Lehmo’s take on Kyle & Jackie O and the perils of networked Breakfast radio shows

Filling in recently for Marty Sheargold on Triple M Melbourne has given Anthony ‘Lehmo’ Lehmann a real taste for Breakfast radio again.

“I love it. I think it’s the most fun you can have in the media,” says the comedian, actor and former top rating Breakfast co-host on Melbourne’s Gold 104.3.

“Sadly though, there aren’t many jobs in Breakfast radio.”

But contrary to the naysayers who suggest the medium is ‘dying,’ Lehmo’s a firm believer that radio will be around for a long time yet.

“I think there will ALWAYS be a place for radio. Always.”

Lehmo offers his own candid take on where radio is heading and some very interesting viewpoints on networking and the expansion of the Kyle & Jackie O empire into Melbourne in the latest episode of The Josh & Joe Show, the podcast hosted by Triple M Goulburn Valley Breakfast announcer Josh Arthur and comedian Joe Baxter.

On the polarising subject of Kyle & Jackie O, Lehmo believes that whilst networked shows can be successful in Drive, Breakfast radio is a different beast.

Drive, he says, is about entertainment first and foremost.

“People, for the most part, they’ve worked a day, they’re on their way home, they’re tired, they’ve been dealing with work shit, they want to relax and have a laugh, right? Which means to me, you can network Drive. Because it’s about entertainment offerings and light relief.”

“Breakfast radio, to me, is about a lot of things, but primarily it’s about connection. Connection to your environment, connection to your community.”

“So, as soon as you network Breakfast, you start to lose that connection.”

“As soon as you can’t reference something that happened in your city the night or day before, you lose that connection with your listeners.”

“I don’t think it’s really going to work. And if they insist on trying to make it work, that will be the death of radio.”

Lehmo admits to being kind of glad the show hasn’t yet taken off in Melbourne, because he feels there should be a local Breakfast show.

However, he can’t see that happening on KIIS 101.1 anytime soon.

“I think the maths suggest they have to keep them in there.”

For Lehmo, getting back behind the mic at Triple M – surrounded by a bunch of people he already knows well – was an absolute blast.

“To be able to go back on air and fill in for Marty, I just bloody loved it,” Lehmo says.

“Marty had set up a really fun show, with lots of benchmarks and lots of stuff that – by the time I got there to fill in – had really resonated with the listeners.”

“So, to come in and just jump into all of that stuff that was already set in place, made life a lot easier for me. But it was just fun. It was like a kid going into a toy shop. I got to play with all the toys for ten weeks.”

In July, after championing mental health conversations, Sheargold decided to step away from Breakfast radio for good.

The current Triple M Breakfast show with Wil Anderson, Dale ‘Daisy’ Thomas and Rosie Walton has been extended until Friday, 30 November 2024.

SCA says the 2025 Breakfast show will be confirmed in due course.

Could we see Lehmo return to the Breakfast radio airwaves full time?

“Well, I’d jump at it if it came up,” Lehmo chuckles to Joe and Josh.

As for where the industry as a whole is headed, Lehmo says we are living in the midst of a loneliness epidemic, and – at times like this – there is no substitute for the power of radio.

“People are lonelier than they’ve ever been in their lives, and one of the few connections that lonely people have to the outside world – to feel like they’re actually in a moment with someone – is on live radio. Because they can phone in. They can talk to them in that moment, or they can listen to conversations people are having at that exact moment in time.”

“A podcast doesn’t do that because it’s pre-recorded.”

You only need listen to one midnight to dawn shift and hear the sheer volume of people calling in, he says.

“There’ll always be a need for people to be on live radio and connect.”