Radio talent more ‘authentic’ than TV stars: Brooke Corte

Brooke Corte’s career spans both television and radio, but she’s been relieved to find radio attracts more honesty and authenticity from both its audience and its stars.

There is, she said at a recent Nine Radio event, no faking it in radio.

“There’s this honesty and authenticity about the audience, and that also requires an honesty and authenticity from the hosts. And that’s where you get that loyalty, that obsession with listening to what each other are talking about and what each other are saying, because there’s this really trusted space,” she said on a panel at Nine Radio’s ‘Let’s Talk’ event.

Corte took over from Ross Greenwood across 2GB, 3AW and 4BC this year, and said everyone gave her the same advice.

“I have found, coming from TV into talk radio, that has been such a relief for me. It’s a really strange thing. In TV, you kind of sit behind this desk and you’ve got this protective barrier between you and the rest of the world that you’re broadcasting to. And when I was coming into radio, people said ‘Don’t fake it. Do not fake it. They will call you out. Be who you are. Be honest. Be the most honest version of yourself, because that’s the only thing that matters in radio’. And that has been so true, and it’s refreshing, because you’re just yourself. And they know that,” she said.

There’s no questions around whether radio people are two-faced or disingenuous, a stark contrast to TV land, she noted.

“I never get people saying ‘Oh, what’s this person like in radio? Or what’s that person like in radio?’ You know what that host is like because you talk to them everyday. They listen to you, you listen to them. Whereas that’s quite different… In TV everyone goes ‘Oh what’s that person like off camera?’”

This week, Nine Radio again pitched itself to the marketing and advertising industries as the place to advertise on radio. It spruiked its transformation of the talk radio format, and reiterated its belief it was attracting a new generation and a broader church of listeners.

Nine Radio’s Tom Malone also predicted next week’s Survey 7 results would further solidify its ratings dominance, saying a new trend had started in listening habits and audience perceptions.