Em Rusciano has lashed out at Australia’s commercial radio hosts and called for listeners to instead tune in to her independently produced podcast.
The comedian, 45, who left her presenting role at 2Day FM in 2018 and now hosts her own podcast, took to social media on Monday night to slam the country’s entire commercial radio sector.
‘When are the Aussie PR gals, gays and theys going to stop handing their biggest interviews to commercial radio hosts who clearly couldn’t give a s**t?’ Em ranted.
‘You know, the ones who blame their producers for their lack of prep, make zero effort to be engaging or entertaining, and worst of all don’t even cater to the demographic they are supposedly targeting?’
The Melbourne-born star added she always had great interviews on her independently produced Emsolation podcast, and was frustrated that she had to fight hard to book talent.
‘My last three interviews have done pretty well. The Wicked one is currently sitting at 15 million views across three platforms,’ she wrote.
Em Rusciano has lashed out at Australia’s commercial radio hosts and called for listeners to instead tune in to her independently produced podcast. Pictured
‘And yet, we still have to fight just to get in the damn room. I have hundreds of thousands of women over 35 who specifically choose me to listen to,’ she continued.
‘But sure, keep giving your A-Listers to Flicko and Dipper from Douchebag FM, so they can ask the same tired questions about their sex lives. Groundbreaking.’
Australian commercial radio presenters often interview guests on both their professional and personal lives and this can occasionally backfire, like on Monday when Nova FM host Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli was called out by a Bridget Jones star.
Em has developed a reputation for always speaking her mind and in October she slammed the Australian Podcast Awards (APAs) for snubbing her popular podcast.
The presenter took to Instagram after the nominations for the ‘Logies of podcasting’ were released.
The awards, which were held in Sydney on November 21 at the Sofitel, ‘recognise outstanding talent’ across 30 categories, including two major awards for Podcast of the Year and Best New Podcast.
In May, Em launched a podcast titled Anomalous, which sees her interview neurodivergent experts, advocates, and psychologists to ‘reframe the way Australians have traditionally understood ADHD and Autism’.
‘I know awards shouldn’t matter, but we all put so much into that podcast,’ she said.
The comedian, 45, who left her presenting role at 2Day FM in 2018 and now hosts her own podcast, took to social media on Monday night to slam the country’s entire commercial radio sector
Australian commercial radio presenters will often interview guests on both their professional and personal lives and this can occasionally backfire, like on Monday when Nova FM host Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli was called out by a Bridget Jones star
After Anomalous ‘couldn’t even cop a nomination’, the comic took to her social media to vent her frustrations about the industry at large and was evidently choking up in the videos.
‘The podcast industry in this country likes to operate as though I don’t exist,’ Em said.
The APAs have been running for eight years and break down the awards into genre categories, such as news, entertainment, sex and relationships, interviews, and the publicly voted listener’s choice.
Em claimed Anomalous was the number one podcast ‘of all podcasts in the country’ when it came out.
‘We’ve pushed the needle forward on discussions around neurodivergence,’ she said in disbelief.
‘Psychologists and psychiatrists are giving it to patients when leave [medical appointments] after finding out that they’ve been diagnosed.’
The veteran media personality went on to detail how her weekly podcast is made independently, without the financial backing of a major sponsor or radio publisher, and has had ‘millions of millions of downloads’.
‘The recognition would be nice,’ Em said.
‘I know it’s not important (to win an award) but I don’t understand how we couldn’t even get a nomination,’ Em said, adding that the podcast is ‘one of the best things [she’s] ever made.’
Anomalous was the first Australian Spotify exclusive show, Em said, as she also admitted that she hadn’t anticipated feeling so upset about the lack of inclusion as a nominee in the iHeart Radio sponsored awards.
