Meet the new Mix brekky team: ’The people in this room genuinely like each other’

It’s a new year and Mix 102.3 has a new brekky program. Here’s why the Hayley and Max in the Morning team thinks the show going to be a ratings hit.

Planning on presenting their first show for 2025 from bed, Mix 102.3’s new breakfast duo Hayley Pearson and Max Burford would love to be an overnight sensation.

But will it be a case of “tell ‘em they’re dreaming”?

Whatever happens when the first radio ratings come out in March, Hayley and Max in the Morning is going to be “loose”.

Mix 102.3’s new breakfast co-hosts Hayley Pearson and Max Burford. Picture: Supplied

Its hosts, who both love “going off on tangents”, will be broadcasting from a bed at Mix headquarters in North Adelaide when the show debuts on Monday, January 20.

Pearson and Burford, and their Mix colleague Ryan Burgess, say they have “chemistry” that cannot be faked.

The co-hosts had not met prior to last year when Pearson filled in for Burford’s former co-host Ali Clarke, who was battling breast cancer.

“We loved our audience last year, so we would love all of them to stay around,” Burford says, adding: “Haley and Ali are different people. Fundamentally, it’s going to be different … it will sound different.”

Mix 102.3's Max Burford, Hayley Pearson and Ali Clarke. Picture: Supplied

Mix would regularly win the breakfast ratings back when Mark “Soda” Soderstrom and Jodie Oddy were part of its talent stable.

But the station hasn’t been No. 1 in brekky for a few years.

In the final survey results for 2025, Mix finished fourth in the timeslot on 10.7 share points.

The result, recorded by Burford and Clarke, was well behind Adelaide’s No. 1 breakfast show, Triple M’s Roo, Ditts and Loz which ended the year on 16.1.

Triple M’s Chris Dittmar, Laura O'Callaghan and Mark Ricciuto are No. 1 in the brekky timeslot. Picture: Supplied

Clarke was regularly No. 1 when she hosted brekky on ABC Adelaide, but did not get there after defecting to Mix in 2022.

However, Hayley and Max in the Morning’s anchor Burgess reckons Pearson and Burford will taste success this year.

Mix 102.3’s Ryan Burgess. Picture: Kelly Carpenter

Mix 102.3's Hayley Pearson and Max Burford. Picture: Ben Clark.

Asked what they have that has been missing, Burgess answers “chemistry”.

“I haven’t heard the Triple M show, so I don’t know much about it, but what I can tell you is this; what works in pretty much any radio show, or any market, is good chemistry,” Burgess says, adding: “That’s what I think this show has that we maybe haven’t had for a while, there’s a genuine connection, there’s a genuine chemistry, there’s a genuine friendship, and I think all the people in this room really enjoy each other’s company.”

And as for the persistent rumours that Mix’s local brekky program will be replaced by a syndicated Kyle & Jackie O Show?

Pearson says she doesn’t think Mix would have invested in Hayley and Max in the Morning if the show was going to be short-lived.

Burford agrees: “(We’re here for) a good time and a long time,”

Originally published as Meet the new Mix brekky team: ’The people in this room genuinely like each other’