In amongst several success stories for Nova in the most recent radio ratings survey, Perth’s breakfast team of Nathan Morris, Nat Locke, and Shaun McManus stand out.
Nathan, Nat and Shaun were once again #1 after a jump of 2.2 points brought them to an overall share of 16.6% – a record high for the show.
Mediaweek spoke to the trio about what comes next, what audiences are looking for, and what makes the Perth market so special.
Morris: “Whenever results come through, we never really believe it. We always think someone we know must have gotten the book!”
Locke: “Also, because it happened while we were on holiday, we were a bit distanced from it – I don’t think it really sank in until now.”
Having hit the new high won’t change things on the ground too much, with the trio saying the game plan is to keep doing what they’ve been doing so far.
McManus: “We’re certainly happy that things are going well, but we just keep plugging away. Nothing changes. The only thing that changes here in house is if we go well in the ratings, they buy us breakfast to have while we’re at work!”
Morris: “The rule that we took on board many years ago was to do a show for the listeners and not for yourselves.”
McManus: “We won’t have any other conversations about what we need to do to keep achieving at a high level, we just go about our business the way we’ve been doing.”
For Nathan, Nat and Shaun, behind the scenes support has meant just as much as the support from listeners.
Locke: “We’re lucky that we don’t have the sort of management that says ‘right, we need to focus, you need to be directing this more to 25 year old girls’, that that doesn’t happen. That gives us a lot of freedom, which means that we can just do our thing. If people like it, then that’s good. If not, they’ll ditch us.”
Morris: “Our program director David McClung has put a lot of faith in us – so that’ll either take him to new heights, or he’ll be run out of industry!”
Locke: “So far, so good!”
McManus: “We’ve had an audience grow with us, so I think that we get a lot more and allowance for pushing the line. People really give us a lot of leeway to be ourselves, and they understand us.”
Locke: “We’re also lucky that in the early days, we had managers that put their faith in us and let us stick around even when we weren’t rating. For the first couple of years, we were in the sixes. So we’ve come a long way.”
The record high share isn’t the only record the show currently holds.
McManus: “We are Australia’s highest rating unawarded show!”
Morris: “We have never won an award – No, sorry, we won one award, and that was from the Nova Entertainment Awards, which is akin to getting a sticker from school and your parents putting it on the fridge!”
When asked what people want from radio in 2022, the answer is simple: “they don’t want to hear bullshit,” says McManus.
Locke: “It has been a difficult couple of years, people don’t want to hear about it, they don’t want to hear the misery, they want to have a bit of fun. We’re at that point now where it’s been so long, we need to be lightening up and having a bit of a laugh.”
Morris: “If we start to go towards our political views, or our views on Covid, people literally say ‘shut up and be funny’.”
Locke: “We don’t ignore it, but we don’t labour on it.”
Morris: “In the morning, people that are going to work, they don’t want to hear us talk about something that they’ve seen on the news a thousand times. They don’t want to hear us labouring on about our problems. We’re here to just lighten up their day.”
There are some perks to being in such a remote city.
McManus: “Well, the fact is, and you might have heard reports about this: we’re our own country!”
Despite still being a part of Australia (for now), The physical distance between Perth and Australia’s other capital cities has meant that the Perth market and those working in it are very self sufficient.
Locke: “There is a lot of parochialism, it’s not easy to crack the Perth market. We’re very wary of strangers from other places, so you’ve got to earn the trust of a Perth audience.”
Morris: “It’s very laid back over here, it’s not as fast paced as other cities, but we’ve got a really great culture. We do feel very separated from the rest of the country. Over in the eastern states, everyone’s a one or two hour flight away, whereas we’re four. You do really feel that separation – even within your own company sometimes.”
Locke: “Because we’re doing okay here, we’ve kind of been left alone by the group execs. Covid has stopped them from coming, but also we’re not the squeaky wheel so they just let us run riot and do whatever we want.”
Morris: “We don’t even know who’s in charge of Nova right now!”