On Monday SCA launches two big breakfast shows that could change its fortunes – hopefully for the better.
 
After seven years of bad luck in trying about as many breakfast shows to replace the listeners that “you know who took to you know where,” 2Day-FM  is ready to fire what looks to be its best shot yet with a solid trio of established radio talent in Dave Hughes, (centre) Ed Kavalee and Erin Molan.

Dave Cameron explains the strategy behind the changes to Peter Saxon.

SCA Perth has appointed Marc Eddy as Acting General Manager, replacing Erica McGee.

Eddy, who has been with SCA since 2008 as Audio Operations Manager for WA and SA, now takes on a dual role.

Outgoing Acting General Manager Erica McGee is "thrilled to hand the reins to someone as capable as Marc. We’ve worked together successfully over many years and my respect for him is unwavering – I have no doubt he will step into the role successfully.”

After a tough few months of stand-downs, redundancies and restructuring, where many radio industry staff in all sectors have lost their jobs, some stations are planning to return salaries to normal as advertising slowly increases and sentiment begins to turn around.

Today the nation's unemployment figures improved, showing some signs of green shoots as Australia begins to regain control on the pandemic.

It’s a massive irony that while radio listener numbers have increased strongly during the pandemic, revenue has fallen off a cliff.

In the June quarter, just gone, revenue for the radio sector was down nationally by a staggering 46.62%, or $99.644 million compared to the same period last year.

SCA has announced that it will introduce statewide breakfast shows across its national Hit Network of regional stations from Monday 24 August, with some announcers losing their jobs.

The Hit Network stations in Western Australia have already successfully adopted this approach with a statewide breakfast show airing weekdays, and now, the rest of the regional network in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia will follow with the exception of Newcastle, the Gold Coast and Hobart stations.

SCA’s diversification with its radio portfolio has helped cushion the affects of COVID-19 on revenue for the full year ending June 20.
 
Revenue for the Group was down by 18.2% to $540.2m on the previous year, while the EBITDA was down by 30.9% to $108.2m.
 
Both SCA’s Audio and Television divisions were down by around 18% overall, and while the metropolitan radio advertising revenue declined by 25.3%, regional radio performed a little better although revenue was still down by 13.1% on 2019.

Over the past few months of lockdown, audiences have been forming new consumption habits.

As advertisers adapt to the changes, a new report from GroupM reminds marketers and advertisers to remember brand safety.

We examine the report and also talk to SCA CEO Grant Blackley about brand safety.

A brand safe environment is "critical for all advertisers," according to Blackley.