Nova 100’s Jase & Lauren Aren’t Gloating about Kyle & Jackie O’s Difficult Melbourne Entry

Jase & Lauren’s journey is commercial FM radio’s “Cinderella” story.

Discarded by KIIS FM at the end of 2023 to make way for Kyle and Jackie O’s expansion into the Melbourne market, Jase Hawkins and Lauren Phillips thought their radio careers were done.

A few months later, they were approached by Nova 100 in Melbourne to lead the station’s new breakfast show.

With their cost-host and newsreader Clint Stanaway, Jase & Lauren started on air March 8th 2024, with Kyle & Jackie O entering the Melbourne market the following month on April 29, 2024.

The glass slipper sure did fit.

In half a year with Nova 100, Jase & Lauren took the breakfast show to No. 1 in the FM ratings for the very first time. Meanwhile, Kyle & Jackie O’s entry in the Melbourne market was an underwhelming one, with the duo failing to replicate their years-long No. 1 status in Sydney.

Are Jase & Lauren gloating about Kyle & Jackie O well-reported troubles in Melbourne?

“No, to be perfectly honest,” Phillips said from stage during a keynote Wednesday, April 14th at Cairns Crocodiles.

“We just focus so much on ourselves as opposed to what anybody else is doing. Also, when we see a show having a hard time, what comes with that is a lot of consequences to other people. It’s been really sad for us watching a lot of our friends lose their jobs along the way at ARN in Melbourne as well, and the downsizing of the team,” Phillips told Vinyl Media’s head of content, Lars Brandle.

“We’re never people who are going to celebrate other people’s lack of success. It would be stupid of anyone to celebrate Kyle and Jackie O not doing well in Melbourne, given their success over the years and their success in Sydney.

“They’re a powerhouse show that lasted in this industry for so long and I think anyone would be really silly to think that these things come really easily. But it’s certainly not anything any of us would celebrate.”

Jase & Lauren have had other reasons to celebrate. In the most recent GfK radio settings for radio survey 2, released on May 1st, their breakfast show came in at No. 2 behind Christian O’Connell on Gold FM for the second consecutive survey.

According to that report, Jase & Lauren were the most-listened to breakfast show with 662,000 cumulative listeners.

“A lot of people would like to think that we really did celebrate that. And sure, it’s really nice to do well. And when you get kicked and continuously kicked by other people, it’s hurtful. And because of that, a lot of people would like us to probably have a bit more venom in us about other people,” Phillips continues.

For a session titled, “Resilience, Reinvention & Ratings Wins,” the broadcast trio discussed the future of AI in radio, authenticity and tips for the next generation.

On AI, Stanaway remarked, “When it comes to journalism first and foremost, that’s my passion. I started as a journo in a newsroom and I certainly do have concerns for the future of the craft.” The strength of their Nova 100 show, he continued, “is our ability to connect the audience through storytelling, through opinion-based stuff, and what’s happening in our own backyard being in Melbourne for us. And I just don’t think you will ever get that regardless of how good the tech is with AI. Maybe wishful thinking.”

Commercial radio, despite the doomsayers, isn’t going the way of the concord anytime soon.

Hawkins, who has worked in radio since the age of 16, shared some advice for those keen to tackle broadcasting. “My rule in life is to be passionate, be the hardest worker in the room. And be polite,” he enthused. Above all else, “don’t be a cockhead.”

A gathering of advertising, creativity, marketing and media in the far north of Queensland, Cairns Crocodiles wrapped-up Thursday, March 15th at the Cairns Convention Centre. This year’s edition united with Cannes in Cairns for the first time.