Having been paraded as their biggest signing at launch, Wendy Harmer has left Vega, less than a year into her contract.

The stations, which have been struggling to attract listeners, have announced their mutual decision that Harmer is leaving her regular morning shift on vega 95.3fm Sydney & 91.5fm Melbourne.

Managing Director Radio, Cathy O’Connor, has told radioinfo: “We have been working with Wendy on the development of her program and it became apparent that we both saw different creative directions for the morning shift (9am – 12pm).”

“Wendy has approached her work at vega with the passion you would expect from one of Australia’s most successful broadcasters. We thank her for her hard work throughout the vega launch and we are certainly still talking to Wendy about future contributions to the station.”

Wendy Harmer said: “I’m a vega fan and have thoroughly enjoyed my time being part of the launch of vega 95.3fm & 91.5fm. I leave my regular shift with no regrets and remain a real fan of the station. It’s now back to my greatest passions – writing, producing and my young family. I’ve made friendships at vega I know will last a lifetime and I wish all the extraordinarily talented people there the best of success… I guess I’ll have to go back to doing tuckshop duty now that I have no excuse to avoid it!”

Mike Perso will present mornings from today (March 3) until a regular replacement is announced.

Having just launched a huge advertising campaign on TV, taxis and billboards that have Harmer’s face plastered all over them, her departure will force another rethink of Vega’s marketing pitch.

Senior staff at DMG have been working closely over the past few weeks to refine the formats of every shift to increase the station’s time spent listening (TSL), and build cume, trying to get some traction for the mixed talk and music format. All shifts are under pressure to perform at a higher level towards the goal of increased ratings.