Hot 91.3 breakfast team canned as 2DayFM prank call fallout spreads, reports Steve Ahern from Singapore.

High rating breakfast team The Married Men were axed this week after an inappropriate prank call. Station management cited 2Day’s tragic nurse prank as a precedent for sacking the team.

A company spokesperson said: “The segment contained material that was wholly inappropriate on air and breached the terms of the [presenters’] contract.”

Group PD Jamie Meldrum, an Australian, described the segment as “indefensible” and apologised to listeners who were offended. According to Meldrum, presenters were recently given strict guidelines on prank calls after the 2Day FM nurse prank and this call breached the new guidelines. 

Rod Monteiro, Andre Hoeden, and their female co-host Jillian Lim were dumped from the Singapore Press Holdings commercial station after a prank call that suggested an applicant for a child care job should beat children.

The duo posed as officials from a consulate calling a woman who wanted to work in early childhood education.

They asked her whether she ever beat children and advised her to only hit kids from poor families who would not have the money to sue.

The duo said hugging children was considered molestation in some countries and questioned her about whether she had ever hit on any of her pupil’s fathers.  They also asked if she was willing to offer favours to facilitate her visa application.

In the regular comedy segment, they were referred to the woman by a friend. When the prank was revealed at the end of the call, the woman laughed at the joke.

Singapore Press Holdings is the publisher of the Straits Times newspaper and owner of various radio stations. It is the country’s second biggest media company after the government owned MediaCorp. Many fans of the show were not amused by the sacking, reflecting their displeasure on the team and station facebook pages.

The Married Men had been on air for 5 years, first presenting drive, then moving to breakfast as their ratings increased. They were the second placed breakfast show in the market in the most recent survey wave. You can find the team’s prank calls (called Kena Pluck in Singapore) here, but the offending call is not available on their YouTube page.

The station has moved fast to replace the team with presenters from another shift, Boy Thunder, Adam and Josh (pictured below).

_{Steve Ahern is currently in Singapore teaching a radio management course.}