‘Running our own race’: Nova’s breakfast show team Jase and Lauren talk radio war ratings win

Nova’s Jase and Lauren shot to the top of the breakfast show ratings less than a year after being axed from KIIS FM. Now, Jase shares the secret to their success — a tact Kyle and Jake O failed to deliver.

Lauren Phillips and Jase Hawkins have claimed the number 1 breakfast show rating with their real — not rude — approach, unlike their rivals at KIIS FM. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Nova radio host Jase Hawkins has revealed he had to turn off the Kyle & Jackie O Show because its content was too offensive for his young kids.

Hawkins and Lauren Phillips were axed from KIIS FM breakfast late last year to make way for Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson’s move into Melbourne.

They were quickly hired by Nova FM and last week hit number 1 in the highly competitive breakfast radio market.

Hawkins said he had steered clear of the ‘radio wars’ and the Sandilands vortex, and was not listening to his frenemy’s show.

“Have I seen him in Melbourne – no,” he said.

“I was in the car the other day, it was the weekend and their best (Kyle & Jackie O’s) of was on and I just turned it off straight away.

“I had kids in the car on the way to sport and in the first 20 seconds it was stuff I did not want my kids to hear, so whether I wanted to listen to them or not, I couldn’t.”

Jase Hawkins said he was “very emotional” when ratings came through. Picture: Supplied

Being real not rude and focusing on their audience rather than competing with the antics of radio show ponies has been the key to success for Nova’s Jase & Lauren Show.

“I was very emotional when the ratings came through,” Hawkins said.

“I think for a long time I always felt we weren’t really taken serious in this market because we are not big flashy TV celebrity names or former footballers or big high profile celebrities.

“I just always felt like we were seen as small fish in a big pond and people did not really look at us as serious contenders, so it finally felt like we were justified to be here.

“You are not going to see me at big swanky events. You will see me down at the local RSL going for a beer or down at the basketball with the kids.

“I am not that big showy lifestyle, so that is why I always felt like a little bit of an outcast when it comes to the big radio stars in Melbourne.”

For Hawkins and Phillips, when they joined Nova in January they resolved to stick true to the local and real format that had seen them grow their show to number 2 FM while at KIIS.

They haven’t been tempted to dirty up their content or get grubby in Melbourne’s ferocious battle of breakfast radio.

“I am not getting caught up in this fight,” Hawkins said.

“We are just running our own race. I want to worry about what we are doing. We are not over thinking things, we are not faking things. My thing is that it has to be 100 per cent real.

“I don’t know what Lauren is going to talk about, she does not know what I am going to talk about, it has to be things that are happening in our lives, that are happening in our listeners’ lives, that people actually give a sh*t about.

“We are just focusing on that and it seems to be working.”

Keeping conversation ‘100 per cent real’ was the key to Jase and Lauren’s 2024 success. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Phillips said the heart of their show was mateship.

“Three mates having a good time; that is what our show was about from the beginning and we stuck with it and it is nice to know people are enjoying it,” she said.

“Here’s the rock star life; we have just gone number one and what am I doing? I am going home to a house full of gastro,” Hawkins said.

“That is my weekend.”

While the Jase & Lauren Show is notable for its warmth, relatability and familiarity, the Kyle & Jackie O Show is on a spin cycle of lurid comments and disgusting language.

The profanity-littered Kyle and Jackie O Show couldn’t top the works of Jase and Lauren on Nova. Picture: Facebook

Saturday Herald Sun columnist Steve Price took umbrage at a recent segment where female members of the team recorded themselves peeing and Sandilands made crass comments while listening to the audio.

Price described it a “disgusting, woman shaming act of depravity” and “demeaning for the females.”

Sandilands defended the game, saying the peeing stunt was an idea that the show’s female producers came up with and that it first aired with the male members of the team recording themselves urinating.

He also called Price “a demented old loon” and “an old prick” and referred to Price getting busted for mid-range drink driving in Sydney in 2007.

“(It was) planned by the women who run the show, not planned by me, not planned by Jackie, planned by the girls,” Sandilands said on his show on Monday.

“Steve Price without any checking, without any facts, has gone on the rampage saying I am a misogynist that forces my female staff to do uncomfortable things on the radio, which is far from the truth.

“If you don’t like the segment that is fine by me.

“This is the bit that got me ‘it was (a) disgusting woman shaming act of depravity’ – mind you, organised by the women.

“Why would an old prick like him tell women what they can and can’t like?”