Opinion: Nova’s ‘Kate, Tim and Marty’ is the best show on radio

OPINION: Nova’s Kate, Tim and Marty aren’t doing anything revolutionary on air, but what they do is so bloody funny that you can’t help but love them.

Kate with the alleged golf-course pooper (sorry, in-joke).

OPINION: Nova’s Kate, Tim and Marty aren’t doing anything revolutionary on air.

They chat about a few weird news stories from around the world, they play the odd game or two and they take calls from listeners. And that’s it.

It’s basic radio, but it’s so well done and it’s so bloody funny that together, the former soap star, self-confessed radio nerd and the comedy veteran have risen to be the number one FM drive show in the country.

Here’s why they’re easily the best show on radio at the moment:

CHEMISTRY:

“You can always fix content, but you can’t fix chemistry.”

That’s a pearl of radio wisdom from Marty Sheargold, who believes the trio’s chemistry is the main reason for their rise to the top.

Fans of the show, myself included, revel in the non-stop banter between the Nova hosts, in particular how the boys relentlessly pick on Summer Bay’s sweetheart, Kate Ritchie.

“I think she had the reputation of being the girl-next-door when she was on Home and Away,” said Marty of his famous co-host. “And my experience is, that’s true if the girl-next-door’s MENTAL”.

In response to the daily jibes, Kate often tells the guys on air that she “honestly hates” them, but does she actually feel like that in real life?

“I truly love the guys,” she said, “But they’ll never come to my house and swim in my pool and they’ll never sit on my fabric couch and my husband Stu will never make them pizzas.

“As much as I love them, I think it’s very important not to blur the lines.”

The team’s chemistry is even more remarkable given that the hosts aren’t usually in the same studio each day.

Marty broadcasts from Nova in Melbourne with Kate and Tim side by side in the Sydney studio.

“When food gets delivered to their studio it annoys me,” said Marty.

“I always ring Elle Conwell, our producer, and say, ‘How come those guys have got pizza and I don’t have pizza? Do you think that’s fair? Is it fair that I have to watch the guys eat an Aussie on Skype?’”

BAD LISTENERS COP IT ON AIR:

There aren’t too many shows on air that are willing to mock their listeners ... well, with the microphones on at least.

Yet if a caller on Kate, Tim and Marty (KTM) stumbles when telling a story or doesn’t get to the point quickly, they are mercilessly mocked by the Nova hosts.

“If you’re a listener, you’d be thinking this caller is awful too,” said Marty. “So let’s not pretend it’s not, lets just say it’s awful.

“I can’t tell you how disappointed I am in the listeners ... every single day,” he said laughing.

According to Tim Blackwell, their treatment of “disappointing” listeners is one of the strongest features of the show.

“That’s the thing that people often quote back to me,” he said.

“We’re so far down the road with it now that if there’s a bad caller, people start tweeting into the show saying, ‘I can’t believe you didn’t get rid of that guy quicker’.

“Even Kate says to me when the mic’s are off, ‘You should have got rid of him.’ It’s become a part of the show.”

BASIC CONTENT DONE WELL:

In a radio environment where bosses are always pushing for ‘next level’ content, KTM seem to be the odd ones out.

They don’t do celebrity interviews. They don’t do gotcha calls or sketches and they don’t do elaborate stunts. They have a narrow range of content that they execute better than anyone else on air.

“We don’t have to be a show that talks to the latest MasterChef evictee,” said Marty.

“That’s not us. No one wants that on the drive home, I don’t reckon. And I feel like by the time we’re on air you would have heard that person being interviewed so many times on radio that day already and then we’d have to have a conversation as a team about, ‘What’s our angle?’

“Once the word ‘angle’ is used in a meeting, the meeting’s over in my opinion. Because if you can’t sustain a two-minute conversation without an angle or someone wearing a wig or a dress, there’s no point doing it. That’s awful.”

What they do on air is basic, it’s easy to follow and most importantly, it’s funny.

IN-JOKES:

If you’re a new listener, you might be confused by some of the seemingly random comments that Kate, Tim and Marty spurt out throughout the show.

From “You right?” to “Go Gators!” to wisecracks from the boys (and listeners) about Kate’s massive mobile phone ... this is a show with plenty of in-jokes.

And whereas most radio shows bend over backwards to be inclusive of all listeners, new or old, KTM deliver their in-jokes without explanation, so you’d better get on board or else.

At first you’ll have that awkward feeling where you don’t really understand why everyone else is laughing. But if you listen to just a few shows, you’ll quickly get in on the jokes to the point you’ll anticipate them with a smile before they even arrive.

THE BEST IN THE BIZ:

Each of the hosts bring a unique element to the show, but as the anchor, Tim Blackwell really holds it all together on air.

It’s the little things he does from behind the panel which add that little bit extra to each break.

“I’ve been lucky enough to work with who I consider to be the two best anchors in the country, Tim Blackwell and Byron Cooke,” said Marty.

“Their ability to get you out of a break really makes the people around them look better than what they probably are.

“It’s one thing to start a break by saying, ‘It’s 4.36pm and that was the new one from Ed Sheeran’. But it’s another thing to actually find that moment when you can get a group of people out of a conversation.”

When Kate or Marty are talking on air, Tim has a knack of firing off the perfect sound effect when his co-hosts are mid-sentence and it’s so seamless that it makes you think it must have been rehearsed before the show.

“The best bit of advice I ever got was from Ugly Phil (O’Neil),” said Tim.

“He said to me when I was really young, ‘Be so prepared that you can be as loose as you want on air. You don’t want to be loose because you’re stressed out or loose because you’re unplanned, but you want to be loose and be able to have fun because you know that you’re so planned’.”

Speaking of the best in the business, there’s another team member who is rarely seen that is just as responsible for the tone of the show as the hosts themselves.

“Everyone brings their own strengths and all of those strengths are wrangled and pieced together by our executive producer, Elle Conwell,” said Marty.

“Behind the scenes she’s like a duck just paddling away furiously under the water but seemingly gliding over the crystal-clear surface that is 4-6pm. She really is the backbone.”

OK, NOW FOR SOME BALANCE:

Clearly, this has been an incredibly positive article about Kate, Tim and Marty so I feel I should say something negative just for a bit of balance. To be honest I can’t think of anything, so instead I’ve decided just to include some embarrassing photos of the team in an attempt to bring them back down to earth:

And there are so many Kate photos to choose from so we’ll just offer all these up for your enjoyment.