At 14:58 pm last Friday, a buoyant Karl Stefanovic and an equally plucky Eddie Maguire walked onto the stage of ARN‘s iHeart Arena to the sound of cheers, wallops and applause.
They came from an audience of 100 or so fans who travelled far and wide to see the pair launch their new show, The Long Weekend, with one guest even telling Mediaweek he’d travelled from Bexley for the event… via Uber.
The admission, encapsulating a core commercial appeal, the duo will bring to the network a pre-packaged audience.
After taking their seats, Stefanovic picked up his mic with just 30 seconds left on the break and asked the room: “Have we got legal for this show yet?”
Cue the laughter.
Cue the applause.
Cue the panel-op.
And with that, Stefanovic and Maguire launched into the live component of their new weekly show. They had spent the first two hours broadcasting in the studio before ambling on down the 16 floors for the in-the-round component.
Talk breaks were filled with stories of the 1980s, aka the Good Old Days. The Choirboys’ Mark Gable performed ‘Run to Paradise’, before joining the hosts as the trio reminisced about Australia’s once great music scene some 40 years ago.
“You know what it’s like on a Friday night, mate,” Maguire positioned, “you get yourself ready, you get the hair going, and then you get down to those places, stand at the front, hope you didn’t get your head punched in by the Sharpies.”
“Everyone was on the darts back then,” added Stefanovic.
The pair were ushered in and out of breaks by Toni Tenaglia and newsreader Georgia Love. While back in the arena, Pete Deppler, aka Intern Pete (yes, from The Kyle and Jackie O Show), acted as MC. The show enabling Deppler to showcase his many talents – another smart play by the network.
Much was made of Stefanovic’s sartorial choices, with the host proudly donning a pair of Ugg boots. Whether a conscious choice or not, it proved why he remains a study in relatability. Sure, he might be up there on the stage, but he’s walked in your shoes. Literally.
The real focus, of course, of the show has been whether Stefanovic’s appeal can transcend TV.
Much of the discussion centres on the theory that TV stars don’t make good radio stars. The skills are too different, the mediums too distinct.
As if the ability to connect with an audience were like lightning in a bottle: Single Use Only.
The late great Scott Adams addressed this with his talent stack theory, suggesting that you don’t need to master just one specific skill, but rather, by combining several rare skills, you become irreplaceable.
So, while TV may not afford the same parasocial relationship as radio, Stefanovic has enough gas in the tank, so to speak, to make it work.
Deppler working his magic on stage. Image: Mediaweek
Maguire, of course, is the radio veteran of the pair, working across the medium since 1998. In this instance, he easily nails the brief as the elder statesman. “I’m so in awe of him,” Stefanovic told Mediaweek after the show, “I look to him like an older brother.”
“There’s a lot of fire there between us, which is just fantastic. And, you know, we respectfully rib each other until the cows come home. So it’s going to be fun.”
In perhaps the biggest acknowledgement of the why behind a gamble like this, Maguire’s phone rings during a song. It’s Katie Page from Harvey Norman. She’s in. The show’s future, secured in the time it takes to play a chorus.
At the end of the show, audience members began the slow exodus to the open bar, a place that had stayed eerily empty during the entire broadcast. A testament, perhaps, to just how locked-in listeners were. Not even the promise of a free cold one could sway them.
As the crowd dispersed, Mediaweek caught ARN’s CEO, Michael Stevenson, who nodded towards the stage and said, “I told you. We are an entertainment company.”
He’s not wrong. The show will not only air across the GOLD Network; it will live on as a vodcast via the iHeart app, 9Now and Stan.
Radio. TV. Streaming. ARN is playing every board at once.
Stevenson’s earnestness and focused hope once again betraying the monumental task he’s inherited in turning ARN around. But he is unrepentant. The promise is there. After all, they built the iHeart studio, and they certainly did come.