Building a better Breakfast show

Staff Writer

ARN's highly successful (and recently re-signed) Breakfast Show on WSFM, Jonesy and Amanda, were put under the spotlight in a highly entertaining session this afternoon at the CRA conference.

Moderated by Mediaweeks James Manning, here's how the chat went.

 

James Manning: Re-Signed for three years.. How much money is floating around?

Amanda: It’s pretty mortifying with all your colleagues reading the papers.

Jonesy: Mates are calling me up saying can you buy me stuff?

AK: Radio has become a great media story. We have re-signed in the past and it’s never been written about. The good thing is radio is being written about. There is a big difference between re-sign and resign.

JM:  Do you understand your commercial value for the company?

AK: Not really. I do know that if the show is working you are very valuable to your brand. The hours are hard.. we get up a at 4am.  A job like no other. 

We start with a blank piece of paper… we fill it each day and chuck in the in and start again the next morning. If you are not liking your job.. and your life is in the toilet then it means nothing. Lifestyle is my motivation

JM: On the Branding of WS FM?

BJ: The re-branding from classic hits to pure gold was a master stroke. They got the rebrand right.

AK: It took the cheese out.. we tweaked the music and made it slightly younger. We’ve got a new audience.. this is who we are.. not who you think we are. There was a lack of awareness of who we were. The perception of that we were older than we were. 

We spent a lot of time getting drunk with 20 somethings from media agencies on a Friday afternoon, and within a week they would be out of a job and we would have to do it all again

BJ: I’m now in the demographic… I’m 46. We are in the right time… family guy and modern family both throw back to Generation X. We are right in that demographic.

JM: What are your Ratings Superstitions:

BJ: On my bike…  how many kilometres you've travelled… when it comes up 101.7. It just kept coming up 104.1 and I tried to beat the odometer.

AK: Lights .. you get a clear run… you’ll do ok..

JM: The ratings are fantastic. Is there a new attitude from management?

AK: They pretty much leave us along to their credit. Maybe Laura cops it. There has been a different energy in the office.

BJ: They have brought an energy. Kyle is a radio nerd. He loves all that sort of stuff.. he would talk about the same sort of things.

Report Card for Jonesy from AMANDA

My favourite days when you forget you are on the radio, you always what say what you shouldn’t say. His off the cuff nature… I admire that. You’re sharper and slicker, you are suburban … the slight bogan nature of your life and you talk about your life with more honesty than you used to.

Report for card: Amanda from Jonesy

I had a vision this show would work. I would give Amada an A+, there is nothing else. People are glazing over.

JM: What makes a good producer?

AK: Laura gives us a list every day of the ten things Sydney is talking about. She works really hard before we even turn up.

BJ: David Post our audio producer – he can produce anything.

AK: they put pressure on themselves.

JM: What About Kyle and Jackie O?

AK: It's been okay. They have more interviews than we do, they do have move staff than us. There have been days when that’s pissed me off. There was one day when one of our producers was sick and so we just had one producer, and it was the day we went number one in the ratings, and I thought this is a good day for that.

so we sacked her.

BJ: she was pregnant too.

JM: Jonesy and Amanda show on social media..

BJ: big fan Instagram and Facebook. I don’t know why we don’t have the reach of other stations.

AK: I’m not a fan I don’t think facebook equals ratings.

JM:  Juggling your Other media commitments –

AK:   I don’t why tv hasn’t picked up us together… they pursue each of us differently. I don’t know why they haven’t pursued us together.

BJ:: I am the king of the pilots… I’ve done more pilots…. 

AK:: We choose to put radio first.

JM: 3 more years….

AK: There is not a day goes by where I don’t look forward to seeing and laughing with you everyday.

I’m in for the three years.. it is daunting, it is hard.….

BJ: 3 years is great.. I’ve done enough dopy radio shows to know when you are on a good one. I don’t get that anxiety. I can see where Amanda is going

AK:  I do think there would be no other job like this.

 

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