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BY RadioToday Network June 6, 2026
What's New November 21, 2025
Triple M announces Pilot Week finalists
Reporter
After throwing open the doors for its first-ever Pilot Week – inviting everyday Australians to pitch their idea for a national Breakfast show – Triple M has received an overwhelming response, with a diverse mix of standout applicants from across the country.
Triple M has now revealed its Top 10 finalists, with five shows set to broadcast nationally from Monday 15 December.
Pilot Week was created to give entertaining personalities, fresh voices, and compelling storytellers a chance on the national stage – because every great show starts with a first show.
The top ten finalists represent a broad cross-section of Australia, spanning different ages, backgrounds, and levels of audio experience. The group includes first-time creators, an AFL Norm Smith Medallist, established regional announcers, comedians, content creators and everyday Australians stepping behind a mic for the first time.
Entries were reviewed by a panel of SCA content leaders, chaired by Triple M Melbourne Content Director Jay Mueller, and including SCA Head of Content Matthew O’Reilly, Triple M’s metro content directors (Laura Bouchet, Mel Andersen, Jamie Angel and James Speed), Head of Regional Content Blair Woodcock and senior content leaders across the business.
Applications were assessed on chemistry, storytelling, alignment with Triple M’s entertaining content, and the ability to bring something fresh and creative to the network’s audience.
Triple M’s Top 10 Pilot Week finalists are:
- Jack Say and Isaac Gibbons – Swag on the Beat
- Paddy Gerrard and Maz Compton – Triple M Central Coast
- Max Price, Troy Kinne, and Tom Siegert – Yeah Good Podcast
- Steph de Sousa and Emily Tresidder – (Original show)
- Eliza Paschke and Liberty Paschke – Eliza and Liberty
- Isaac Smith and Elliot Garnaut – No Utes in the Valet
- Fergus Neal and Louis Phillips – On It Off It
- Jean Margaret, Tim Mountford, and Mark Pepper – (Original show)
- Shaun Malseed, Hunter Smith, and Harry Lloyd – The Tag Team
- Jake McKenna, Joe McKenna, and Riley McKenna – The MacPack
The ten teams will now work with Triple M’s content directors and senior producers to develop and record their Pilot Week programs, before five shows are selected for national broadcast from 6–8am, Monday 15 December to Friday 19 December.
Matthew O’Reilly, SCA Head of Broadcast Content, said “Triple M has always been about big personalities, creating world-class content, think Andrew Denton, The Cage and The Hot Breakfast just to name a few. Pilot Week opens the door for fresh voices to jump behind the mic and have an opportunity for an exciting career in radio.”
“The audio industry is booming, and there’s incredible creative energy across the country, from podcasters and comics to online storytellers. Triple M’s Pilot Week is the perfect opportunity for anyone who’s ever listened to Mick Molloy, James Brayshaw or Beau Ryan and thought, “I reckon I could do that!”
The Pilot Week shows will air nationally on Triple M and be available to stream on LiSTNR. The final five selected shows will be announced in due course.
Great to see Maz Compton finally getting a go.
“Triple M is giving everyday Australians a chance to host a national Breakfast show.”
Funny that most of these are well-known and/or established shows…. Why doesn’t that surprise me Triple M
Those of you that guessed the top 10 to be ‘mostly established superstars of media, SCA talent, and a couple of legitimately talented local shows that maybe 1 will get through’, congrats – theres a meat tray waiting for you at the front bar.
New shows, everyday aussies…
Troy Kinne – hosted Kinne Tonight
Em Tracidder – long time SCA talent, brilliant broadcaster
Triple M Central Coast – not sure if they align with the station, after all Triple M is very different to Triple M
Fergus Neal – everyday enough to pass… 100k odd followers… not 100% to everyday but on the way
Paschke – The Block participants, again, everyday enough
Isaac Smith – not sure where I’ve heard that name before…
Swag on the beat – wildly successful podcast.
3 shows without a known personality, so at least 2 semi-famous voices will get a go as part of the fresh voices campaign… smells very much of Kayo Call-up in the way it is masquarading as a talent search, when Fox gave the 1k-per-day job/ prize to a content creator with almost 200k followers… it just gives a lot of false hope to the people without connections.
Best of luck to ‘the tag team’ and the show with Jean, Tim and Mark… respectfully I have no idea who you are, so well done on your entry it must be brilliant…
MacPack, if triple M doesn’t put you on they are missing a trick. A legitimate show with energy doing the community yards, absolutely stoked to see they might get themselves a bigger platform assuming it isn’t baby-birded to established stars with the excuse of ‘they’ve only done TV’ or ‘our staff is kind of part of everyday Aussies?’
Triple M Central Coast + Em Tracidder especially should not be here. You have 41 surveyed weeks a year and in the gaps most networks throw out best-ofs and music shifts. They are your talent… support them. Tell Em ‘yeah you can have a show the week before Christmas if you’d like, but we can’t pay you more than your music shift’. They’d jump at it, then you give more regional talent a go at the music shift.
Fresh voices? 7 of the 10 already have established podcasts and another one is an existing network show. Fresh like tinned fruit…
What a joke. Kinne, de Sousa, Smith, the Paschkes are all national TV personalities. Swag On The Beat have huge viral social media fame.
All super talented of course, but “everyday Aussies”?
Heck, literally half of these finalists are already on-air with SCA (Tressider, Paddy & Maz, Izzy Smith and Yeah Good).
Crazy out-of-touch.
Next SCA will bring back the famous ” Talent Pipeline ” whatever happened to that ?
At this stage their next competition will be “which current on air shows within our network will be the next metro show”
Another laughable effort from a network that doesn’t give a continental about keeping staff employed.