John Stanley departs, replaced by two Marks at Macquarie Sports Radio

Macquarie Sports Radio has launched a new Breakfast team for Sydney and Brisbane, with John Stanley officially departing the show.

It was clear last week that change was afoot for the show  – which only launched with the rebranding of Talking Lifestyle into Macquarie Sport a few short months ago – when co-host Beau Ryan was notably absent.

Now Stanley and Ryan’s permanent departures from the show are confirmed, with Mark Levy joining former NRL player Mark ‘Piggy’ Riddell on MSR Sydney and Brisbane Breakfast.

The show has a new blurb on the Macquarie website as well; “Leading sports broadcaster Mark Levy is joined by his great mate and former NRL star Mark ‘Piggy’ Riddell for a show packed full of big stories, big opinions, big laughs and two big blokes.”

Both Marks are regulars on 2GB’s NRL show ‘The Continuous Call Team ‘ on weekends, while Levy regularly rills in for Ray Hadley during Survey Break.

Riddell had already replaced Ryan on the Breakfast show from last Monday, but at the time it was unclear whether he was to be made permanent.

Ryan had become “grossly unhappy” with Macquarie management, reports The Daily Telegraph, and was offered “more money for less work” to work as a casual fill-in on KIIS FM.

Stanley won’t be departing Macquarie entirely (having been with the network for over three decades), but will instead be covering for all the major shifts when needed.

As of Survey #4 Macquarie Sports Radio 0.8% (-1.1) for People 10+ in Sydney and 1.1% (+0.6) in Brisbane.