Why 2Day FM’s breakfast shows keep ‘imploding’
Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) still has years of pain before it will fully recover from the defection of Kyle Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson, former radio and TV star – now founder of ‘influencer marketplace’ Tribe – Jules Lund has predicted.
Echoing the sentiments of current Sydney 2Day FM breakfast host Em Rusciano – who attracted attention last week when she admitted the recent restructure of the program had been an ego blow, she was working with people she would never have personally selected and she was six months from imploding – Lund told Wil Anderson that radio shows in Australia implode because they are cast by an executive, in a similar way to an arranged marriage.
Lund: Radio veterans can rest on their laurels
Until the 2DayFM breakfast show sounds like a team, and has less of a resemblance to the cast of Fraggle Rock meets The Twilight Zone, It will continue to languish.
Ouch.
SCA need to get some talent that actually want to be there and want to make great radio, rather than just a bunch of names that are paid (a lot) to be there. It’s a long road to recovery… might as well have people there that don’t bag out the station, the management and the job.
#Make2dayGreatAgain
You mean like Dan and Maz? Oh wait…
Nobody wants to micromanaged and air checked by Austereo:
“next time this particular thing happens that will never happen again ever you should react in a different way.”
“yeah okay dude in denim shirt who failed as on air talent”
Agree completely and they need to get Radio Announcers – not ‘personalities’ who don’t care about getting an audience – they only care about themselves! (Just one opinion from someone who was a No. 1 radio announcer on a No. 5 city station!)
Who says it will ever recover?
With framentation and more people listening to their own music, there’s no guarantee it will ever be a “success” again
Radio is supposed to be entertaining. It is also supposed to be like connecting with friends. Somehow FM in Australia and Sydney in particular keeps serving up the same insipid rubbish over and over again and then changing the line up when ….oh what a surprise! another station beats us on a stupid ratings metric by 1 share point. This is not just a Breakfast issue.
Please get some new talent, they don’t have to be “names”
( sarcasm)….they just have to be good….. and give them time to establish themselves, after all, good friendships take a bit of time.
Australian commercial radio hit it’s peak with “The Shebang” on Triple M in the early millennium. I challenge anyone to create better chemistry than Marty Sheargold and Fifi Box.
I feel this article is more evidence as to why we can’t have cool things for cool people. Wilosophy holds great and usually uncensored insight in to some beautiful minds, your source episode is no longer available and I would think this article may be a contributing factor.
Hi Jonathan,
I too am a fan of the Wilosophy podcast and have listened to it for a long time without reporting (or exploiting) it.
I agree that it’s a really difficult balance, and this was a tough decision for me to make.
Ultimately though, I couldn’t ignore the news angle, simply because I have personally been a fan of Wil Anderson since 2001, am a Patreon of his podcasts (which means I pay for the content) and have a solid working relationship with Jules Lund. Ignoring two very prominent and successful media personalities talking about their experiences on, and views about, one of the largest media networks in the country (SCA), especially at a time when that company is already in the media for its alleged issues, would have been showing my bias more than reporting it did.
I agree it is unfortunate the episode is no longer available, and probably have to cop some responsibility for that – however there is definitely more at play here than me reporting what they said. It wasn’t a private Uber conversation or an off-the-record chat. It was two prominent media personalities putting something into the public domain for mutual benefit/ amusement.
I hope we can continue to have nice things, and that Wil doesn’t bow to the outrage brigade.
Thanks,
Vivienne – Mumbrella
Hurts to hear Jules Lund say there is no new talent coming through when you have heaps of young, talented, and extremely motivated people in the industry who are all showing varying levels of incredible success both inside and outside of radio:
Christian Hull
Kristen Henry
Pete Curulli
Ash London
Ryan Jon
Tanya Hennesey
…they’re at the top end of the draft just waiting for a call up, they’re there.