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‘This is 2Day FM’s time to shine’; Dave Cameron on the importance of a ‘marquee’ breakfast show in Sydney

2Day FM has gone through a catalogue of presenters on breakfast since the departure of Kyle and Jackie O. Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) chief content officer, Dave Cameron, tells Mumbrella's Zanda Wilson how the newly announced 2021 lineup will return the station to its flagship status.

SCA will welcome new talent into at least breakfast shows in 2021, but none will be closer under the microscope more than Sydney’s heritage Hit Network station 2Day FM.

After running a low-cost Music For Breakfast show presented by experienced jock Jamie Angel for the past 18 months, SCA has moved to have another crack at a talent-driven show, and earlier this week announced that Dave ‘Hughesy’ Hughes and Ed Kavalee would move from their national drive show, and be joined by Erin Molan.

Kavalee returns to the slot after spending time on multiple iterations of 2Day FM breakfast alongside Em Rusciano, Grant Denyer and Ash London, at various points. Hughes’ move comes after almost two decades of presenting drive to a national audience.

But it’s the appointment of ACRA-winning 2GB and Nine presenter Molan that caught the eye earlier this week, and national content director Dave Cameron tells Mumbrella her presence on the show will be key to the re-emergence of the flagship station.

“2Day is our flagship station, and it deserves and demands experience, headliner talent, established chemistry and existing audience passion and familiarity,” he says.

The well-documented struggles of 2Day FM breakfast in the years since the departure of Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson have been punctuated by hires of comedians and TV personalities.

With Molan, it feels like SCA has learned from past mishaps. Cameron is known for his excellent eye for talent, and played a vital role in the emergence of multiple successful SCA shows down the years including Hamish and Andy.

“This is not a station or a shift I have a desire to put in an inexperienced team and hope for the best,” he explains, in no uncertain terms.

“This is 2Day FM’s time to shine with a marquee established show including layering with exciting rising talent in Erin Molan.”

Cameron refutes any suggestion that Hughes will be too Melbourne-centric for 2Day FM, pointing to the fact that his drive show has been #1 in the city on numerous occasions on various networks.

“Combined with the above, Ed lived in Sydney for 15 years, Erin is much loved in Sydney,” he says.

“So localism won’t be an issue,” with the show will be “led by [Hit Network head of content] Gemma Fordham on the ground.”

There’s no doubting that the addition of Molan, with her years of experience as a sports reporter, especially on the Sydney-centric NRL, will add an extra dimension to the show.

But Cameron says Molan “wants to be so much more than ‘sport pigeon-holed’ as I’m sure she’ll tell you herself.

“She is an outstanding broadcaster in her own right, but a huge amount of cheekiness, attitude, courage and funny that Sydney is about to discover about her. The whole of Erin Molan is about to be unleashed, and it’s going to be exciting to hear.”

SCA chief content officer Dave Cameron

Cameron has spent over 25 years with SCA and was appointed to the role of chief content officer in late 2019. He spent six years at 2Day FM as its music director during years in which it was consistently in a strong position.

“This is a show built for Sydney, programmed by Sydney,” he says, explaining that all the talent and production crew will be located in the harbour city next year.

That includes long-time Hughesy and Kate (and more recently Hughesy and Ed) executive producer and content manager, Sacha French.

Renowned as one of the best in the game, French is a multi-ACRA winner and has been working with Hughes for almost two decades across Nova Entertainment, Australian Radio Network and now SCA.

“Sasha continues in her role, and knows Hughsey better than anyone,” Cameron says.

2Day FM is far from the only big change made in recent weeks, with Cameron showing he’s not afraid to make big calls on the content side of things in recent weeks as SCA looks to refresh several shows in key metro markets.

After struggling to provide meaningful competition to the likes of Nova and 96 FM in Perth in recent years, Hit 92.9 is being rebranded to a Triple M station, with Mix 94.5 joining the Hit Network in its place.

That signals the end of the Xavier, Juelz and Pete breakfast show, with SCA to name a new show with local talent on Triple M while the high-rating Clairsy, Matt and Kymba show will remain on Mix.

SCA and Cameron also announced changes at Fox FM this week too in the way of a refreshed breakfast show in Melbourne.

Cameron spent 11 years at the station as content director, and has moved to bring Nick Cody south from Triple M Brisbane to refresh the breakfast lineup, which had faltered in recent ratings surveys.

Cody will join Fifi Box and Brendan Fevola from next year.

The shakeups at 2Day FM and Fox FM won’t be the last of the changes across SCA’s radio assets, with Cody’s departure from Triple M Brisbane meaning we’ll likely see changes to the lineup there.

In addition, Eddie McGuire and Luke Darcy’s heritage Triple M Melbourne brekky offering The Hot Breakfast won’t return in 2021, with a replacement yet to be announced.

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