“I don’t think I’m suited to Breakfast radio,” says Em.
Comment from Peter Saxon.
In a wide ranging 90 minute chat with friend and Triple M Melbourne’s Breakfast co-host Will Anderson on his excellent podcast series Wilosophy, the 2Day FM Breakfast co-host gives a disarmingly candid account of herself – her loves, her hates, her fears, triumphs and failures – sometimes with perhaps too much candor… like how she could incorporate dead baby lines in a stand-up routine after she lost her own child in a miscarriage. Don’t knock it till you’ve heard it.
About two thirds the way into the podcast, with the discussion focused on her radio show, she drops a bombshell, the impact of which, at first, seems to miss Anderson. Rusciano says,“I think I’m hurtling towards implosion in the next six months.” Although that doesn’t sound quite a rolled gold guarantee that she’ll quit at the end of the year, except that she follows up her statement with, “you heard it here first.”
Now Anderson picks up on the gravity of her words and like a therapist, tries to console her, “I’ve felt like that at times in my life as well… when you think ‘I can’t keep doing this the way that it’s going, its going to blow up at some point.’ How do you prevent that from happening?”
Without hesitation, Em answers, “Leaving! Ejecting before…”
She continues, “Harley (Breen) leaving hit me really hard. And then Ed (Kavalee) and Grant (Denyer) just got put in the show, and that was it. All of a sudden I got put together with two co-hosts I’d never really met or spoken to and then I’m expected to have this instant chemistry with (them). It was the Em Rusciano radio show – it was my show. And all of a sudden, Ed’s anchoring and it was called The 2Day FM breakfast show. I took all these big ego hits.
“I struggle in a team environment. I look at Hamish and Andy and how seamlessly they all gel together. They pick their team (while) I often get put together with people I would never pick to work with, just because of my personality type.
Em Rusciano has reportedly tried to walk away from her contract with SCA within six weeks of taking on her role at 2Day.
“Radio brings out the worst aspects of my personality hence the rumours that go around about me within the industry and I’m hyperaware of that. And I’m tired because I’m not a morning person. All my best ideas come at 2:00 am. I think I’m hurtling towards implosion in the next six months,” says Em Rusciano.