In a relatively quiet move, 2SM has slid radio and TV veteran Tim Webster into the host chair to present Breakfast Monday to Friday. He replaces Ron Wilson, who departed the station after six months on air.
Mediaweek had a chat with Webster about taking on the new gig following a couple of years of bouncing around the schedule at the ABC.
Mediaweek: What does a 2SM Tim Webster breakfast show sound like?
Tim Webster: Well, it sounds like a Tim Webster show would normally sound like. I’ve been at the ABC for for an half year and just done just about every show there is to do there. Well, I did do breakfast on 2CH for a number of years and that was predominantly music. But this will be, you know, a talk radio talk show.
So it’ll be interviews and comments from me. Hopefully a lot of calls from listeners and and texts from listeners just bouncing along. A bit news-based, of course, at that time of the morning and make sure that we cover the waterfront, as they say.
Mediaweek: Is there a specific approach to news that you’d like to take? There’s lots of ways you can go, which is federal news, state news, local council, culture, and sport. What makes sense for you in the morning?
Tim Webster: Well, we’re Sydney. Having said that, these days people can listen to you on an app and I got calls this morning from up the far north coast and Newcastle.
So people could be listening to you from anywhere. But predominantly it’s 2SM Sydney and I always like to do on the air in Sydney a Sydney-based show. So it’ll be anything relative to Sydney.
But that doesn’t mean that you can’t cover federal politics and state politics. We did that today, actually. Quite a lot of federal politics with Penny Wong going to the States and what Katie Gallagher had to say about how our finances are looking.
So if it’s in the news and we can get a handle on it, we’ll do it. Either it’ll be just from me or if we can get a poly on the phone, we’ll do that too. But it will be predominantly Sydney-based because I love the place and it is 2SM Sydney.
Mediaweek: You’re permanently in the chair now?
Tim Webster: I’m permanent now as of today. It was just that I don’t think anyone wanted to announce anything last week because I was still at the ABC and Ron had finished up and I’ve spoken to Ron. I spoke to Ron yesterday.
We’re all good. We’re all colleagues. We’re all colleagues.
And no, I’m definitely there full-time now.
Mediaweek: Does the audience know you’re there full-time? Is there an announcement being made to them or it’s just getting on with business?
Tim Webster: We had a promo running across the weekend, across I think all the super radio network stations announcing it. But as for an official comment from management, you’d probably have to check with Graham Miles or George Corrales.
But no, I’m there permanently now.
Mediaweek: So how did the opportunity come about?
Tim Webster: Well, I’ve been speaking to their dad, Bill [Caralis] – George [Caralis], and Despina’s [Priala] dad – Bill from Super Radio Network, ages ago sadly when Grant Goldman passed away.
And I was talking to them. He was talking to me about Breakfast Then but nothing ever came of it. And then after 2CH folded up, I got a call from Steve Ahern, who’s an old friend.
And he said, mate, would you like to come and do some kill-in shifts at the ABC? And I said, sure. And that was four and a half, probably five years ago now. And I filled in for James Valentine when he was very ill and strangely had the same cancer that I had many years ago.
And even more sadly, he’s now struggling with another cancer battle. And then, look, Dan, I pretty much did everything. I think the only shift I didn’t do at the ABC was weekday breakfast.
I did nightlife and overnights and nights and drive and mornings, filling in for people, sometimes for a couple of weeks and sometimes for a couple of days. So that was great. And I’m very proud to have the ABC on my CV, but it was all, the hours were all over the place.
So what’s nice is to get breakfast. It’s a regular shift that I’ve got, knowing I’m going to do the same thing every day. And, you know, I’ve always had a soft spot for 2SM.
I worked there a couple of times back in the 70s.
Mediaweek: It’s not your first time at 2SM. So what’s it like being back? Does it feel like a return or does it feel fairly fresh?
Tim Webster: No, I can’t say it feels like a return now. I’m sure it obviously will.
I mean, I came there, I’d only been in radio for less than 18 months when I came to 2SM the first time. Then I came back again a couple of years after that and then I did an album show there back in the 90s when the late and great Ken Sparks was the programme director. So I’ve worked in Clarence Street and I worked at Blues Point Road, but this is the first time I’ve worked there at Ultimo.
Mediaweek: What has thrown me a little bit is that I’m someone who didn’t grown up in Sydney. I’ve been interstate in, you know, South Australia or in Brisbane. So I know you more as a TV person and it’s really fascinating to me right now hearing you talk very much like a lifelong, career-long radio guy.
Tim Webster: Well, I suppose I am a career radio guy, but when television happened in 1981, I didn’t do much radio for a very long time then I started to come back and do bits and pieces. I did little sports reports on 2GB, but the catalyst for me coming back full-time, well full-time, part-time, was when Ray Hadley asked me to come and fill in for him when he went to the Olympic Games in Athens and that was a long time ago. Then after that I worked there.
I worked a regular shift on afternoons at 2UE and then the whole Macquarie Radio happened and I did, you know, all sorts of shifts on there including an old programme called Talking Lifestyle. I did their first incarnation of Macquarie Sports Radio. So it was a bit of bits and pieces until Sheree Romero got me to come and do breakfast at 2CH and that’s well, probably five years ago now, but that folded ultimately when SEN bought 2CH and turned that call sign into a, I think I don’t even know what it is, but it’s something to do with SEN, something to do with sport.
Then the ABC and now all the way back to full circle and 2SM. Yeah, so look, audiences are very familiar with you, with waking up with you either on their radio or TV. Is there something special about breakfast specifically as a shift, as a broadcaster? Yeah, the special thing about breakfast is that it’s so immediate and so quick, Dan, and it’s it’s a shift where you’ve, me and my producers, got to keep an eye on the news cycle, which you do, of course, at night time.
You see what’s going on. I watch a lot of television news at night and in the afternoon and then if that relates to the next day, well, then you do it. You either get an interview subject on or a poly or whatever it might be and, you know, try and get your listeners involved as well.
The more they get involved the better, but you know, it’s breakfast and people are moving pretty fast themselves. So I think you’ve got to have a bit of pace about you as well.
Mediaweek: Let’s wrap this up with a question that I’m sure everyone’s asking right now: Just how worried should Kyle and Jackie O be right now that you’re back?
Tim Webster: [Laughs] I wouldn’t be worried if I was them. I think I might be a different demographic to them, mate. You’ve got to admire their success, but I think I’m a different kind of broadcaster to Kyle and Jackie O and their demographic is a little bit younger than the one we’re getting and always have got at 2 SM.
So they’ll actually be too concerned. Mind you, if I can grab some rating numbers off them, I’ll gratefully accept it.