After Maz Compton and Matty Baseley called it a day on Friday October 20 on their networked Hit 101.3 Gosford Breakfast show, more of the regional SCA Hit shows look like they are being dismantled or altered before 2024. On Tuesday October 24 Bianca Dye was not air, with her Gold Coast 90.9 Sea FM colleagues Danny Lakey and Ben Hannant continuing without her. The team won Best Podcast by a Radio Show at the 2023 ACRAs.

SCA Head of Regional Content, Blair Woodcock said there will be a different Gold Coast breakfast line up for 2024 featuring Lakey and a new radio partner to be announced soon, with Dye and Hannant opting to focus on new pathways.

“Ben and Bianca have always gone the extra mile and have even put themselves on the line to help community groups and individuals up and down the coast with their generous nature and positive energy, and they’ll be missed from the speakers in 2024. We are set for an exciting time as we plan the new show that will be waking up in this amazing part of the world,” said Woodcock.

Also rumoured to be impacted is Newcastle’s Hit106.9’s where Ash London is currently co-hosting with Nick Gill and Nick ‘Ducko’ Ducat while Jess Farchione is on maternity leave, and Hit Queensland’s Guy “Cliffo” Clifton and Bronte Langbroek who are about to celebrate a year on air together but have been off their show socials since Friday.

It could be that there will be just one regional and networked Hit Breakfast show for NSW and Queensland with Newcastle and Gosford, and Townsville and the Gold Coast being amalgamated to further reduce SCA costs and staff.

With last week’s news of ARN and Anchorage Capital Partner’s proposed bid to takeover SCA, surely this reduction of staff and shows, which would likely have occurred anyway if ARN’s bid is successful, further makes the transition easier not harder for ARN.

The bid remains with the SCA Board which has to unanimously recommend the proposal before regulatory approvals from both the ACCC and ACMA, and a great many other terms and conditions might come into play.