EXCLUSIVE
Nine has been rocked by the shock resignation of a key breakfast show star amid a catastrophic ratings nosedive at one of its prized capital city stations.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal popular 4BC newsreader Steve Barker informed the station’s bosses on Monday he was quitting the coveted role.
Barker has 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.
In accepting the award, he said the most enjoyable aspect of working at the talkback station was the opportunity to help guide the next generation of broadcasters.
‘Working with a team and network of focused, younger people who respect you for who you are,’ he told Radio Today.
‘I give to them. They give to me. We all focus on the same page and simply get on with it.’
The journeyman journalist had been one of the station’s most experienced hands, having spent time behind the mic at some of the nation’s leading outlets, including Sydney’s 2GB and 2UE, and Triple M.
It comes as the Daily Mail Australia revealed his co-stars, Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine, are all set to become the next victims of the cash-strapped broadcaster’s ongoing talent purge.
Popular 4BC newsreader Steve Barker has resigned from Nine Radio’s Brisbane station
Nine Radio execs are expected to take the axe to its Brisbane talkback breakfast radio show stars Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine following a disastrous ratings collapse
The trio – household names in the Sunshine State – were unveiled to much fanfare two years ago as the station switched to a classic hits format in the critical breakfast timeslot.
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 alarmingly low 4.3 per cent audience share.
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.
‘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.’
Former television news reporter Peter Fegan, seen with boxer Anthony Mundine, is duking it out to take over Brisbane’s battered talkback breakfast show
The situation is so perilous, Daily Mail Australia can reveal Nine’s radio bosses have even drafted in a suite of consultants in a last-gasp bid to salvage the Brisbane station’s battered brand.
In what is being billed as ‘The Battle of Brisbane’ within the outlet, former Seven news reporter Peter Fegan is now duking it out with popular Gold Coast weatherman Luke Bradnam for control of the coveted breakfast show.
‘There’s one consultant who really wants Fegan in at breakfast but there’s also been a push for Bradnam,’ one insider revealed.
‘It’s really unpredictable and they’re both pushing really hard for the job.’
As it stands, sources predicted Fegan was likely to win out over his surf reporter rival, with a question mark still hovering over Bradnam’s news-breaking abilities.
‘Luke’s been the regular fill-in and management like his style,’ one source said.
‘But staff are concerned he’s too similar to the current breakfast team and doesn’t cover news that well.’
Nine News weatherman Luke Bradnam has also been in the mix to take over the brekkie show
Another high-profile Nine insider echoed the concerns.
‘Luke’s a great guy but the thought he can save the breakfast show? That’s a bit comical,’ the insider said.
‘He’s a bit like listening to your surfer mate spin you a yarn while you’re driving to the beach.
‘I can’t see how that would fix any of the station’s problems.’
Sources said Fegan’s highly anticipated appointment would be followed by further sweeping changes across the station’s entire schedule.
Respected newsman Peter Gleeson was expected to be promoted up the batting order and to take over 4BC’s critical morning show to round out a renewed hard-hitting talkback line-up.
Sitting host and affable former sports presenter Bill McDonald would then shift back a gear and into Gleeson’s current drive timeslot.
Veteran journalist Peter Gleeson is gaining attention for his news-breaking abilities
Insiders said the network’s bosses were considering enlisting veteran presenter and former Liberal MP Gary Hardgrave to complete the talkback puzzle by parachuting him in to take over 4BC’s afternoon show.
But he would have a fight on his hands against incumbent presenter and one-time children’s television host Sofie Formica – one of the station’s few female stars.
The one-time Saturday Disney presenter remains popular with the bosses at Nine Radio – despite being hauled over the coals last week after posting a not-so-cryptic dig at management on social media.
‘Only thing I know for sure about 2025 is that this will be my diary,’ she wrote in a pointed barb on Instagram.
The jibe has done her few favours internally – and nor have suggestions she has been spied in discussions with at least two rival stations.
Sources claimed Formica, who once fronted a string of Channel Seven children shows including Wombat and Now You See It, had been frustrated by being kept in the dark about her future at 4BC.
Sofie Formica’s pointed dig at 4BC’s management did not go down well with her bosses
‘Sofie’s contract is up at the end of the year and she hasn’t heard a thing from management,’ one source said.
‘She doesn’t know if that means she’s staying or going but one thing is for sure: she would be a huge loss for 4BC.
‘She’s a strong female with strong opinions but is also warm and friendly with the audience.
‘Plus 4BC don’t have many female presenters and her loss would also send the wrong message in these times when diversity is a big factor.’
Nine Radio execs had been toying with the idea of teaming up Fegan and Formica in the breakfast timeslot but concerns have been raised about their duelling styles.
The media company would not comment publicly on the futures of its 4BC presenters nor its programming schedule.
Longstanding TV and radio star Sofie Formica is one of 4BC’s few females presenters
Sources said staff at the station had been kept equally ignorant about the upcoming overhaul, with morale plummeting alongside the outlet’s ratings.
‘Morale was good for a period of time after a change in management but has slowly deteriorated with each ratings result,’ one source said.
‘The problems in breakfast have brought the whole station down and other presenters feel powerless to turn things around.’
Nine Radio relaunched 4BC’s homegrown breakfast program to much fanfare after taking control of the station in late 2019.
Award-winning former newspaper editor Neil Breen relocated to his childhood hometown to front the offering, replacing Alan Jones’ syndicated Sydney show from 5.30am to 9am.
‘When Breenie was behind the mic, the show was working – it wasn’t No1 in the ratings but it was doing well and heading in the right direction,’ one insider said.
‘That’s because he was breaking hard news and asking hard questions of Queensland pollies – and that’s what Nine Radio’s audience expects.’
Former 4BC breakfast radio presenter Neil Breen is credited with driving much of the station’s early success before shifting out of the coveted timeslot and, ultimately, the station
Clare, Edwards and Hine inherited a strong share of the fierce Brisbane radio market from their predecessor, Breen – and briefly built on it – only for it to collapse over the past two years
Breen left the program in a strong position after dropping back to the afternoon drive-time slot in July 2022 before leaving the station the following year.
He was replaced at breakfast by Edwards, Clare and Hine, who had built a strong following at rival 4KQ, before switching to 4BC.
There have been fears the station’s ensuing 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.’
Sydney radio king Ben Fordham could be enlisted to help drive a resurgence at 4BC
However, another senior Nine source suggested a return to syndicating Sydney’s successful 2GB breakfast show could prove a savvy option.
‘Piping in Ben Fordham would not be a bad call at all – not for listeners and certainly not for the network’s underlying budget,’ the Nine source said.
‘Fordham’s really popular with the Queensland audience, who still remember him from his days as a hard-nosed A Current Affair reporter.
‘He goes hard on the big issues…that’s what people want from a breakfast show.
‘So if 4BC can’t get the mix right themselves, he would certainly be the man to help them lift their numbers.’
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Nine Radio insiders said 6PR’s presenting line-up in Perth could also soon find themselves in the crosshairs.
Although the swan city talkback station had been gaining ground earlier this year, it dropped back a place in the latest survey, and pressure is now on the broadcaster’s breakfast duo, Steve Mills and Karl Langdon, to help them avoid Brisbane’s fate.
