Rita Panahi: 3AW’s drive disaster an exercise in clueless management

Never mind the notion “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, the genius strategy at 3AW appears to be “if it ain’t broke, then smash it with a sledgehammer until it’s shattered into a thousand useless pieces”.

Let me start by disclosing my friendship with Diane “Dee Dee” Dunleavy.

Now, let’s get down to the business of own goals, brand damage and clueless management at radio station 3AW which seem determined to irritate its once rusted-on audience.

Never mind the notion “if it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it”, the genius strategy at 3AW appears to be “if it ain’t broke, then smash it with a sledgehammer until it’s shattered into a thousand useless pieces”.

Why would any radio station, particularly one long accused of being a boys club, sack a popular female host who was rating number one in her hotly contested timeslot?

That ill-considered decision, and others, in June last year looks all the more foolish now that the first radio ratings survey of 2024 has been released.

Jacqui Felgate has overseen a sharp drop in listeners to 3AW’s drive timeslot.

For reasons few listeners can comprehend, the brains trust at 3AW axed Dunleavy during a reshuffle at the station last year that saw Jacqui Felgate become the drive host, while Tom Elliott moved from drive to mornings and Tony Moclair went from overnight to afternoon.

But while Elliott has thus far held up Neil Mitchell’s strong ratings, and even improved them marginally in the latest ratings survey released on Thursday, the drive timeslot is in free fall.

It’s not surprising that the woman who scolded Victorians for protesting against draconian Covid-era policies and was so enamoured with Brett “lockdowns” Sutton that she promoted mugs featuring his face is proving to be a ratings disaster in the crucial drive timeslot.

As reported in the Herald Sun, Felgate has plummeted to 8.2 per cent, recording the worst ratings result for the 3AW timeslot in more than a decade.

It beggars belief that anyone with a modicum of sense, or editorial judgement, would get rid of a stalwart of Melbourne radio in Dunleavy who was winning her timeslot and winning it well.

In news that will surprise no one in the industry, a number of 3AW insiders said the daft decisions were coming from Sydney.