SCA has announced that it will introduce statewide breakfast shows across its national Hit Network of regional stations from Monday 24 August, with some announcers losing their jobs.

The Hit Network stations in Western Australia have already successfully adopted this approach with a statewide breakfast show airing weekdays, and now, the rest of the regional network in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia will follow with the exception of Newcastle, the Gold Coast and Hobart stations.

In NSW, broadcast from Hit101.3 Central Coast, the Gawndy & Ash Pollard breakfast show with Daniel Gawned and Ash Pollard, will be heard across the majority of regional NSW-based Hit stations.

Affected stations appear to be hit105.9 Central West, hit105.5 Coffs Coast, hit102.3 & 105.1 Mid North Coast, hit93.1 Riverina, hit99.7 Riverina MIA and hit104.9 The Border

In Victoria, broadcast from Hit104.9 in Albury, the Tim & Jess breakfast show with Tim Bolch and Jess Pantou will expand to be on air across all regional Victorian Hit stations, including hit91.9 Bendigo, hit Goulburn Valley and hit Sunraysia.

In Queensland, on SCA’s Hit regional stations, the Cliffo & Gabi breakfast show with Guy Clifton and Gabi Elgood will now be heard statewide and broadcast from Hit103.1Townsville on hit103.5 Cairns, hit100.7 Emerald, hit101.9 Fraser Coast, hit Mackay and the Whitsundays, hit Maranoa, hit102.5 Mount Isa, hit89.1 South Burnett and hit97.9 Tablelands

In South Australia, the new SAFM Adelaide breakfast show, Bec, Cosi & Lehmo with Rebecca Morse, Andrew Costello and Anthony Lehmann will be heard on the recently rebranded SAFM in Mount Gambier.

Hit in regional Western Australia continues to broadcast the statewide Allan & Michelle breakfast show with Allan Aldsworth and Michelle Anderson.

Chief Content Officer, Dave Cameron, says: “SCA has adapted to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 environment and will deliver a different programming model across our Hit regional network. The changes will mean that unfortunately a number of our local breakfast shows will be impacted, and we would like to thank our dedicated and talented people who are affected today by this new approach. We are actively looking for redeployment opportunities for some of these roles, however, sadly some of our people will be leaving SCA.

“The new model brings listeners quality state breakfast shows for Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia that deliver on our new content strategy of fun, entertaining breakfast shows overlaying our broader pop music format nationally. These state-based shows will complement our current breakfast shows in Newcastle, the Gold Coast and Hobart, which will remain unchanged.

“In addition, we will now return to local morning announcers across a majority of our regional Hit stations, which were previously nationally networked. This will continue to ensure that we maintain our commitment to broadcast the best local, state and national content that matters to our listeners.

“SCA’s national Triple M network of stations will continue to remain dedicated to everything local by broadcasting our existing locally based and focussed breakfast shows across our 38 regional Triple M communities.”

Related reports:

SCA’s Dave Cameron answers our questions about the axeing of local breakfast shows

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