“Imagine Maccas not selling Big Macs for seven weeks and expecting everyone to come back when they do.”
So says one radio insider about the decision by several Brisbane radio stations, including 4BC, Nova and KIIS, to shut down regular programs for the year on Friday, extending the Christmas break to as many as seven weeks.
While other stations will remain on air with their main talent line-up for two more weeks, the aforementioned trio of stations have resorted to what my source calls “the B team”.
For average Aussies who get by with just four weeks of holidays a year, radio must seem like a pretty sweet gig — especially since the announcers also get a few weeks off here and there throughout the year.
Except, of course, that the early starts are challenging and the job security sucks. Quite a few radio people — including Nova’s Ash Bradnam, KIIS’s Robin Bailey, Kip Wightman and Corey Oates, and 4BC’s Peter Psaltis — won’t be coming back next year. Some, notably 4BC’s Peter Fegan and Bill McDonald, left the studios forever weeks ago.
So much for the past. What’s coming up?
My spies tell me David Salmon, formerly of Radio TAB, will be hosting 4BC Breakfast next week, as part of a rotating roster since Fegan’s departure. I’m also told that while the Breakfast and Drive shifts will remain local, the Mornings and Afternoon shows will be networked from Sydney until the early New Year, when the new local line-up is due to kick in.
Meanwhile, Spencer Howson is limbering up for a couple of weeks at the scene of his past spectacular success, filling in on the Breakfast show at ABC Brisbane from December 15.
Picture this
The photo at the top of this newsletter was taken in Trevor Reddacliff Place in the Brisbane CBD at a gathering of Breakfast radio shows to celebrate the launch of DAB+ in 2009.
Yes, it was a long time ago and back then it was envisaged that that technoloy would have superseded AM and FM by now. (Hands up who actually has a DAB+ receiver?)
Of those in the photo who are still regularly on the radio, only Stav Davidson is in situ at B105 — having celebrated 20 years on air just recently. Tim Blackwell (then on Nova 106.9 Breakfast) is now on the Nova national Drive show and can be heard as the voiceover guy on Channel Nine’s My Way, Emily Jade O’Keeffe is co-hosting the number one Gold Coast Breakfast program on Hot Tomato, 4BH’s Loretta Ryan is now doing Breakfast on ABC Brisbane, and Jase Hawkins, then known as Lab Rat or Labby on B105, is on Nova 100 in Melbourne.
Spencer Howson, then the king of the airwaves, still dabbles in radio (see above). The photo also shows, among others, Ash Bradnam (also see above), 4KQ’s Gary Clare and Mark Hine (now doing a podcast with Laurel Edwards), Camilla Severi (a Big Brother contestant who was briefly on B105 and Nova), Rebecca Levingston (former ABC), Ian Skippen (then at Triple M), and his former B105 colleagues Jamie Dunn and Ian Calder (then at 4BC), and former Nova host Meshel Laurie, who now has a successful true-crime podcast.
Wake up, Susie!
I mentioned this in a previous post, but the rumours are getting hotter. Following Ash Bradnam’s departure from Nova 106.9, will Nikki Osbourne also leave to be replaced next year by Susie O’Neill?
My sources say a line-up of David “Luttsy” Luterall, Susie O’Neill and Nick “Ducko” Allen-Ducat is firming up, with the Osbourne announcement due to be made as early as Monday.
If so, you read it here first. If not … I’ll correct it (as I always strive to do when I’m wrong).
Update: Having just sacked seven people at KIIS, ARN is now looking for a producer in Brisbane, presumably for the new Craig “Lowie” Low show. Click here if you’re interested in a fast-paced, possible short-lived career.
R.I.P.
Farewell, Bob “Bongo” Starkie from Skyhooks, one of the great Aussie bands who formed the soundtrack to my teens. He died of leukaemia at 73.
Keep following Mister Brisbane for more radio news and views. If you like what you’ve just read, you can buy me a coffee.
Disclosure: Brett Debritz used to work in newspapers and radio and knows things. Many of those things are interesting and true.