2UE staff told to ‘be more like 3AW’

In The Australian today they are reporting that Fairfax Radio execs from Melbourne's 3AW are playing more of a role in what is happening at 2UE in Sydney.

The compaints seem to be coming mainly from producing staff at 2UE who have revealed several times being told to "be more like 3AW" or "try what worked in Melbourne".

But 2UE's GM Chris Parker has denied Sydney staff were told to follow 3AW and that if management had thought copying 3AW's success was going to work in Sydney, they would have tried it sooner.

Parker did say that both 2UE and 3AW breakfast are now focussed less "on a narrow range of dry and contentious issues" than their competitors.

He also said that having a new breakfast show (Dicko & Sarah) that is "deliberately very different from other programs in the Sydney market was always going to be difficult….we're being diligent about creating good programs with a new concept and a new team and we expect it will take time."

The Australian's 'insider' refers to the station dropping a public-transport update segment on Dicko & Sarah as one example of a decision coming from Melbourne that is not working in Sydney.

Parker said that segment had been dropped in line with "the look and feel of the new breakfast program" and he denied "there was some dark force pulling strings from Melbourne."

Read more in The Australian here.