Three of Nine’s biggest morning radio stars have been sacked, just days after Daily Mail Australia revealed the embattled network’s bosses were sharpening their knives.
Brisbane’s 4BC announced on Friday afternoon that Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine will no longer appear in the coveted breakfast time slot.
The trio, household names in the Sunshine State, were unveiled to much fanfare in 2022 when the station switched to a classic hits format on its early morning show.
On their debut in the fierce morning radio competition in the Queensland capital, they achieved an impressive market share of 11.8 percent, taking third place.
But the decision to shift the station away from traditional talk programming and focus on ‘light entertainment’ channels – in stark contrast to successful sister stations 2GB in Sydney, 3AW in Melbourne and 6PR in Perth – alienated listeners and ultimately proved a disaster.
Edwards, Clare and Hine’s ratings have entered a critical phase. Their show came in a humiliating last place in the most recent poll, with an alarming 4.3 percent audience share.
The trio’s departure has now been made official, three days after Daily Mail Australia announced they would be fired.
Nine Radio’s head of content Greg Byrnes said on Friday afternoon that the network “has decided to take a new approach to breakfast”.
Brisbane’s 4BC announced on Friday afternoon that it is dropping Laurel Edwards, Gary Clare and Mark Hine from its coveted breakfast time slot
Happier times: The trio’s departure has now been made official, three days after this publication revealed they were facing the chopping block
“Their loyal listeners, and all of us at 4BC, will miss them dearly, but we will send them off in a manner befitting their remarkable careers,” Mr Byres added.
Their last day on TV is in two weeks, on Friday, September 27.
This also comes after presenter Peter Gleeson and breakfast newsreader Steve Barker also resigned earlier this week, following the Daily Mail Australia story about threatened redundancies.
Barker has been a fixture in the Brisbane newsroom since joining the network, and last year won a prestigious New York Festivals Radio Award for his honest reporting on the Queen’s death.
Well-informed sources within 4BC have revealed that the network is now planning an unprecedented overhaul of its programming, with the network now focusing on talk shows again and desperately trying to lure back truant listeners.
They said the move was a humble admission that the station’s entertainment experiment had failed.
“We need to blow the whole thing up and start again – and we need to do it now,” a senior 4BC insider told Daily Mail Australia.
‘We are currently losing ratings and advertising revenue every day.
‘2GB and 3AW are flying. Even 6PR is making a comeback.
“But 4BC is an unmitigated disaster and it’s all because of bad decisions at breakfast.”
There are even concerns that the station’s declining ratings could lead to it cutting local programming altogether, after parent company Nine Entertainment announced plans to cut $50 million from underlying costs this financial year.
“Staff are very nervous that the station is going back to the bad old days of Sydney programming on 4BC,” an insider said.
‘In these difficult economic times, it would come as no surprise to anyone if management made this decision.
“It would be the wrong decision – and a short-sighted one – but at this point anything is possible.”