Matthew Johns has not been ruled out as a contender for a new sports-styled breakfast show on Triple M, despite the group sex scandal exposed by Four Corners. Austereo national head of content Guy Dobson described Johns as an exceptional talent. “We’ve always had him on a list to do a show at some stage.” Dobson confirmed Triple M was developing a “grill-team-like format with sporting DNA” to replace the low-rating Ugly Phil and Sami Lukis breakfast show.
The cast is expected to include Lukis and documentary-maker Gus Worland. Dobson says the challenge is to create a program that won’t lure listeners from Austereo’s 2Day, the No 1 FM station.BEN THERE, DOING THISA Current Affair’s Ben Fordham will co-host the 2UE breakfast show with Tim Webster next week while Mike Carlton and Sandy Aloisi are on leave. Fordham, 32, son of John Laws’s manager John Fordham, did his cadetship at 2UE and clearly has his eye on a bigger radio role in the future.
He has a weekly spot with Steve Price on the 2UE morning show and presented the 2UE evening show for a month over summer, later telling executives he was surprised how much he enjoyed it.TEACHER GETS A GONGSteve Ahern, former director of radio at the Australian Film Television And Radio School, has been awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to radio broadcasting as an educator, media trainer and author.
TOM’S TURNAROUNDThe DMG Network has poached one of Austereo’s top producers, Tom Ivey, in an effort to strengthen its drive programming. Ivey has signed up with Nova to produce Ryan, Monty and Wippa in the drive-time slot. The Nova trio have had a tough job establishing themselves this year up against the Hamish and Andy juggernaut on 2Day FM.
