Staying in our lane: Why Smooth’s Peter Clay isn’t worried about next year’s shake up of Sydney Breakfast radio

Peter Clay. Image: NOVA Entertainment

There’s already plenty of conjecture surrounding next year’s shake-up of Sydney Breakfast radio. With ARN’s The Christian O’Connell Show going national in 2026 and the current Gold 101.7 brekky team Jonesy & Amanda moving to Drive, there’ll be a shiny new player on the local scene.

But with Smooth 95.3 already dominant in the market, the network’s Head of Programming Peter Clay isn’t fazed.

In his post-GfK Survey 5 interview with Radioinfo’s Steve Ahern, Clay is asked whether there’ll be any strategies to entice listeners who might feel inclined to sample different shows.

“Well I think it’s interesting, Steve. Currently Bogart (Torelli) has a cume of 622,000 while Jonesy and Amanda have 366,000, so I look it and feel that Bogart is delivering and commanding a lead already over what (Gold 101.7) is offering with Jonesy and Amanda, who’ve been around for 20 years.”

“I was there when we created and put them together – I was over at WS at the time. I’m very happy with the product we put out for our listeners with Bogart Torelli in the More Music Breakfast Show.”

“Bogart has such a broad audience, broad demo and appeal and a cume that’s nearly doubled at times.”

“We’re very happy with where we’re at. I think whatever changes competitors are doing next year is obviously up to them. It’s certainly nothing that concerns me because we stay in our lane and keep doing the product that our listeners love.”

Clay’s sentiment is backed by the latest ratings result. With an 11.8% share and phenomenal 1.383 million cume, Smooth is Sydney’s #1 station.

Survey 5 also yielded some pleasing results for Smooth’s sister station, with Melbourne’s Nova 100 also delivering extremely strong cume numbers.

“Credit to the Breakfast team of Jase, Lauren and Clint,” says Clay. “That is an incredible show, with high figures cume-wise – 722,000 – and a ten share in Breakfast. It is jus 0.1 off being the #1 FM Breakfast show.

Right across the board, Clay says it’s been an outstanding book.

“We’re very happy here at NOVA Entertainment.”

*Images supplied