Craig Bruce – the All Star Line Up – part ii

SCA made the announcement, Hamish & Andy are back fulltime in Drive for 2015 and Dan & Maz will make their debut on 2dayFM breakfast in the New Year.

In part ii of our chat  with SCA Head of Content, Craig Bruce we talk specifically about Sydney.

What really happened with 2day FM breakfast?

What is Dan & Maz's point of difference as the battle hots up. 

Will the 2dayFM brand survive?

Blair Sullivan: You said 6-weeks ago that Jules, Merrick & Sophie would be on 2Day brekky next year. I appreciate that things change, but that's a big turnaround in 6-weeks. What changed?

Craig Bruce: Well Sophie resigned…

BS: That’s it?

Craig Bruce: When a show's a three and half share you're obviously looking pretty closely at it and going – what’s going on here and what’s our way through it.

Sophie resigned from breakfast… and that didn’t happen on the weekend by the way. We had that information quite a while ago.

That was the starting point at looking at what we needed to do next year.

BS: Will Jules, Merrick and Sophie actually see out the rest of the year?

CB: Yeah absolutely, no problem at all.

BS: Looking at Sydney itself… Dan & Maz the new team.

CB: Yes

BS: Has Dan actually worked out that he is getting up 4am yet?

CB: ha ha, I had dinner with them last night. They did breakfast in Adelaide for a couple of years at Nova in Adelaide.

That’s their preference. That timeslot, it works for both of them for different reasons. They prefer that – getting up and getting into it. And starting the day.

I think it works for Dan as a performer as well. The busier and more frenetic a show is the funnier he is. I think his brain works really quickly and he needs things coming at him for him to react and play with. I think that will work into his favour.

They are both ready for brekky, they have done it before – there are no issues.

We didn’t have to twist any arms or do any convincing – they are up for it and ready to go.

BS: What’s going to be their point of difference compared to other teams in the market place, your competition?

CB: I see a point of difference as, you know I look at the Sydney market and it’s lots of old shows hosted by older people.

You know the Grill Team talk to men over 35, that’s fine.

Jonesy & Amanda they also talk to 25-54’s and have been around for a long period of time.

Kyle’s in his mid 40’s now.

Fitzy & Wippa are still of that era, certainly a younger era but a male skew in terms of the sound and the sensibility of that show.

We think for an under 40 and specifically under 35 females, there is a huge hole in this market for something that is fresh and original and different.

That’s what we are going to do.

Probably out of everything that didn’t work this year, 2day FM versus the rest – we didn’t really have a clear point of difference.

I think Brad (March) wrote about it in the very early stages and we realised after a period of time that was probably the case as well.

I think next year will clear a generational gap between us and the rest of the market, to be honest. And we will try and exploit that.

BS: What about the 2day FM brand itself? Are you going to blow it up like you did with Adelaide and turn it into a hit104?

CB: I would be a rich man if I had a dollar for everyone who asked me that – The Hit Network versus the Today Network.

What I would say is we are really happy with how Adelaide has launched, we don’t have any ratings yet – we have anecdotal feedback – we have client feedback – we have staff feedback. We have our own ears and our own eyes that tell us that it has been a good start. But it’s just that.

We are a week and a half in, we are a long way off making any decisions on any of our other stations.

I love the look and feel of hit107, I'm really hopeful it is going to give us some success in Adelaide and whether that leads into other changes around the country – I can tell you hand on my heart, we have not made a decision one way or the other on any of our other radio stations outside the one in Adelaide.