Early start for Steve Jacobs at new radio gig [audio]

Steve Jacobs with Paul McCartney

Nine’s head of radio Tom Malone must have given Steve Jacobs a set of keys early.

After announcing on Sunday that the former Today Show weatherman would host breakfast on Nine’s music stations from April 27, listeners were treated to an early debut today (April 20).

“Good morning everyone, and welcome to our brand new radio station,” announced Jacobs, just after the 6am bulletin. “I’m excited to get this gig on the road.”

The new show on 2UE 954 Sydney, Magic 1278 Melbourne, 4BH 882 Brisbane and 6GT DAB+ Perth, launches with “the best music at breakfast” positioning.

“It was on this day back in 1984 that one of the all-time greatest Aussie albums was sitting at the top of the charts, INXS’ The Swing,” said Jacobs.

“We’ll kick off this classic album double shot with the biggest hit from that album, ‘Original Sin’.”

Jacobs also teased regular news, sport, weather and traffic updates from the Nine newsroom.

Today’s debut marks a full-circle moment for Jacobs, 53, who began his radio career hosting a Top 40 music countdown on over 50 stations with Sky Radio in the mid-90s.

Nine will be hoping the star power of Jacobs, who got his TV break hosting a children’s news program on WIN Wollongong, will give the stations a much-needed boost.

Last year the three stations were known as Macquarie Sports Radio before new owners Nine scrapped the underperforming sports format in favour of classic hits.

In Survey 8 2019, Mac Sports Radio ended the year with a 0.7% share in Sydney and Brisbane and a 0.4% share in Melbourne.

Nine management then pulled the three stations from the first survey this year “due to the change of format mid survey”, but they magically reappeared last week.