Breakfast radio shows across regional Queensland axed in massive shake up
In a massive loss for broadcasting in regional Queensland, the Hit Network has announced it is axing a host of breakfast shows across the state
Confidential
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A host of Queensland’s regional breakfast radio shows have been axed in a massive shake up of the Hit Network.
Southern Cross Austereo announced on Thursday that they would syndicate one breakfast show per state to most regional stations across Queensland, NSW, Victoria, and South Australia.
From Monday, the Cliffo & Gabi breakfast show with Guy Clifton and Gabi Elgood will now be heard across Queensland’s regions, broadcast from Hit103.1 in Townsville.
The Gold Coast breakfast show featuring Bianca Dye, Dan Anstey and Ben Hannant has survived the cuts and will continue unchanged.
It is understood regional presenters were informed of their redundancies in meetings on Thursday morning, although SCA wouldn’t confirm how many employees had lost their jobs or which breakfast shows had been cut.
Outside Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Townsville, the Hit Network has 13 stations across regional Queensland including in Cairns, Toowoomba and the Fraser Coast.
Sunshine Coast breakfast host BarRat, who broadcasts on 91.9 Sea FM alongside former Married at First Sight star Heidi Latcham and is remaining on air, wrote to Instagram late today: “To all the breakfast shows that just got axed at SCA, mates, past co-workers and people slogging their guts out, thinking of you all, it sucks balls.”
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SCA Chief Content Officer, Dave Cameron, said in a statement that the new programming model came about due to “the challenges presented by the COVID-19 environment”.
“We are actively looking for redeployment opportunities for some of these roles, however, sadly some of our people will be leaving SCA,” he said.
“The new model brings listeners quality state breakfast shows for Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia that deliver on our new content strategy of fun, entertaining breakfast shows overlaying our broader pop music format nationally.”
Cameron said stablemates Triple M would continue to “remain dedicated to everything local” by broadcasting existing breakfast shows across its 38 regional stations.
The changes bring the rest of the country in line with Western Australia, who had already adopted the new programming model.
It comes a week after Channel 10 announced Queensland would lose its local news bulletin in a streamlining of their programming.
