Less than a week after being sacked by SCA as part of large scale job losses for the network, Dan Taylor and Christie Hayes have started afresh with a podcast recorded in a back yard caravan in New Norfolk Tasmania and definitely not offering any prizes (yet).
The first episode was out today and discussed the ins and outs of why they were sacked, and caught listeners up to date with what had happened since they were last heard broadcasting on the Hit Network across Regional Victoria and Tasmania on June 17.
A cool little side note is that the podcast’s producer is none other than Justin Coombes-Pearce, Christie’s husband who also works at Triple M Hobart and who also moonlights with a weekly Top 5 of something with Simon Owen on 3AW in Melbourne.
The last Xtra Insights survey of Hobart came out a year ago. Hit 100.9 was second overall with Dan & Christie taking top spot from Sarah, Mick and Johnno at 7HO. That had been a rebuild for the station after the previous breakfast hosts Jimmy and Nath departed Hobart for Sydney in 2022.
The region has its next Xtra Insights survey out in early July, which will show the impact of the loss of Dan and Christie to breakfast numbers and station listening.
As to the new podcast, there is a template for success already.
In October 2023 Ned & Josh, Ned Breward and Josh Torney, wrapped up their breakfast show on Hit 104.7 in Canberra and then were told that they didn’t need to come back on Monday.
But the duo decided to stick around in the Capital and with a lot of listener loyalty they created their own weekday Ned & Josh podcast, which has won awards and continues to this day.
Recently the boys have had to decrease their episode output as they’ve stepped back into radio, taking on i98FM in the Illawarra and the Macarthur region‘s C91.3FM Nights. They’ve worked hard and seized their opportunities.
For Dan and Christie, for now it will be weekday episodes from the freezing cold i-Stream-Van, and a good hard look at the Hobart survey results next month.
Jen Seyderhelm is a writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Email: [email protected]. You can subscribe to this publication for just $199 per annum (less for community stations, students and pensioners) and support local media. Celebrate Radioinfo in its 30th year.