SCA bosses tell rivals: ‘If Kyle and Jackie O can boost ratings why can’t Hamish and Andy’
Dobson
Southern Cross Austereo’s (SCA) bosses have fired back at rivals Australian Radio Network (ARN) and their claims the return of Hamish and Andy, to Drive in the coming weeks, will be no “silver bullet” arguing they can have the same effect as Kyle and Jackie O did for KiisFM in Sydney.
Speaking to Mumbrella after today’s ratings release SCA’s content heads Guy Dobson and Craig Bruce touted the strong results for its Triple M network, but also acknowledged the HitFM stations continue to struggle, with its much promoted Sydney breakfast duo of Dan & Maz slumping from 2.8 to just 2.4 per cent audience share.
“We were very disappointed with the Sydney result today,” Guy Dobson, chief content officer told Mumbrella. “It doesn’t sound like a 2.8 and its not polling (internally) at a 2.8 either.
And this article sums up why the hit network is a failure.
Reminds me of the 2 old blokes in the muppets!
Thats funny. Dobson and Bruce say that H&A in drive will lift the station share and then later in the article come out with this
Asked how much of the rise was on the back of the return of the AFL and NRL sporting seasons Bruce said: “A little (is sport) but at the end of the day any share improvement on any format is based on breakfast”
Time for a bex and a good lie down chaps
He knows better than that surely. For H&A to impact the Sydney 10+ ratings from the drive slot they will have to get a share number near 40. They are good, but that’s not going to happen.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if SCA’s secret strategy was to put Hamish and Andy into national Breakfast rather than Drive?
That might work but I’d be amazed if Hamish and Andy wanted to get up at four in the morning.Are radio audiences staying stable as iPod connectivity increase in cars? Or are they all fighting over a smaller pie. The car is the only time I ever listen to the radio.
I’m sure H and A would get up early if SCA sweetened the pot. It makes commercial sense. You make savings by networking; you have an A-list breakfast show in each market; and you have the pull of being able to attract the best guests and national sponsors. Given that the young audience are generally not concerned about parish-pump issues, you’d need only minimal local “windows” — just news, weather and, maybe, traffic. As much as I love the local feel of radio, networked breakfast is inevitable on commercial FM; somebody’s just got to blink first. H and A are Austereo’s best bet.
Dobbo, you know what would be a silver bullet? Bringing back Get This. It has sizzle, traction, cut-through, likability, familiarity, dangle, carrot-wave. All the good stuff.
As a former employee of SCA, I can speak on behalf of hundreds who are loving seeing these guys scramble and choke in their own poo as they continue to humiliate themselves with the world watching. Some of their business strategies in relation to ‘maintaing the best talent’ was floored and self indulgent… you can only get told “well we cant do anymore than that, but you are working at the number 1 station in Sydney” so many times before you leave. And look what happens to accompany that cant retain the best staff. Let this be a lesson to SCA, when you do not retain and reward the best you stop being the best. As for your breakfast show, they sound like local Goldcoast heroes, or better yet 96.1 back in 2002… what deaf clown put the fate of a sinking ship on Dan an Maz’ shoulders and then built them up to belive they could do it. [Edited by Mumbrella]
I would switch away from Kyle and Jackie O to a national Hamish and Andy at breakfast networked from Melbourne in a heartbeat. They would get a huge audience.