The coulda, shoulda, woulda’s of Australian Radio

Staff Writer

Liam is the PD and Breakfast Host of 96five in Brisbane and writes for Radio Today.

The ACRA’s have been and gone and the cream of Aus Radio have been crowned yet again.

Let’s remember for just a minute those shows over the years who were very under rated and never got the accolades, success or fame they deserved. Be it, they gave up too early, were in the wrong place at the wrong time or just never lived up to their full potential.

Here is my Top 5 Shows that Could Have Been Contenders….

5. Mobbs and Fletch

These guys were the first of the big FM night shows. Nipping at the heels of the likes of Jono and Dano and Club Veg, Mobbs and Fletch were the cool rock guys on the air.

Mobbs is one of the original Radio Rock Dogs as was evident when he left a nice farewell on Facebook to his last employer Bay FM.

The boys just knew their music, had fun and were a breath of FM fresh air. Sadly the lure of the big city had them in their grasp as they climbed the ladder and the flame finally snuffed out as they out grew their timeslot.

4. Rod and The Flack

Dead set, the hardest working guys in Australian Radio, EVER. I’ve always said I'd never work in a market against them cause they just give, and give and give till it hurts. Their chemistry is great, just mates having a chat.

Rod is the professional, Flack the personality. I’ve seen them work a full week on breakfast and still jump on air for a Live Saturday Night show where they hand delivered pizzas to request winners. These boys had an amazing work ethic.

Flack's ability to try anything resulted in great content, from being tattooed, to marrying a local listener live on air. Sadly a case of wrong place, wrong time. Fingers crossed they re-unite somewhere soon, they're just too good to not be on-air together.

3. The Budski’s

Jamie and Paul were ground breaking in their day. Look out, the Budski’s were on the air and took no prisoners.

With half the show hailing from America, the accent helped with the mystique of these two. They knew the bosses weren’t listening at that time of night and they made the most of it. They ran a muck, had the best in-studio listener parties filling their studios with a hundred or more at a time, they didn’t care and their listeners loved them.

They eventually split, with Jamie teaming up with a young Mike Goldman to form the Rubber room, till the lure of the Disney Dollar was too great, scoring a voiceover gig in Asia.

2. The Fat Boys

What potential these guys had. An 80’s radio legend, Dave Daly teaming up with Steve St John in what was one of the first new FM licences given in regional Australia.

The Sunshine Coast wasn’t ready for these two who letterboxed the entire city with nude pics of themselves complete with Sea FM tattoos on their butts, as a great publicity stunt.

The rumour goes that the PD of Triple M in Brisbane kept a photo of them on his wall, not just to keep his current show on their toes, but the dream was always to move these boys onto bigger markets.

They self imploded a few times, reuniting in Ipswich and again in Newcastle but could never repeat their dizzy success of their Sunshine Coast Sea FM days.

1. Gibson and Duckworth

Ok, the biggest call ever. Gibson and Duckworth were the greatest breaky radio show in Australia that never achieved the ratings success they deserved.

Rob Duckworth and Dave Gibson, individually both unbelievable talents, both Triple M demi-gods of their day, but just never reflected their own popularity in the surveys.

Duck was slick, Gibo was hilarious, providing an array of amazing character voices for the show, which were used around the network. His pinpoint accurate impression of ABC gardening guru Peter Cundle was spot on. Himie Fimie, station accountant, was also popular as was their razor sharp cutting wit.

Up against the well entrenched juggernaut that was Jamie Dunn, the guys never appeared to stand a chance, but the guys were loved. At that time, everyone said they listened to B105, but they loved Triple M.

Both left for Sydney and morphed into Rob, Sammy and Dave, and well, it was never the same.

If only things were different.

Who do you think was seriously under rated ?

 

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