Media Street: SEN to tinker with breakfast line-up, Mark Allen and David Schwarz could be on move

Popular sports radio duo Mark Allen and David Schwarz could be on the move as their current station looks to revamp its weekend schedule.

Garry Lyon will join Tim Watson in working three days a week with SEN next year. Picture: Jason Edwards

News from 3AW suggests the popular Twilight Zone hosted by Mark Allen and David Schwarz is unlikely to occupy its current 5pm-7pm timeslot on weekends, with a two-hour show hosted by Emily Power expected to replace it.

Could it see a rival network swoop on Allen and Schwarz for a more permanent gig, with the pair capable of bringing healthy sponsorship dollars with them?

Stay tuned for some potential radio movement.

Popular radio duo David Schwarz and Mark Allen could be on the move.

CORNES SET FOR EXPANDED ROLE IN SEN SHAKE-UP

Scott Gullan

SEN is set to tinker with its breakfast line-up next year, reducing the Garry Lyon and Tim Watson show to just three days.

The AFL legends have been gradually decreasing their on-air time recently with Watson cutting back to three days – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – this year.

That meant Lyon and former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley have been opening the week on Monday mornings with Fridays becoming the Kane Cornes and David King show.

The plan for 2023 is to have Lyon fall in line with Watson’s current roster with a different pairing for Monday.

There are a number of theories behind the change with the freshening up of Lyon and Watson, who both have heavy schedules during the football season, seen as a benefit.

Cornes and King have also been regarded as a hit on Fridays which has made the call easier for SEN boss Craig Hutchison.

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Garry Lyon will join Tim Watson in working three days a week with SEN next year.

The make-up of the new Monday team hasn’t been locked away but it’s understood Cornes, who is Hutchison’s go-to man and the hardest working and most polarising figure on the AFL media landscape, will be involved.

This is despite the former Port Adelaide premiership player also being required later in the day on SEN’s new show Sportsday with Gerard Healy which starts at 5.30pm.

Buckley, who also appears on Gerard Whateley’s SEN morning show on Tuesdays, has impressed in his first year in the media while King is a long-time favourite on the sports station, in particular his ‘Monday Means Test’ with Whateley.

Lyon and Watson, who signed a three-year contract extension in November 2020, have been stalwarts at SEN and were a part of the station’s first ever show, Morning Glory along with Billy Brownless, when the station launched in January 2004.

There have been a number of different versions of the breakfast show since with Francis Leach and David Schwarz hosting it for a number of years while Channel 7 commentator Hamish McLachlan was alongside Watson and Lyon when Hutchison took over the ownership and rebooted the station in 2017.

Gerard Whateley will spearhead SEN’s coverage of the men’s T20 World Cup. Picture: AAP Images

WHATELEY TO SPEARHEAD T20 WORLD CUP

Gerard Whateley will spearhead SEN’s coverage of the men’s T20 World Cup in October.

SEN – and its New Zealand affiliate SENZ – are joining forces with the Channel 2 Group, who are the ICC’s exclusive global audio rights holder, for the tournament which begins in Australia on Sunday October 16.

In addition to airing on the SEN and SENZ airwaves, the tournament will also be broadcast across digital stations, the SEN app and the SEN website.

The deal continues to strengthen SEN’s claims that it is the home of sport given the network is also covering the FIFA World Cup 2022 tournament from November 20 and the FIFA Women’s World Cup in July 2023.