One only has to compare the on air rosters of Melbourne’s 3AW and its sister station Magic 1278 to see where the money’s being spent. AW has 35 personalities pictured on its website while Magic makes do with just six to fill the same 168 hour week.

While its no secret that Fairfax has demanded cuts across the board from its media empire, Magic which already runs on the proverbial “smell of an oily rag,” has nonetheless made some recent line-up changes suggesting that some “efficiencies” have been found.

The upshot being that Peter Van becomes the station’s permanent floater, replacing a number of casuals, while Bill Howie no longer has a permanent shift.

“The changes for us are quite minimal,” says Magic GM, Gary Hoffman.

We’ve automated our program from 7 till 10. It was automated between 10pm and Midnight. So we’ve extended that automation from 7 pm.

“Peter Van is still hosting the Classic Top 40 program, but instead of doing it live he’s voice-tracking it. And Peter becomes our permanent weekend guy. He was doing one shift, now he’s doing two. And he’s also our permanent fill-in, so if someone’s away, Peter drops into that shift live – which is a role he used to have,” says Mr Hoffman.

While it may sound confusing to those unfamiliar with radio rosters, it makes perfect sense to Magic management – and, presumably, to Peter Van. “It actually gives us some flexibility,” says Mr Hoffman, “Because up until this change was made, when somebody went on leave we had to bring in some casuals to cover the shifts. Now we can cover it ourselves.

“When Peter drops into an all daytime role which he will do in a couple of weeks when Drive announcer Ric Ditchburn goes on leave, Alan Pearsall from 3AW will come in and voice track our night time program,” says Hoffman.

Now that that’s clear, there’s still the matter of veteran Bill Howie and the demise of his Sunday shift. Howie retired from full time radio a couple of years ago and promptly enrolled at university as a mature age student.

Hoffman says of Howie, “When I spoke to him, he was not unhappy about not having to get up at 3 o’clock every Sunday morning and come in to do a shift. But in two weeks time when Ric goes on leave and Peter drops into that shift, Bill will actually be working Saturday and Sunday afternoons for three weeks. He’s certainly not lost to the station.”

Finally radioinfo asked Mr Hoffman whether rumours of Magic being syndicated to Sydney as a digital station were true.

“Absolutely no truth in that whatsoever,” says Hoffman, “That’s somebody’s fantasy.

“One of the strengths of Magic is its localisation here in Melbourne with the lifestyle segments and everything else that we do. That would be totally lost if we syndicate.

“Of course, there will be a digital format going into Sydney to complement 2UE, but it won’t be Magic,” says Mr Hoffman.