Em Rusciano quits 2Day FM breakfast show

THE 2Day FM breakfast host is quitting the show and has revealed the extremely personal reason why she made the decision.

EM Rusciano has announced she’s quitting the 2Day FM breakfast show.

“Casual bombshell alert,” the pregnant radio star said on air this morning to her co-hosts Ed Kavalee and Grant Denyer.

“This Friday will be my last day on-air for 2Day FM breakfast, and I want to make it crystal clear that this is entirely my decision and not one I made lightly.

“The truth is when I found out I was pregnant, I made my mind up on the spot that this year would be my last year of breakfast radio. I had intended to work through until December, but as my pregnancy is progressing I’m finding it increasingly harder to fulfil the requirements of my job. So after talking it through with my family, and my boss Gemma, it was decided that I should finish up.

“I want to thank everyone who listened right from the start, however you consumed our show — be it podcast, Facebook videos or listening to us live, I appreciate it. I still marvel that people actively choose to let me into their lives for a small portion of their day. That’s my favourite part of this job, and something I sometimes forget that’s even happening when I’m sitting in that small studio talking into a stick.’’

The 2Day FM breakfast show’s line-up is getting changed, again.

Ash London will take over from Rusciano for the remainder of the year until a replacement for the show’s 2019 line-up is announced.

Rusciano’s decision to leave 2Day FM is yet another blow for the radio station that’s been struggling ever since Kyle and Jackie O defected to KIIS FM at the end of 2013 and took most of their listeners with them.

Rusciano started hosting the breakfast show with Harley Breen at the start of 2017 after Rove McManus and Sam Frost were dumped from the timeslot.

There were persistent rumours that Breen and Rusciano clashed behind the scenes and the stand-up comedian left the show at the end of the year.

Have You Been Paying Attention? star Ed Kavalee and former Family Feud host Grant Denyer were announced as Rusciano’s new sidekicks at the start of 2018 but the trio has been unable to make a significant increase in the radio ratings so far.

Em Rusciano and Harley Breen replaced Rove McManus and Sam Frost.

The 2Day FM show has just a 3.3 per cent audience share of the Sydney market, a long way behind WSFM’s Jonesy and Amanda which is the number one FM breakfast show in Sydney with a 10.3 per cent share.

Rusciano’s announcement comes after she said on Wil Anderson’s Wilosophy podcast back in May that she was “probably hurtling towards some sort of implosion in the next six months”.

In her interview with the comedian and Triple M host, Rusciano admitted she is “not a team player”, isn’t suited to breakfast radio and predicted she’s “probably hurtling towards some sort of implosion in the next six months”.

Describing herself to Anderson, Rusciano said: “I will go into a situation initially just kind, just listening to everyone. But then, I’m pretty impatient and I’m a perfectionist and I’m a little bit nutty and then when someone I feel is getting in my way or is slowing me down or isn’t listening I just f**king turn and I’m impatient and I’m mean and I’m a bitch and I’m not a team player.

“I’m just not a team player. I’m s**t in a team. I think I’m a good leader, but I’m not very good at listening to other peoples opinions if they’re different to mine.”

Rusciano, who is also a talented singer and comedian, told Anderson that she wasn’t a “s**t person” and was “anxiety ridden”.

“I lay awake at night going through the day of all the times I was horrible and feel awful and either send a late night guilt text or an email the next day saying I’m so sorry,” she said.

The entertainer confessed to Anderson that she didn’t think she was well suited to breakfast radio and that it “brings out the worst aspects of my personality, hence the rumours that go around about me within the industry, and I’m hyper aware of that”.

“I struggle so much with it,” she said about the job. “Containing myself to not get too passionate or fired up about something, not swear, not roll my eyes at every single f**king thing that gets said.

“I don’t want to be part of the numbing and dumbing of society. I think that’s going on enough. And sometimes I struggle with the idea of some of the things we do — it’s so frivolous and unnecessary and flippant.”

Em Rusciano is expecting her third child.

Rusciano went on to say that she was hit really hard when Breen decided to walk away from the breakfast show at the end of 2017 after just one year on air with her. And she made it clear she didn’t get to hand-pick Breen’s replacements.

“Then, like Ed [Kavalee] and Grant [Denyer] were, like, they were put in the show,” she said.

“And I, all of a sudden, got two co-hosts that I’d never really met or spoken to, and then I’m expected to have this instant chemistry with. And it was just hectic. And it was The Em Rusciano Radio Show. It was my show, and all of a sudden Ed’s anchoring, the show’s called The 2Day FM Breakfast Show, like I took all these big ego hits.”

Rusciano told Anderson she would have preferred to have been able to choose her team members, including producers, herself.

“I often get put together with people I would never pick to work with, just because of my personality type,” she said on Wilosophy.

“I think radio would be a different ball game for me if I could just sell the show. So I pay all the staff. And I tried to fight them [2Day FM] on this when they signed me. I’m like, ‘please let me produce the show and give me this much money and I’ll give you a finished product every day’. But they wouldn’t do it because they want some control in the show.”