Music for breakfast: Why 2Day FM has finally called it a day on talent-fronted mornings
When do you admit defeat? How hard do you fight for something that simply isn’t working? After six shows in five years, 2Day FM in Sydney has called it a day on talent-fronted breakfast radio. Just hours after making the tough call public, Hit Network’s Gemma Fordham talks to Mumbrella’s Vivienne Kelly about what happens next with the embattled broadcaster.
Kyle Sandilands. Jackie ‘O’ Henderson. Jules Lund. Merrick Watts. Sophie Monk. Mel B. Dan Debuf. Maz Compton. Rove McManus. Sam Frost. Em Rusciano. Harley Breen. Ed Kavalee. Grant Denyer. Ash London. Who is your favourite 2Day FM breakfast host from the past six years?
Despite there being 15 to choose from, the Hit Network’s head of content Gemma Fordham won’t be drawn on her top pick. And despite the churn and burn of on-air talent, and what she knows some will paint as an ongoing failure of 2Day FM’s strategy in the key market of Sydney, she throws her weight behind every step, and misstep, they’ve made along the way to get to where they are now.
Fordham: It hasn’t worked
“Look, we know how it goes. We know it’s like ‘Here we go, here’s show number four, here’s show number five’, but you know, every time we’ve done that, we’ve done it with the best of intentions of trying to connect further with Sydney. And every time we’ve done it, we’ve put in wonderfully talented people, and it hasn’t worked,” she says just hours after announcing 2Day FM is pivoting to a music-based breakfast program from Monday.
2Day having a crack at Spotify…. alright guys keep dreaming!
So I guess Gemma’s role will change from the head of content to music director?
Sounds perfectly read from a prep sheet supplied by marketing, approved by Grant who is pulling all the content strings.
If this doesn’t work they’ll say that people want personalities. At no point will they ever admit that the music is the problem because that would mean taking responsibility.
That actually sounds appealing. Most breakfast radio annoys me, because they just keep yammering at me, and I get fed up with tedious phone-ins about what someone’s kids threw up in their car seat. I end up punching the radio buttons until I hear music, and then when they interrupt the music with more yammering, punch the buttons again until I hear music.
So what would Gemma call the smoothfm 95.3fm More Music Breakfast show which has been on the air on FM since 2012?
I think the only “gap” in the Sydney market is in Gemma’s research..
Not sure how this is going to go against things like spotify and podcasting!