A popular journalist is set to replace Brisbane 4BC’s breakfast team at the end of the month after three of Nine’s biggest breakfast radio stars were fired from the job.
Peter Fegan is set to host the morning program from September 30 as trio Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine were phased out on Friday, September 13.
An internal staff email confirmed that Fegan, who currently hosts 4BC Weekends, will be in the chair for the breakfast show until December.
The email read: ‘From Monday, September 30, Peter Fegan will look after the Breakfast timeslot until the end of the year – before we wrap up the 2024 Survey Period on Friday, December 13.’
The message to staff appeared to suggest that listeners can look forward to further shake-ups at the station for on air presenters.
However, the publication reports that Fegan has told insiders he has the gig secured, though this has not been confirmed.
Edwards, Clare and Hine’s axing last Friday came days after Daily Mail Australia revealed bosses at the embattled network were ‘sharpening their knives’.
The trio – household names in the Sunshine State – were unveiled to much fanfare in 2022 as the station switched to a classic hits format on the early morning show.
Peter Fegan (pictured) is set to host the morning program from September 30 as trio Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine were phased out on Friday, September 13
They claimed an impressive 11.8 per cent audience share – and third place – on debut in the Queensland capital’s fiercely contested breakfast radio contest.
But the decision to steer the station away from traditional talkback in favour of ‘light entertainment’ – in stark contrast to its successful sister outlets 2GB in Sydney, 3AW in Melbourne and Perth’s 6PR – has alienated listeners and ultimately proved a disaster.
Edwards, Clare and Hine’s ratings have been in terminal decline, with their show finishing a humiliating last place in the latest survey, with an alarming 4.3 per cent audience share.
The trio’s departure has now been made official, three days after Daily Mail Australia revealed they faced the chop.
Edwards, Clare and Hine were axed from the breakfast slot last Friday only days after Daily Mail Australia revealed bosses at the embattled network were ‘sharpening their knives’. (All pictured, during happier times)
Greg Byrnes, Head of Content for Nine Radio, said on Friday afternoon that the network had ‘decided to take a new approach to breakfast’.
‘Their loyal listeners, and all of us at 4BC, will miss them greatly, but we’ll be sending them off in a style worthy of their remarkable careers,’ Mr Byres added.
Their final day on air will be in two weeks time, Friday 27 September.
It also comes after drive host Peter Gleeson and breakfast newsreader Steve Barker also resigned early this week in the wake of Daily Mail Australia’s story about looming job cuts.
Barker had been a key fixture of the Brisbane newsroom since joining the network, collecting a prestigious New York Festivals Radio award for his heartfelt coverage of the Queen’s death last year.
Well-placed sources within 4BC revealed the network was now planning an unprecedented overhaul of its presenting line-up as it reverts to a hard-hitting talkback focus and desperately tries to lure back truant listeners.
They said the move came as a humbling admission that the station’s entertainment experiment had failed.
An internal staff email confirmed that Fegan, host of 4BC’s weekends, will be in the chair for the breakfast show until December reported The Courier Mail on Thursday. Pictured: The outgoing team will have go to air with their final show on September 27
‘We need to blow the whole place up and start again – and we need to do it now,’ one senior 4BC insider told Daily Mail Australia.
‘We’re bleeding ratings and ad money every single day at the moment.
‘2GB and 3AW are flying. Even 6PR is making a comeback.
‘But 4BC is an absolute trainwreck and it’s all been brought about by poor decisions at breakfast.’
There are even fears the station’s ratings free fall could see local programming scrapped entirely, after parent company Nine Entertainment announced plans to cut $50million from underlying costs this financial year.
‘Staff are very nervous the station is going to go back to the bad old days of Sydney programming on 4BC,’ one insider.
‘In these tough economic times it wouldn’t surprise anyone if management made that decision.
‘It would be the wrong decision – and a shortsighted one – but at this stage anything is possible.’
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