Paul B Kidd has bladder cancer

Paul B Kidd announced to his audience today a little after 1PM that we would not be hearing him on 2UE for at least the next six weeks as he fights cancer.

Kidd thanked his partner, son and good friend and co-host George Moore as he embarks on fighting cancer, starting with his operation this Wednesday.

Since joining George Moore in 2001, the very popular George and Paul Show has won many listeners across New South Wales and the ACT and is 2UE’s most profitable show.

Kidd and Moore have some of the best synergy as co-hosts, a lot of laughs and fun is heard from the two of them each and every week.

We all wish Paul all the best for the operation and hope he has a speedy recovery.

Whispers... Whispers...

George and Paul permanently for 2UE brekky?

Sydney Confidential reported this in the ‘murmurs’ section yesterday that current fill-in breakfast hosts on 2UE, George Moore and Paul B. Kidd maybe offered the weekday gig permanently if Mike and Sandy’s ratings don’t continue to head skywards.

Ugly Phil for Triple M?

The troubled Triple M is currently entertaining the idea of bringing back the former Hot 30 host and ex-husband of fellow Austereo star, Jackie O… Ugly Phil O’Neill. Having hosted Breakfast in London for a few years, could Phil be the next host on Triple M’s Breakfast?

Confidential thinks this may be an option and why not?

The Shebang have struggled to emulate their moderate Drive time success in Breakfast adding former Nova personality, Paul Murray to Marty Sheargold and Fifi Box. The show seems doomed with reports that the three members of The Shebang have issues and even some reports have suggested that either Sheargold or Murray have to go because of each other’s intense dislike for one and other.

If Ugly Phil were to be given the gig then he may bring with him a new team to rival 2 DAY FM.

So who could partner Phil?

Bianca Dye is back on radio after departing Nova 969 last year, she has accepted a breakfast role with the Gold Coast’s Hot Tomato which also features former Austrero talents, Paul Holmes and Simon Cranney.

Dye may compliment Phil well and could be a new duo that would refresh Triple M.
What to do with The Shebang?

They worked on Drive while Wil and Lehmo have also battled their way through their first year on air together struggling to challenge 2DAY’s Hamish & Andy.

I have mentioned it before but there is still one man not on radio that could deliver for any network… Tony Martin.

Bring Back Tony Martin.

Wheeler gets the axe as 2UE mixes up weekends and welcomes back Robertson

Radiorumours.com reported on Wednesday that Glenn Wheeler has been axed from his weekend afternoon show and today 2UE has confirmed that Clive Robertson who most recently presented the overnight show is now presenting every Saturday and Sunday from 2-6pm.

Last weekend change was made to the weekend schedule bumping Don Burke to 6AM with George and Paul now coming on at 8AM until 2PM. Possibly Wheeler’s shift being slashed from 6 to 4 hours caused his departure as he believes he offers more than the six hour weekend show he was presenting before it got slashed to 4 hours.

Robertson is a good move for 2UE and was wasted overnights. He is quirky, funny, more interesting and entertaining than Wheeler and has a very strong lead in from George and Paul that UE hope will sustain an audience that Wheeler has struggled to hold.

2UE have fiddled with their weekends hoping to increase ratings and advertising revenue that would be decreasing with an underperforming weekday schedule.

Robertson starts tomorrow from 2PM on 2UE.

Jim Ball takes 2UE into the new day

From tomorrow morning Jim Ball will host New Day Australia on 2UE.

Midnight until 5:30AM, Ball will bring his successful and Number 1, top rating over-night show to the embattled Sydney station.

Ball replaces Clive Robertson who left 2UE in February but Ball's decision to leave 2GB is bizarre considering he was on Sydney’s Number 1 AM station and his overnight show was the highest rating.

Perhaps Ball’s appointment will improve weekday ratings or maybe he is biding his time and has been promised a better slot, perhaps evenings if Stuart Bocking fails.

2UE have other personalities capable of presenting the mid-dawn shift such as Glenn Wheeler, News Director Clinton Maynard or Saturday Night host, Ian McRae. The latter two have been hosting the show, alternating with John Kerr since Robertson left.

Perhaps Wheeler perceives his presentation is better than the wee smaller hours plus his television commitments with Seven’s, The Morning Show while Ian McRae runs a successful radio training school.

Maynard is still a raw presenter and may have been considered to be too inexperienced to sustain an overnight audience.

Other overnight possibilities include George & Paul’s roving reporter, Peter Higgins who presented a few mid-dawn’s in 2007 with no reward. Despite having interesting topics of conversation and a very likable approach to the show, Higgins has not been heard on the overnight show in some time.

Whatever Ball’s decision is to move to UE, probably monetary, he will hope to assist the weekday line-up which has struggled so far in 2008.

If ratings do not increase expect Fairfax to make some changes and the personalities who are currently not presenting shows or presenting shows in time-slots that they believe are ‘beneath them’ might actually be behind the microphone at a time they want sooner than they think.

2UE: Talking Sydney?

That is what they claim but with only 5.6% of the audience share, is anyone listening?

Unfortunately the embattled station got a whole lot worse with the first Nielsen Radio Ratings survey results losing 1.7% which indicted the network was now in 2CH (5.4%) territory.

Life after John Laws has hindered the station not helped as they predicted it would. Schedule changes from breakfast through drive were made in attempt to freshen the schedule but it has sent the ratings downward.

When the line-up was revealed in January I held reservations about the new schedule and these have been proven with the first rating results.

Breakfast was a public dilemma after Peter FitzSimons announced he was leaving Mike Carlton last year along with Lawsie. I think Fitz got out at the right time as the platform that Carlton and new partner Sandi Alioisi have created has sent the station backward dropping 0.8% of its audience to new lows of 6.8%.

Mike and Sandy will take some time to find their feet but they need a quick turn around now because its advertising revenue will dip significantly with a smaller audience share.

Steve Price is presenting a polished and informative magazine show which is different and covers a wide array of topics throughout the mornings. Unfortunately he too has lost ground losing 2.1% of Laws’ audience hovering around the 5% mark. His show is better than what his figures indicate with none of the negative ranting, raving and whingeing that you here with Ray Hadley.

2GB have the edge with Alan Jones taking an unbeatable lead lifting his share by 5% peaking at 19.1. It has paid off for 2GB by working Jones until 10AM allowing Hadley to go through until 1PM which has an affect over three conventional rating blocs.

Tim Webster faced the largest decline of previous audience share, shading 2.6% to be at 4.7 beaten by 2CH but this comes as no surpirse. I don’t like his show and I don’t like his presentation style in the afternoon. He would be better suited to Breakfast or Drive but I don’t think he would excel in either of those.

Webster comes across tongue-tied showing signs of being unprepared and a colloquial speaking style using terms such as ‘ya’ which some may argue is more conversational, but not on a major metropolitan AM talk back channel like 2UE.

John Stanley also suffered a decline in drive ratings being the lowest rating shift on 2UE losing 2.3% of Steve Price’s share to take the slot to only 4.5%, exactly half the number of listeners as 2GB opponent Philip Clark. Drive is not his show. When Stanely was doing the afternoon show, he was excellent and is best suited their. Stanley covers politics well but the strength of his personality is restricted in Drive where it previously excelled in afternoons.

2UE will not take any drastic action now and change the schedule but they will have to make changes if the ratings do not improve by the years end.

Perhaps Carlton should have been allowed to walk at the end of 2007 and the murmurs that Ray Martin trialled for John Laws shift, if confirmed should have been activated because 2UE need a new injection and a big personality.

Whether Martin is capable of being the saviour or perhaps Andrew Denton wanted to dabble in commercial radio, some alternatives need to be sought. Otherwise Angela Catterns presented a successful ABC Breakfast program before defecting to VEGA, maybe she is an option.

2UE may have to do what 2GB did to them and somehow unearth Ray Hadley from 2GB and sign him on to 2UE breakfast but Hadley would not move, he has the most successful morning show in New South Wales, the Rugby League and the Olympics.

Expect changes in St Leonards perhaps as early as mid year if things don’t approve, salaries will be reviewed, staff will be axed and change will be made.

It’s a nervous sleep for…

The first official radio ratings results are set to be released this week with all the Sydney radio stations itching to know if their big changes in 2008 have made any difference to their listener numbers.

AM

2UE executives will be stressing most after their have been changes to all of the daytime lineup. Mike Carlton and Sandi Aliosi at breakfast will be hoping to have stolen some of Alan Jones and Adam Spencer’s audiences.

The Morning shift is equally as important as Steve Price will be looking to make improvements on the numbers that John Laws retired with and has the opportunity to do so with the negative attention new ABC Morning host Deborah Cameron has been subject too. Or will 2GB's Ray Hadley extend his lead?

FM

NOVA will be hoping Kate Ritchie’s arrival on Merrick & Rosso’s breakfast show has improved ratings while Triple M will soon know if The Shebang are delivering in their breakfast slot otherwise it’s still Kyle and Jackie O.

The surprise packet could be MIX 106.5 who signed Sonia Kruger and Todd McKenny to their breakfast slot and may have made some impact.

Drive is equally important as Hamish & Andy dominate this shift on 2DAY FM but NOVA will be hoping the earlier start to their drive show has paid off but the addition of Ed Kavalee will not be reflected until the second ratings survey.

Triple M will also be crossing their fingers with Wil & Lehmo who have so far failed to make an impact on the ratings while WSFM moved Jonathan Coleman and Julia Zemiro to drive in an attempt to increase listeners.

Predicitions
* 2GB will still be Sydney's Number 1 radio station and 2DAY FM will still by the top rating FM station.
* 2UE will increase ratings slightly across breakfast and mornings but it will be slight, possibly 0.5-1%
* NOVA breakfast ratings will increase and so will MIX 106.5

A New Look for 2UE

It's not only new management and a new on-air line up that is taking shape at 2UE but a brand new logo has been launched right across the My-Talk Fairfax owned radio stations.

The iconic 'strikes' have been dropped and the black, gold and white colours that have dominated the logo have been changed to a blue, more of a yellow gold and white as seen above.

The new logo looks like a slanted football with the '2UE 954 - News Talk' appearing as the sponsorship on the football.

Not only have the colours changed but the wording.

As Fairfax now own 2UE, the old logo of Souther Cross, with the wording and their iconic star have been replaced.

This was the logo prior to Southern Cross' owning, giving you some idea about how the branding has changed: