The head of content at Southern Cross Austereo’s Hit Network has rubbished talk about plans for 2Day FM brekkie host Em Rusciano to be dumped from the station.
Speaking to Fairfax, Gemma Fordham labelled reports about Rusciano being on the chopping block as “utterly ridiculous”.
“She’s under contract with us. There are no plans for her to leave the show in the winter ratings break,” she said.
The controversy all started when Rusciano accused 2Day FM’s executives of “injecting two people” into “my show”, and admitted she was heading towards “some sort of implosion in the next six months” on Will Anderson’s podcast, Wilosophy, last month.
Soon after Rusciano’s comments, media outlets reported that a number of 2Day FM staff were quitting due to a poor work environment, with some declining to work alongside Rusciano.
Furthermore, Rusciano and co-host Ed Kavalee were reportedly called into a meeting with Fordham following speculation of tensions between the two, while B&T was informed by an industry insider that Ash London had already been lined up to replace the fiery brekkie host.
Fordham told Fairfax that while Rusciano’s comments on Anderson’s podcast weren’t the smartest, the 2Day FM brekkie show was going just fine.
The Hit Network exec’s comments came after the latest radio ratings survey, which saw Rusciano and co. lift the Sydney show’s market share by 0.5 per cent compared to the previous survey. This is on the back of two straight surveys of growth, not to mention.
