up 0.4 ratings points to 7.2% and in Perth the show climbed to 8.7%.
However in Brisbane and Adelaide, the show fell 0.8 points and 1.9 points to shares of 10.5% and 11.9% respectively.
In the sixth survey of the year, released last week, the Matt & Meshel show dipped 0.3 ratings points, to a 6.1% share, placing sixth in Melbourne.
Matt & Meshel are also to depart
Tilley joined the Kiis network in 2015 from Triple M, where he replaced Chrissie Swan and joined Jane Hall on Kiis Melbourne breakfast.
Hall was replaced a year later with Laurie, who joined the network from Nova.
Meanwhile over in Perth, the 92.9Hit breakfast show with Heidi, Will & Woody has averaged a 10.3% breakfast audience share, up almost every survey this year.
However in the most recent survey the show fell 1.9 ratings points to 9.3%.
It was revealed in August the trio, who had been working together since 2013 would split, with speculation McMahon and Whitelaw were moving to Melbourne to take up “a late-night drive spot”.
Meanwhile Matt Tilley and Meshel Laurie’s replacements, PJ and Jase, announced their departure from New Zealand and ZM’s drive in July this year.
New Kiis 101.1 Melbourne hosts Jase Hawkins and PJ Harding
They began working together in 2015, and were put together by NZME’s then chief content officer Gemma Fordham, who is now SCA’s head of content for SCA’s Hit Network.
Hawkins began his career in Australia at Triple M Brisbane before being poached by Kiis’ Kyle Sandilands and nicknamed ‘Labrat’. He was also previously B105 breakfast host in Brisbane.
Harding comes from Christchurch, and has been working with ZM since 2011. She hosted ZM’s night show before taking on drive time.
In New Zealand’s most recent survey of its major commercial radio markets, the duo finished with a 7.7% audience share, the same as the second survey of the year.
The first survey of the year saw the duo climbed 0.5 points to a 7.2% share.
ARN’s national content director, Duncan Campbell said the announcement was part of a “new strategic direction” for the network, which has been in planning for the last twelve months.
“The signing of Will & Woody and Jase & PJ is an exciting coup for ARN given the talent was also courted by other networks,” Campbell said.
“These changes not only enhance our national offering but also reinvents our approach for Kiis 101.1, marking a significant, bold step forward for Melbourne and the network overall.”
ARN CEO Rob Atkinson said: “We’re not only reinforcing our number one network position, but also confirming our commitment to further energise the ARN network by delivering the best-in- market talent, content, and commercial solution.”
The replacement for Hit network’s outgoing drive show hosts Hamish & Andy is yet to be revealed.
topics
ARN
Australian Radio Network
Dave Hughes
Duncan Campbell
Hughesy & Kate
Jase Hawkins
Kate Langbroek
Kiis
Kiis FM
Matt & Meshel
PJ & Jase
Polly Harding
radio
Rob Atkinson
Will & Woody
Will McMahon
Woody Whitelaw
ZM
Aah, radio! Where people in management who have never had a day in an on air shift continue to play with the lives of their on air talent like they are pieces of meat. One day, a radio network will give an on air team the time they deserve to establish themselves.
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You people do realise it’s KIIS and not Kiis right?
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This has to be some of the wierdest announcements I’ve ever seen, and signals the fact that Hit, Kiss and Nova will all compete for the same audience. All I can say is…look what happened when Ten did it…
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Hi Plain Bonkers,
Thanks for the advice from the company style sheet. If you can convince me it’s an acronym, then I’d be delighted to change it, otherwise I’ll leave it as we have it, thanks. Mumbrella’s style is not to follow random capitalisations and punctuation if it makes it harder for the reader. So Foxtel, not FOXTEL, as they would prefer. And Ooh Media, not oOH! Media (Or whatever it is…) and so on.
The exception is where the brand enters the culture – so YouTube and eBay is fine for instance.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
It is, however, not Kiss, as in “Kiss’ Kyle Sandilands” 😉
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KIIS actually comes from a radio station in LA 102.7 KIIS FM. The call letters of K.I.I.S were assigned to the licence way back when the station was on AM, and a frequency of 1150AM. The FCC states that all radio stations west of the Mississippi river have call letters starting with a K. So K + 115(0)AM, makes KIIS. It has no real relevance in either Sydney or Melbourne markets though. Just radio nerds wanting to say KIIS on the air.
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The music on Kiis fm is pretty ordinary so that has to play a part. While people quite like the talking, the news, the weather, the traffic….most people listen to the radio to break the boredom and in fact……hear some good music. Meshel Laurie is great. She’s real. Matt Tilly never stops talking but is intelligent and good at what he does. Hughesy and Kate are funny. Why replace them with interstate, international hosts? Great that our Melbourne radio stations are not hosted by people who Melbourne know and love. That would be silly wouldn’t it!
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Great since when do we have to bring radio talent over from NZ to host our radio shows. Matt and Mishel were great and you are getting rid of long standing duo hughsie and Kate. You are lucky to have them. Put them on in the morning if that’s what you need. Next you’ll want to split kyle and Jackie O> he may not be popular but we all know they are great together.
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Are you serious? NZ? Hahahaha! We have not got enough talent here..let alone Matt and Meshel who are awesome. Fuck the ratings..they were THE best brekky show by far. Oh..and by the way KIIS .. I cannot be bothered with you anymore..the 3 main commercial stations in Melb are so similar now in their music content (non adventurous) that I will no longer listen to you at all. Bye KIIS ..
You are full of shit. I am going back to FOXFM… PATHETIC!!!
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Missing Matt and Meshel already.. Very sad to read that Hughesy and Kate will leave as well.
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Matt and Meshel, and Hughsey and Kate were the only reason I listened to KIIS fm. Only listener gone.
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Gone back to listerning to UK radio Matt Tilley and Mesh was worth listerning to it been a week with out them and hearing but some Kiwi coming to do the breakfast like forget it I rather listern to my homeland radio feel sorry for Matt and Mesh been a week of misery
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What are you thinking??? I followed Matt Tilley over from Fox FM. Meshel and Matt were great in the morning. The footy keep doing this, bringing in overseas taken to perform at the finals. Look what happened with Meatloaf!!!! How about supporting local talent.
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Are you stupid??? Your crazy as well as stupid. You wont be able to replace this duo especially when you import replacements from another country. Traitors. I have listened to your breakfast show for around 10 years but never again. I hope another station employs them and I’m pretty sure most of their listeners will follow them as we are a dedicated lot.
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I cannot believe you got rid of Matt and Meshel, I followed Matt over from FOX when I realised you had him on, funny funny duo, I will go back to FOX now, I loved it when you had talent on that was at least from here, but since you feel the need to import, then sadly I feel the need to export to another station
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missing Matt & Meshel – loved them
won’t be listening to Kiis any more
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Big mistake they were the only reason I listened I will have to find another radio station
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So angry that these so called big guns would axe Matt and Mischel, best radio station to listen too, but you have lost me. Will follow Matt to his new and hopefully better radio station. KIIS you suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Matt is THE funniest guy on radio. I only listen to Kiis because of Matt & Meshel.Both Intellegent and funny people. What a loss. Hope another radio picks them up. By Kiis…
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I like Matt and Meshel so much that even thou I had very poor reception on Kiis i would persist in listening and if it go so bad i would stream it via Iheart Radio to my car stereo.. There is really no other reaso to listen to Kiis any more..Thanks but no thanks to importing staff to work at a local radio station… it just doesn’t make sense to me…
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I miss Matt & Meshell on radio and really loved waking up to them. Feeling terribly sad, but at the end of the day everyone deserves a chance!
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The only reason i listened to KISS was Matt Tilley and Meshelle. Hmmmm what were you guys thinking when you let them go,obviously werent in the right mind frame!!!!
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Tried for 2 days to listen to Will & Woody
Both oblivious to what people want on the way home from work – HUMOUR!!!
They keep going on about their social media stature – who gives a rats…arse
They should call their show “The Good Radio Show Hosts in Drivetime” same personality on air as that Good Doctor we are on all the commercials on Telly
I can only imagine in Perth that Heidi was the funny one – these 2 dudes are rubbish
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Cant believe KIIS got rid of matt and mishelle i loved them and kate and hughesy i wont be tuning in anymore.
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I had to type into Google to find out why KIIS would let go the best radio duos for breakfast Matt and Meshelle and
drive home Hughesy and Kate. These guys were the best hosts. I reckon everyone only tuned into listen to the station because of them. Missing them heaps. The new guys are hopeless and boring. I’ve changed over to Fox to listen to Hughesy and Kate. But still missing Matt and Meshelle. I agree with most of the other comments others have shared. Really bad choices made for 2018 KIIS. Farewell KIIS.
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Each morning I have tried to keep an open mind and listen to KIIS. Just can’t do it- it’s depressing. Bye bye KIIS
FOX – back to you I go.
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Hi everyone, does any one know where Matt goes? I only listen to Smooth FM nowadays until I know where Matt goes then I will follow him.
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Bad move KIIS. Breakfast show never been so boring. You lost another listener.
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I just assumed that Matt and Mechel were on holidays and due to return and then found out they’re gone for good from KIIS….well I switched from Fox to follow Matt and have always loved Mechel…. tried to listen to the new brekkie show hosts and OMG boring and so scripted ….. sorry have now switched back to Fox and music streaming . Bad move KIIS you should be supporting Australian talent too See Ya!
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Omg how boring is your station kiss fm morning and afternoon made the switch to Hughesy and Kate on fox but morning team are terrible
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What a shame i wont be listening to u either im bored to bits with ur host ive given up on radio
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Hate to say it but its now in the middle of 2018 and i still miss Matt and Meshel on radio… I’m listening to fox they’re good but Matt and Meshel were the bomb… I havent listened to KIIS fm since they axed these guys….
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