Where to next For 2DayFM As Breakfast Slot Tanks?

Yesterday’s FM radio ratings showed that Sydney listeners are tuning out of 2DayFm’s breakfast hosts Dan and Maz.

The GfK radio ratings survey revealed 2DayFM breakfast hosts’ Dan and Maz had dropped 0.4 per cent, to 2.4 per cent of morning radio listeners. This viewership is equal to ABCFM and only Sky Sports Radio trails behind them in the morning time slot.

Despite the poor ratings and, to the duo’s credit, what is a competent show, Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) is still confident about the pair. Head of content at SCA, Craig Bruce told News Corp: “No other network has played the long game in radio like SCA.”

“We have had a very good track record over many years of finding and developing talent for the long term. Dan and Maz absolutely fit this bill.”

Maz Compton and Dan Debuf replaced Kyle and Jackie O earlier this year. Back in January, B&T sat down with the pair to discuss the challenges they would face filling in the gapping hole left by Kyle and Jackie O.

Maz said, “It’s competition. They’re around.” Dan added that competition was simply a part of breakfast radio.

Fusion Strategy’s media analyst Steve Allen, told news.com.au, “What everyone forgets is that Kyle and Jackie O (who hosted the 2Day FM breakfast show from 2005 — 2013 before switching to Kiis FM) were not a hit in their early surveys.”

“They weren’t looking at Dan and Maz’s levels of audience share but nevertheless they weren’t an overnight success, they were built into one.”

Adding to the station’s woes is the ongoing saga surrounding 2012’s prank call that led to the suicide of a British nurse. The incident is still under investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) who have threatened to pull Austereo’s license.

Speaking to B&T in March , former Today breakfast presenter Jules Lund said that listeners follow talent rather than showing loyalty to one channel. “Kyle and Jackie had earned that audience and when they left the audience went with them. They’d worked their arses off for 10 years for that and there’s nothing we or (Today) management could have done,” said Lund.

“We never inherited Kyle’s and Jackie’s audience. They left with them and were now going up against us.”

It took ten years for Kyle and Jackie O to build up their audience, and they weren’t such a hit in the early years. Maybe we shouldn’t write off Dan and Maz just yet.

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