Hot, hotter, hottest?

It’s been a good 18-months for Eddie McGuire and the Hot Breakfast.  Hard work behind the scenes and in front of the microphone has paid off with consistent results each survey.

But what’s driving this success?  In part 2 of our Hot Breakfast profile, we look at what’s makes the show succeed and discuss that success with Triple M’s Head of Content Mike “Fitzy” Fitzpatrick.

“Hyper-localism” is a term used a lot in the Hot Breakfast office and in Melbourne’s hotly contested FM market, being ‘local’ has been a winning tactic for Triple M.

It’s something Eddie McGuire believes in passionately and sets the show apart from the other FM breakfast shows.

“Look, the show had to be about Melbourne.  I’ve lived through all the networking and nationalisation.  When I came back to Triple M, I said the only way that I’d be involved is if the Triple M stands for Melbourne, Melbourne, Melbourne”.

“People want to know the news, they want more than just an opinion piece, and they want to hear the point of view of the ‘insider’.  Always what we wanted to do with the show was to make it an insider’s point of view”

“You’re not just coming up with an opinion, but an ‘informed’ opinion and that’s why you have the opinion makers coming on the show, whether it’s Julie Bishop calling in from the United Nations or our regulars like Derryn Hinch”.

Rosie Batty with Mick Molloy, Eddie McGuire and Luke Darcy. Community Day

On air for almost seven years, it’s taken four years of hard slog for the show to be a success and rate number one. The effort is not lost on Triple M Melbourne’s Content Director and Head of Triple M Network, Mike “Fitzy” Fitzpatrick.

“There was an unmet need in the Melbourne market for a ‘grown up’ breakfast show on FM that talked about things that were relevant to the people that were living in our city.

And ‘hyper-localism’ is more than just mentioning a couple of suburbs, it’s talking about things that matter to the people actually living in those suburbs.”

The working relationship between Eddie, Mick and Darce, along with Executive Producer Jay Mueller, producer Sarah Faour, Panel Op Rosie Walton and news reader Seb Costello has been key to the success experienced in 2015.

“The show is very much a sum of its parts. Everybody has a role to play and everybody plays that role. Nobody could be as good as they are without everyone playing their role,”says Fitzy.

“The chemistry of that team has been a huge part in shifting Triple M from being a predominantly blue-collar listener base to being 80 per cent white collar. Our appeal has broadened from a very narrow male appeal to a much broader, number one 25-54 all people station”.

“Now, it’s taken us four years to get to where we are now. Four years in its current format to get to number one.  And the content they produced when they started is as good as the content they’re producing now, but the audience had to come and find the show”.

With all the change that’s gone on in the Melbourne market in recent weeks, there has been a lot of attention on the stable and consistent shows, where management has avoid the temptation to ‘play around with’.

Brigitte Duclos and Anthony “Lehmo” Lehmann at Gold are reportedly out of contract.  But as far as Fitzy is concerned, the Hot Breakfast isn’t going anywhere.

“No changes to my breakfast show.  Change is the ENEMY OF RATINGS in my opinion.  When it’s working, don’t change it”.

You can read part 1 here.

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