Triple M Sydney‘s Cat Lynch is still getting used to people knowing who she is.
The day before Cat and I spoke, the new Southern Cross Media Group Managing Director & CEO Rohan Lund had visited Sydney to introduce himself and have a look around the 2DayFM and Triple M studios and offices. Cat introduced herself to find Rohan astonished that she thought she’d need to. He has listened all his life and launched straight into the kind of chat you have with fans who start in the middle somewhere because they feel like you know already.
Cat’s co-host Beau Ryan then asked Rohan his thoughts on that morning’s hot topic, which way you face in the urinal? His reply can stay off the record but meeting the Triple M Breakfast team left such a positive impression that Rohan shared a lengthy LinkedIn post later, and eventually Managing Director of Audio, John Kelly had to move him on saying, “Ok team. I need him back now…”
Cat Lynch has travelled and lived all over the world, and worked in radio across most of Australia’s capital cities. She started as part of ARN‘s Sydney street team, filling in where required before joining Nova Entertainment and working on air and in operations roles in Perth and Brisbane. Then it was on air with SCA in Adelaide for four years before she returned to Sydney seven years ago, working with Triple M where it would actually be quicker to list the roles she hasn’t done.
Her folks are from America and wanted their family to see and know the world. Cat’s Dad studied Engineering at the University of Georgia. He played some college rugby and became acquainted with several Australians. Before Cat and her brother came along Cat’s Mum asked her Dad where they should try living first. Liking the humour and outdoorsy-ness of the rugby fellows, Cat’s Dad suggested Australia and apparently, as their cargo ship sailed beneath Sydney Harbour, Cat’s Mum said,
“We are NEVER leaving.”
Despite them settling down on Sydney’s northern beaches, Cat’s mum encouraged her to use her sporting prowess to see the world, which is how Cat ended up back in the US with a basketball scholarship with Nova Southeastern University in Florida. After that the wanderlust was strong so Cat supplemented travel with a job as a European Tour Guide.
If you have ever done as Contiki tour, you’ll know that wrangling 50 people around dozens of countries takes a certain kind of personality. Managing Beau Ryan and Aaron ‘Woodsy’ Woods pales by comparison.
Cat is having the time of her life. She says:
“You have to like each other and see the good. It comes down to all of us not wanting each other to fail.”
She is the seasoned radio anchor and they are two former rugby league players. Beau has some previous radio and a lot of TV experience post footy, but for he and Aaron this is their first full time foray immersed in breakfast radio.
The anchor of a radio show does so much without the listener ever being aware. They are the one to get you in and out of breaks, and to the news on time. Because they look after the panel and operations of the show, they also have a significant role in getting it back on track if it has veered wayward and pivoting when the ship is in trouble. Literally, in some cases, dropping the anchor.
Cat’s comments about ‘not wanting each other to fail’ means that she stops her co-hosts from digging a hole to big to get out of and knows the form guide to be able to lead a horse to water. All of this happens without us being any the wiser. It is a talent and a gift and Cat’s a pro, honed in the first place via 52 boisterous holiday makers stuck on a bus.
The show came together at a difficult time for SCA. Triple M Sydney’s new breakfast show Beau, Tarsh and Woodsy, Tarsh is newsreader Natarsha Belling, launched at the start of 2025. By March that year Tarsh had departed for TV and Marty Sheargold had also left from his networked Drive role.
Cat was the anchor then. She had also been the anchor of the previous Mick and MG breakfast show before the new incantation. In June she was announced to be joining the lineup officially.
Since then, most everything has fallen down around them. Gold 101.7 moved Jonesy and Amanda to Drive and replaced them with Christian O’Connell networking from Gold 104.3 in Melbourne. Stablemates 2Day FM went from Jimmy and Nath with Emma, to Nath and Emma. And then the top Sydney FM team, KIIS 106.5’s Kyle and Jackie O imploded.
All of a sudden it was like Beau threw Woodsy a pass with defenders in front falling over before they could even attempt a tackle (I shall try and restrain from further NRL analogies). Little wonder that they leaned into the situation and had some fun with it.
Like Rohan Lund, and Cat’s dad, who would be in fits of laughter over Doug Mulray on his way to work when Cat was a kid, I grew up a Triple M listener. While I had an affection for other radio presenters, Triple M was my station (yes I did say that on the phone in case someone called me).
This is the moment. This is the opportunity for Triple M Sydney to grab listeners while they are the most likely to look around for alternatives, now that their first choice is unavailable.
Survey 8 2025 to Survey 2 2026 has seen them go from a 4.0 to a 5.5. That is still half the KIIS 1065 audience, but it is already a big step in the right direction.
But I’m not looking at KIIS.
Cat isn’t Jackie O. She isn’t Emma Chow at 2Day, Bogart Torelli at smooth 95.3 orAmanda Keller on the GOLD Network. She is uniquely herself and the network and Content Director Laura Bouchet know that is something that is resonating.
I don’t live in Sydney anymore. My folks still do. In the last six months I’ve seen a lot of them and pounded a lot of Sydney pavement. This is a total stereotype but true. I have walked past knockdown rebuild houses and the tradies all have Triple M blaring.
I heard Cat everywhere I went.
The last thing I said to Cat before our chat ended, and I feel embarrassed to write this, was that she was exactly what I expected. Cat, with US parents, who has lived all over Australia and the world, has Sydney and Triple M in her DNA. I haven’t heard that since Amanda Keller was at the station circa the late 1990s. But it’s there. Now it’s just about people discovering Triple M again.
Yes, Triple M will absolutely be looking at pinching KIIS listeners, but Cat has something that the Gold / WS / 2WS 101.7 fans are seeking with Amanda Keller shifted to drive – a no nonsense, funny and deadpan way to make mornings better.
Cat knows this moment is ‘ripe for the picking’. She adores her ‘happy go lucky’ Woodsy and‘vacuum sealed racehorse that barely trains’ Beau. She keeps hearing that Beau fans still don’t know he does radio. They’re all working on getting the word out, every show, every day, every opportunity.
Including the ones where Woodsy is putting his body parts on the line:
Unsurprisingly to me, Cat is still evident behind the scenes. She edits all their interviews because she was there and knows how to portray their best bits. Because of all the roles she has put her hand up for she still takes a keen interest in why the music sits where it does and how the daily logs look.
But the merger with Seven has also pushed her outside her comfort zone with new segments she hosts on Weekend Sunrise. Cat would tell you that she’s a passionate surfer whose enthusiasm outweighs her skills. She’s no longer floating with the tide but riding the wave.
There is something in the water at Triple M Sydney. Cat told me that the only real quibble she’s had with her colleagues is over the air con temperature. Other than that it’s been smooth sailing, with Cat Lynch at the wheel.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo.