Radio shake-up: Hamish & Andy coming back to drive, Dan & Maz to take over 2Day FM breakfast

UPDATE: Hamish & Andy have a new gig at 2Day FM, but are their rivals at KIIS worried? We find out.

IT’S a case of radio tetris today, with two shows being shifted and one vanishing altogether.

After weeks of speculation, Southern Cross Austereo today announced that from July next year Hamish and Andy will return to the lucrative national drive timeslot (4pm — 6pm) that they dominated so convincingly for five years until 2010.

As part of the shake-up, the struggling 2Day FM breakfast show hosted by Sophie Monk, Jules Lund and Merrick Watts will finally be laid to rest at the end of the year.

It’s all over for the 2Day FM breakfast show hosted by Merrick Watts, Sophie Monk and Jules Lund.

They’ll be replaced in January by Dan Debuf and Maz Compton, who currently host the national drive show on the network.

Jules Lund, who is reportedly contracted to SCA until the end of 2015, will host the national drive show with an unnamed co-host until Hamish and Andy take over halfway through 2015.

So why the delay?

“We are taking an actual break,” said Hamish to news.com.au.

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“We’ve made the decision to not officially commit to another TV show next year ... but we just haven’t had a bit of time off in a very long time. Between doing radio and TV for the last few years we just wanted a bit of space and to work on a few other things that we’ve got bubbling along that may or may not amount to anything.”

Maz Compton and Dan Debuf will host the new 2Day FM brekky show next year.

The radio duo wouldn’t say how long their new contract with Southern Cross Austereo is but Andy did suggest that he’s keen to tweak the show slightly before they kick things off in July.

“I’ve put in an application to have it changed to Andy and Hamish,” he joked.

Hamish and Andy quit the drive show in 2010 after five years, during which they broadcast from Afghanistan, travelled around Australia in ‘Caravans of Courage’ and even crossed the Bass strait in a tall ship.

But they’re sure they’ll be able to come up with new ideas that can top what they’ve achieved in the past.

“At the end of every year I always felt like we were out of ideas,” said Hamish.

“And then by the sheer process of turning the mic’s on and turning up each day and having a chat with each other, funny things just seem to arise, mostly driven by our listeners.

“You can’t write out five years of ideas on paper now but that’s what we love about radio, that once you start doing it adventures arise and it’s a great format that you’re able to explore those adventures in.”

In response to today’s announcement about Hamish and Andy moving to drive and Dan and Maz taking over the 2Day FM breakfast show, the national content director from a rival radio network came out swinging.

ARN’s Duncan Campbell, who looks after Kyle and Jackie O on Kiis FM and Jonesy and Amanda on WSFM, said in a statement to news.com.au that the changes at SCA are “unlikely to dramatically lift the share of the entire Today network, particularly in Sydney where they’ve failed to launch a successful replacement for Kyle and Jackie O”.

There are strong rumours that ARN might try and get the jump on SCA by launching a new national drive show of their own in January next year.

Will Dan and Maz be able to close the gap on Kyle and Jackie O?