Gemma Fordham, head of content at Southern Cross Austereo’s Hit Network, has departed her role after six years at the radio network. Daily Mail Australia understands staff were informed of her departure on Monday, with the move coming after a leadership restructure at Austereo.

In a statement, Chief Content Officer Dave Cameron for Austereo confirmed: ‘In 2022 SCA will take a highly localised programming approach which will deliver increased autonomy and responsibility to its Metro Content Directors on the ground in each market to program their stations for success.

‘To lead this approach, SCA will appoint a brand agnostic Head of Metro Content early in the new year, which aligns to its regional structural change earlier this year that saw Blair Woodcock appointed as SCA’s Head of Content – Regional. The new Metro role will sit across both networks and work closely with local Content Directors.

This change means that SCA will no longer have separate, brand-aligned Heads of Network moving forward, thereby impacting both the Head of Hit Network (Gemma Fordham) and Head of Triple M Network (Mike Fitzpatrick) roles.’

He continued: ‘Gemma Fordham has made the decision to leave SCA to enjoy an extended break with her family… SCA wishes Gemma all the best and thanks her for the significant contribution to Hit content over many years.’