Star 104.5’s Shayne Sinclair: Small team, big result … and a win for localism

If the latest radio survey for the New South Wales Central Coast demonstrates anything, it’s that small teams can achieve big results.

When I catch up with Star 104.5 Program Director Shayne Sinclair, he’s just returned to the station after a low-key celebratory lunch with colleagues just around the corner, at one of the local pubs in Gosford.

You can tell the mood around the Star 104.5 office is buoyant. As you’d imagine it would be, when you round out the year as the #1 station on the Central Coast, with the #1 Breakfast show and a clean sweep of #1 shows across every day part.

The Star team is a close-knit group, and a small one at that.

“Everyone is absolutely ecstatic,” Sinclair tells Radio Today. “We’ve been able to pull off an incredible result.”

“I think what it says is that it’s a great day for local radio in this market on the Central Coast. You can see that out of the three commercial stations here, two of them have a significant local presence in the local market, and that’s Star 104.5 and Triple M Central Coast.”

“These numbers show that local radio really is alive and well and it’s the preferred choice for the people of the Central Coast.”

Sinclair’s grace and goodwill extends to the competition.

“I would love to take the opportunity to say a massive congratulations to the team at Triple M,” he says.

“They’ve had an outstanding result. For them to move up from #3 to #2 in the market as a result of being a dominant local player, I just think that’s incredible.”

Star made history this survey as the first station in its market to connect with more than 100,000 weekly listeners.

It’s now a year since former Breakfast co-host Dave ‘Rabbit’ Rabbetts left the station, but Star’s new brekky combo of Matt Baseley and Gina Jeffreys not only won its timeslot, it grew its audience.

Sinclair says Gina & Matty’s result is beyond expectations.

“They had a great survey,” says Sinclair. “Obviously when you launch a new Breakfast show, you do expect that there’s going to be a little bit of disruption to listening patterns.”

An AFTRS graduate, Sinclair began his own radio journey as a copywriter in Grafton.

In 2004, he landed his first metro gig as an Image Producer on the Gold Coast.

After spending nearly six years at SCA in different roles including announcer and Music Director, he’s been full time at NOVA Entertainment for almost 13 years now.

And he’ll never tire of radio.

“I love what I do just as much as I did when I started way back 25 years ago,” he smiles. “I love radio, first and foremost.”

He says the fact he gets paid for it is a bonus. For Sinclair, being Star 104.5’s PD is more than a job. It really is a privilege.

“I love making a difference in people’s lives. I love to be able to lead the team that are on the frontline. For me, that is really rewarding.”

Main photo, L to R: Star 104.5’s Rory Clarke, Meg Alexander, Alice Worthy, Gina Jeffreys, Caitlin Jennings, Shayne Sinclair, Lauren Montgomery, Paul Moltzen