The most intimidating stars on FM radio

CRAIG Bruce has worked with most of the biggest names in Australian FM radio, including Kyle Sandilands and Hamish and Andy. But who are the most intimidating?

KYLE and Jackie O, Hamish and Andy, Marty Sheargold ... Craig Bruce has worked with most of the biggest names in FM radio.

As the former Head of Content at Southern Cross Austereo, Bruce was responsible for getting some of Australia’s best talent on radio during a career spanning more than 25 years.

But some “talent” were harder, or should we say scarier, to work with than others.

Writing for news.com.au, the radio veteran reveals the three most intimidating on air personalities he’s had the pleasure of working with over the years:

Let me just say that every truly successful radio host that I know is, and should be, intimidating in their own sweet way. The creative tension that exists between the needs of the station and the vision of the performer is where the challenge lies for every content director.

Craig Bruce has been hailed as “one of the most thoughtful creatives I have worked with,” by Hamish and Andy’s Executive Producer, Sam Cavanagh.

As content director, there are days that can feel like you’ve just had five years taken off your life expectancy.

It can be a white knuckle ride that’s for sure, but the results when you hear a performer or show deliver a content piece that has genuinely connected in a way that you could never have believed possible makes it all worthwhile.

Here’s my top three, in no particular order.

KYLE SANDILANDS (KIIS 106.5 SYDNEY)

Apart from anything, the bloke is physically intimidating. Six foot something, he walks into the building like he’s wearing an invisible Darth Vader suit, and when things aren’t going well he has a death stare that can rival anything you’ve seen on Bold and the Beautiful.

Here’s the thing, Kyle has always had a laser-like focus on what the show needs to sound like and for everyone working in and around the show, you simply have to bring your A-game everyday or you’ll know about it pretty quickly and directly from him.

By the way, Jackie has the same attitude towards the show, in fact she has become the content driver over the last few years, but her approach is a little more diplomatic when she doesn’t get the result she’s looking for.

Kyle is a radio guy, through and through. He not only thinks he knows better than his content director, on most occasions he actually does. That can make for a tough day at the office when the needs of the station aren’t in line with Kyle’s vision for the show.

In my experience, he rarely loses those arguments.

Then there’s the other side of Kyle which is he can be great fun to hang out with. Get him on a good day after a good show or solid survey result (which is most of them) and he’s one of radio’s great raconteurs.

That honesty you hear from Kyle on the air then spills into conversations about the people he’s worked with who were hopeless and the conga line of bosses who had no clue (I’m sure I’m probably at the front of that line by the way).

Intimidation factor: 9/10

Is he worth the effort? Check the ratings.

Kyle Sandilands hosts the Kiis FM breakfast show in Sydney alongside Jackie O.

MATT TILLEY (KIIS 101.1 MELBOURNE):

Matt would be surprised to see his name on this list. The reason he’s on it is because he’s one of the smartest radio guys I’ve met. He was well trained at a young age by a brilliant content director and mentor for many, Brian Ford, but he was also a very good student.

Matt is intimidating not because of any turned-over-tables or studio walkouts. The toys would rarely, if ever, come out of the cot with Matt. It was more about his questioning of what we were doing and the very specific answers he needed to feel satisfied that we were on the right track.

Good luck giving him a half-arsed answer or worse still, making shit up and hoping he didn’t notice.

I always felt like I was learning more from Matt in our show feedback sessions than anything I could teach him.

Matt has the same radio sensibilities as Kyle. His ear for content and doing ‘the right thing’ was always on the money. He expected his content director and the people around him to think as deeply as he did about the show. There was no room for passengers on the production team.

Then there’s the other side of Matt. He was also the heart and soul of Fox FM for a decade or more. He was the guy organising ‘crazy hat’ days or pranking the executive chairman by jumping out of a bin and nearly giving the poor bloke a heart attack. Get him away from work for a coffee and a chat about footy and there’s none better.

Intimidation factor: 8.5/10

What do you need to know to be his next radio boss? Um … just know your shit.

Matt Tilley hosts the Kiis FM breakfast show in Melbourne alongside Meshel Laurie.

EM RUSCIANO

Right upfront, Em is a friend and I am one of her biggest fans.

The reason she is on this list will surprise a few people, given she hasn’t done fulltime breakfast radio for quite a few years now.

Em got her first job on radio hosting a breakfast show in Perth when she was a young mother in her early 20s. She was not only new to the industry but was dealing with the challenges of juggling a very busy personal life.

Em has one of the best content radars of anyone I’ve worked with. This is obvious in the work she’s doing away from broadcast radio — on stage in her one woman show, online through her social channels which have some of the most engaged audiences in the country, her superbly written articles that appear on news.com.au, her number one podcast Deeply Shallow and I’m sure coming soon whatever she does on TV and God knows what else.

Em was intimidating because radio couldn’t satisfy that outlet for her creativity that she has now mastered across so many other platforms. We tried to put her in a ‘radio box’ and get her to play by radios rules rather than give her the freedom to express herself like she can now.

My bad.

I hope she comes back to the industry. I could imagine her doing a prime time radio show on her terms in Sydney or Melbourne that would be very, very successful. The industry needs strong, powerful voices like hers.

Intimidation factor: On her day she was a 9/10.

Should she be back on the radio? Ask her three trillion followers.

Em Rusciano will soon be performing at the Adelaide Fringe Festival and Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Craig Bruce now works as a talent coach and radio consultant. You can check out his website here.