Marty Sheargold to leave Nova’s Kate, Tim and Marty drive show
Marty Sheargold is leaving Nova’s syndicated drive show Kate, Tim and Marty on 11 September.
The radio station said his replacement, who will join existing hosts Kate Ritchie and Tim Blackwell, will be announced in due course.
Sheargold has been with Nova for a decade, and alongside Blackwell and Ritchie has fronted the drive program as it clocked up 26 consecutive survey wins.
‘Kate, Tim and Marty’ have been on-air together for over five years
He joined Nova breakfast in Brisbane alongside Blackwell and Meshel Laurie in 2010, before moving into the national drive slot the next year.
Ritchie joined the line-up in 2014.
The trio has won seven Australian Commercial Radio Australia (ACRA) Awards including Best Australian Syndicated Program and Best Networked Show in 2018, and Best Networked Program and Best Syndicated Show in 2019. The ACRAs are not proceeding in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sheargold, Ritchie and Blackwell at the 2016 ACRAs
Paul Jackson, Nova Entertainment’s chief programming and marketing officer, thanked Sheargold for his tenure and contribution.
“Marty has had. fantastic 10-year career with Nova, initially in Brisbane breakfast and then as part of the iconic Kate, Tim and Marty drive show. We would like to thank him for his contribution to the network, the laughs and great radio moments, and wish him well for the future. We look forward to announcing who will be joining Kate and Tim in drive in the coming weeks,” he said.
Sheargold said the time was right to move on. “I’ve had a fantastic 10 years with the Nova Network, having worked with buildings full of talented and dynamic people,” he said. “I’d like to thank Tim and Kate for their support of my decision and wish them continued success with the show. Now feels like the right time for me professionally to keep challenging myself and to embrace future opportunities with renewed vigour and enthusiasm.”
The radio ratings have been paused for the past few months – although they resumed field work and data gathering today. In the most recent survey, Nova had a 9.0% share in drive in Sydney, equal with Australian Radio Network’s (ARN) Kiis 106.5, but behind ABC Sydney’s 11.7% and 2GB’s 10.5%. In Melbourne, Nova’s drive share was 10.3%, only behind 3AW’s 11.9%. The trio dominated in Brisbane with a 14.4% share, well ahead of nearest competitor Hit 105’s 11.5%. Hit 105 forms part of Southern Cross Austereo’s (SCA) network, but is rumoured to be rebranding soon. In Perth, Nova’s drive share is 12.7%, also leading the pack. In Adelaide, its 15.0% share in drive also puts it well ahead of the competition.
Nova is not the only station facing a talent shake-up in the drive slot in 2020.
Nine Radio has had to shuffle its talent following the departure of Alan Jones from the breakfast slot across Sydney and Brisbane. Existing drive host Ben Fordham replaced Jones in Sydney, while new recruit Neil Breen took the Brisbane breakfast slot. This left drive up fro grabs at both Sydney’s 2GB and Brisbane’s 4BC.
Seven sports journalist Jim Wilson was announced as the new Sydney drive host, while former LNP state politician Scott Emerson will take over 4BC’s drive program on 10 August.
This year also saw Ed Kavalee permanently replace Kate Langbroek on SCA’s syndicated Hit Network drive program, ending Langbroek’s long-running radio partnership with Hughes.
The real question here is which rival network will we see him on in 2020?
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My money is on a Red Symons style show in afternoon or drive on ABC Melbourne.
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Surely he won’t go to 774? But I agree that he will probably pop up on another station.
I think he will be replaced by Ed Kavalee on Nova which would pave the way for Kate Langbroek to reunite with Hughesy on Hit as has been mooted.
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Has to be Kate Tim and Tommy Williams
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Why not ABC? It’s been done before – Richard Stubbs, Richard Fiedler, Wendy Harmer, etc…
Also no way that Ed Kavalee is a good replacement. He’s a great sidekick or anchor but they already have both those roles, and his persona is too nice which would upset the show. They need a big comedy name who can be edgy – someone like Peter Helliar, Wil Anderson, Dave O’Neil, maybe even Merrick Watts.
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Could be Tom Gleeson? He recently quit The Weekly.
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