The Herald Sun article didn’t mention anything about Nightline. So this comes as a shock.
It probably also means Rex Hunt’s Footy Nightline (broadcast after Friday and Saturday night AFL matches) won’t return next year.
Was just thinking yesterday in response to this post that Macquarie would have better luck ditching Nightline if they wanted to save money. A sad state of affairs.
3AW operations director Stephen Beers said he and Brady had been discussing for several months about reducing Brady’s workload, and decided the AFL grand final weekend was the right time.
“When we looked around [for a new presenter] John seemed the right choice,” Beers said.
“He is a massive AFL fan, does Offsiders [on ABC] every Sunday and is down in Melbourne every week. He knows our audience backwards. It’s not a Melbourne vs Sydney show – it’s a true national.”
Of course, the fact that he already occupied the same timeslot in Sydney and could be relayed at the flick of a switch was sheer coincidence
Including quotes from Brady and Stanley.
As a Sydneysider I’ve always felt there was a unique and distinct style and tone to Melbourne talk radio. Sydney AM radio stations have tried to emulate that style with little success. It seems the audience in that city is more accustomed to the hard hitting, table thumping, bombastic broadcasters who have ruled our airwaves for decades- the likes of Hadley, Jones, Zemanek, Casey. It has been demonstrated time and again that what works in Sydney, won’t necessarily work in Melbourne.
I like John Stanley and his kind and gentle style of broadcasting but still feel this is a big loss for Melbourne radio listeners. I’m not sure they’re going to overwhelmingly embrace the newsier, agenda driven format of a night program when they’re so accustomed to the “parish pump” style of broadcasting 3AW is renowned for in certain slots, even if Macquarie has eased them into it.
I’d love to see some competition thrown at Macquarie. The dominance of 3AW could be vulnerable now if an investor was willing to establish an alternative commercial talk station with some key big name signings. If they managed to lure Melbourne identities like Neil Mitchell, Red Symonds, Jon Faine and filled some other slots with under-utilised talent from AW, such as Heidi Murphy, Kate Stevenson, Simon Owens and Grubby and Dee Dee, they’d stand a good chance of toppling 3AW.
They did try it when Bruce Mansfield was sent off the air (well, it was to 3AK which was probably as good as being off-air) and Nightline was hosted by Derryn Hinch for a year. It didn’t really click and a year later it was deemed that Bruce had served his “punishment” for his cash-for-comment “crimes” and 3AW had him and Phil back for Nightline.
It looks like Sydney finally won. Melbourne is now part of Sydney’s southern suburbs.
3AW - Harbour City Radio.
They better be careful, they don’t want it to become another CBC
Seems the right choice to save money. Was Beersy given any budget to find a replacement or a directive from Lang and the dept of long lunches (the board) in Sydney?
National because Macquarie wanted it. Come on Melbourne, inflict a Fairfax/HSV-7 style ratings crash on this regretful decision.
No more Queenie from Bayswater and the many other regulars. Certainly no more digital radios to elderly listeners.
Even the actor/Toby from Newport would be sad. This stinks as much as the profanity he talked of.
Even Keith McGowan was offended by it. And a couple of the Indian cleaners have resigned.
As posted in Today thread, Deborah Knight is filling in for Ross Greenwood on Money News this week.
Let’s hope Peter Overton doesn’t need to take a day off this week to pick up a knighthood or Nobel Peace Prize. Debbie Everywhere manages to spread herself thin across Nine and 2GB programs but I’m not sure she’ll be able to present the news on Nine for an hour while covering for Greenwood. Ross does manage to pop up on Nine’s 6pm news for live crosses from the roof of 2GB’s Saunders Street digs on occasion during the course of his radio show.
I wonder the same in Melbourne on Monday evenings, how does Gerard Healy get from hosting Sports Day at 6pm to 8pm (regionally it goes until 8pm) to hosting On The Couch on Fox Footy at 8:30pm so quick.
Is Steve Price still doing The Project on Monday? Similar for him doing The Project 6:30pm to 7:30pm and then he was on air on radio from 8pm when he was doing Nights.
Yes Steve Price still does The Project on Mondays, I guess he uses the 3AW studios on Monday afternoons?
Good question. Was he using 3AW studios when he was doing nights? That would have only been half an hour to get from ATV10 in South Yarra to 3AW on Spencer St.
I also often wondered what studio Andrew Bolt used to join Steve Price from given he was hosting The Bolt Report as well. Did they use the same studio in Melbourne? In News Corp/Sky News Melbourne office maybe? Or did Andrew Bolt also do a mad dash from News Corp/Sky News to 3AW?
Healy leaves Sports Day at 7pm on Mondays to go Fox Footy studios at Southbank, to prepare to host On The Couch at 8.30pm.
As I understand it, yes. Mondays from Melbourne, Tuesday-Thursday from Sydney
In the word of Anthony Albanese of his arch rival Max Moore Wilton resigning from Sydney Airport on Singo’s sale:
Good.