Like most relationships, Breakfast teams have their ups and downs. Even the best of friends can find something about their co-host that really annoys them.
For Sea FM Mackay’s Jay and Dave the toilet is a chief bone of contention.
“Every 15 minutes Dave bolts to the toilet, usually through the news updates”, says Jay Shipston, who is the one responsible for paneling the shift.
At least there is someone in the studio – a co-pilot, so to speak – to take over the controls when nature calls.
Today, while most Breakfast shows are, at the very least duos, many readers can recall a time when the shift was generally run solo so any announcer worth their salt knew a track or two that would get them through a toilet break.
In fact, it could be argued (unkindly) that back then songs like Led Zepplin’s 1971 classic Stairway to Heaven that ran for 8.02 minutes or Richard Harris’ 1968 enigmatic MacArthur Park, which ran 7:21, succeeded not despite their length but because of it.
Compare those toilet track gems with today’s average pop song of just three minutes and you can see the real reason why they need at least two people in the studio. Form follows function, as they say (with tongue firmly in cheek).
In 2015, Mackay, Dave Peters believes heading to the loo during the news headlines, which are preceded by an ad break, gives him a whopping six minutes of loo time.
No problem.
Except the toilet is on the floor upstairs to the studio.
“The amount of times it’s me solo in the Top of the Hour is countless,“ laughs Jay.
Jay and Dave have hosted Sea FM Mackay’s breakfast show together for the past six years. The boys liken their partnership to a “pre-arranged marriage” given the show was created by Content Directors.
Pretty good analogy really, as working so closely together requires a lot of the same understanding couples afford each other i.e. in good times and in bad.
So confident are they in their on and off-air relationship Dave is happy to share exactly what annoys him about Jay.
“Jay isn’t as punctual as I am. It annoys me BIGTIME. I will turn up an hour in advance to event to make sure equipment will work properly and everything is on track, but Jay will turn up 10 minutes before the event starts, walk in and waltz up on stage.”
So do they argue much?
“Yes. But it’s not a bad thing. We have different points of view. Creative differences … but we wait til the show finishes to discuss it, and work it out.”
Creative differences aside, what makes these two roll out of bed at 4am to deliver four hours of breakfast radio five days a week?
“It’s the chance to talk to people in our region. Things that affect them also affect us. We are all in the same boat. We are seeing this more so now, than ever before. Mackay / Whitsundays are going through a tough time with the mining downturn, and people are in financial distress. We talk the same language as the listeners. It might be hard for us all, but I think that has made us bond with our listeners more than ever before”.
And with the region going through tough economic times the guys have used their breakfast show as a vehicle to pay people’s bills.
“It was simple but very affective and meant a lot to us as well to see these people being able to stop worrying about one bill causing them angst and anxiety”.
So putting the “marriage” analogy to the test let’s see who they think the listeners prefer – a bit like asking the kids who they like better, Mum or Dad?
“I would say we both have our fans. I think it would be egotistical to say they liked me more than Dave. HOWEVER, we did do a campaign of who would be the “Prime Minister” of the Breakfast Show and I won overall. But having said that I have been in the market longer than Dave, so it may have helped my campaign more”, laughs Jay.
