Ali Plath joins Zinc 96 Breakfast show following talent search
The Grant Broadcasters’ station had been on the hunt for a new addition to the lineup since
Nugget & Al moved to Hot 91’s Drive show.
Zinc 96’s Drive host Steve ‘Bilko’ Bilokin then moved into Breakfast and kicked off a search for an on-air partner.
The station’s listeners had the chance to apply to join the program, as well as ultimately deciding who got the gig, Grant Broadcasters said at the time.
Contenders included former 97.3 FM Breakfast c0-host Mike van Acker, as well as
My Kitchen Rules contestant Jenni Ferguson.
If you want to have longevity in radio, you need to watch your attitude, because “you won’t last that long if you’re a bit of a dick”, Grant Broadcasters’ group content director, Ryan Rathbone, has said.
He pointed to ‘Ugly Phil’ – aka Phil O’Neill – who has just returned to local radio after an extended and varied career to take on Mornings at Australian Radio Network’s (ARN) WSFM in Sydney, as an example of someone who has found long-term success in the space.
And given the year the sector has experienced, Rathbone said radio employees need to learn how to handle, and move on from, a redundancy, without causing a scene of behaving badly.
Grant Broadcasters has appointed a permanent general manager for River 94.9 Ipswich. David Wiltshire will join the team in early 2021.
His most recent role was at the company formerly known as Bauer Media, where he was state sales manager for Queensland and Western Australia, and then from the start of this year for Queensland and New South Wales. Bauer Media, like many media companies, had a tumultuous 2020, attempting to acquire Seven West Media’s Pacific Magazines – a deal which was delayed by both the consumer watchdog and the pandemic – and then being sold by its German parent company to private equity.