Agreed, needs a third person. I think Craig and Irene realised that quickly as Wade became part of the team within weeks of it starting if I remember rightly.
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Yeah - they need a third wheel just for that outside perspective.
Their social person Triana (sp?) has sounded quite good when they’ve had her, I wonder if they could use her for Wade’s list
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Yep, I was nearly going to start a counter in the first season of how many times Irene said “I agree” 
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I agree.
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Looks like Wade’s also launching something called Podtential which The Quarter Hour will exist within. No details on the website just yet. Podtential.com
It looks like it could be a podcast production company, network or coaching sort of thing? Maybe Wade sees a conflict of interest in doing this and Game Changers and took a step back. Imagine that, CB…
What conflict of interest?
Craig coaching/managing Lu and Jarch either presently or in the past while constantly spruiking them on the podcast.
EDIT: I was wrong about this
Ahhh
Confirming this is incorrect. Craig doesn’t coach or manage Lu and Jarch.
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Could’ve sworn he said he had on one of the episodes when they had started at Triple M. Thanks for the correction 
Listening to the post survey episode and it’s clear that Craig and Irene are going to struggle without Wade. They open by addressing why Survey 8 is being released in January. They have no answers for the audience and Craig repeats himself that he doesn’t know.
Compare that to Wade’s new podcast “The Quarter Hour”. Wade has Lizzie Young (CRA CEO) on to explain the reason.
Turns out that it’s pretty fricken obvious because it’s all amount getting a couple more weeks on December surveyed and having results at the start of the year to help sales teams as people are returning to the obvious.
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I agree that it was weird for Craig and Irene to say they didn’t know why S8 results are being released in January, although I think there was a bit of mayo in their confusion around it.
But Wade’s podcast was a punishing listen. The CRA CEO interview came across like radio propaganda and Wade’s rundown of the numbers was borderline unlistenable. He was just reading the numbers for the first time saying “all pretty consistent” about an every single market
I don’t think we need two podcasts doing the same thing. Both are weak without each other.
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I would love to know the real deal between the split-up.
TBH, Wade’s new podcast could’ve been what GCR can evolve into. More newsy, more frequent podcasts, plus the weekly Saturday bigger podcast.
I wonder why he felt the need to split off?
Mind you, listening to his podcast, Wade is mentioning that his P1’s are ‘free for now’. So he is obviously looking to monetise this new podcast.
But the fact he’s been allowed to share and collaborate on GCR socials, means it’s on some good terms. He even did a shout out to Irene Hulme in Tuesday’s podcast… no mention of Craig Bruce. Maybe tension there?
I think he needs someone else to bounce off. The short format worked well in that it forced the interview to be short, so even if that part wasn’t your cup of tea, it’s over fairly quickly. The ratings run down was a big miss though. It was interesting to hear how an “expert” approaches the vast tables of numbers (which was actually quite similar to my approach) but doing it on the fly made it feel rushed and easy to miss any good insights. For example he said Melbourne was consistent and missed what I think is Fox’s lowest result in some time.
Craig and Irene seem fairly content talking about what they know, which is a fairly select group of metro stations. Wade seems much more interested in radio in general, and while it’s still got a metro Australia focus because that where he is, it talks about expanding the focus to be radio news from around the world. I think it’s just as simple as they want to talk about different things.
He’s mentioned that from the start of next month the P1’s will be a paid tier to get some exclusive access. It sounds like anyone who signs up before then is free for life.
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Haven’t listened to Wade’s one yet, but agreed Game Changers missed him a bit. Though happy to give them a pass this time given it was their first episode back (I know I was rusty when I first came back to work) and it was only a short one to cap the ratings results quickly.
In time I wonder if they will add a third voice, even as a few semi-regular rotating guests. I think the additional voice and perspective really helps the pod.
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One of the main issues with Game Changers is that, by none of them having any current employment in the industry (at least in Oz) they don’t have access to ratings data that could help cement their opinions. Instead, some of their content ends up sounding made up and lacking hard evidence.
I respect that, based on their career histories, they have well-trained ears and can offer educated opinions on how stations and shows are sounding, as well as thoughts around promotions and marketing. However, without being able to get into the engine room and examine the same data that the decision-makers rely on, it’s difficult for the show to have credibility.
I’ve heard them refer to stations and shows as being underperforming, but when you run reports on the target demographics of the station/show, you get a very different story to the one they’re peddling.
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When did Irene leave Nova? Was it around the same time when Paul Jackson left in 2022?
They need Mike Fitzpatrick, he gels really well with CB and Irene but still holds his own views
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I thought it was a good start to the year. The short survey analysis format is something they’ve always been pretty good with on these episodes. I thought it set an interesting agenda for the year as well. I thought the whole “I don’t know” re survey 8 results in January was weird though. Didn’t seem like they tried to get answers either? Couldn’t have been that hard for them?
I do think the longer episodes will suffer without Wade or a third generally. They’ve changed their Instagram bio to “Craig Bruce, Irene Hulme and friends” so it sounds like a rotating roster.
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