Inside Mike E and Emma’s split from The Edge after 11 years hosting the breakfast show – as ARN boss confirms it was linked to the station re-launch
Radio favourites Mike E and Emma shocked fans and the industry last December when they left The Edge 96.1 after 11 years.
And now Ciaran Davis, the CEO and Managing Director of ARN, which owns The Edge, has revealed the split, though amicable, was directly linked to a station relaunch.
Davis told the Radioinfo podcast he was sorry to see the end of the pair’s popular breakfast show, but said the station was moving in a different direction.
Exit: Radio favourites Mike E and Emma (pictured) shocked fans and the industry last December when they left The Edge 96.1 after 11 years. The CEO of audio company ARN, Ciaran Davis, has now confirmed their departure was linked to a station relaunch
‘They have a very successful form of broadcasting, they’re very good at it,’ he said, ‘but it probably just didn’t fit where we want to take the station moving forward.’
Asked which came first, Mike E and Emma’s desire to exit or ARN’s decision to part company with them, Davis was diplomatic, saying: ‘A bit of both, to be honest.’
With a target audience of 15- to 29-year-olds and a playlist of R&B and hip hop, the revamped Edge will become part of a national youth brand distributed on iHeartradio with a late-2022 launch date.
Refresh: Davis (pictured) told the Radioinfo podcast he was sorry to see the end of the pair’s popular breakfast show, but said the station was moving in a different direction
Davis said The Edge is the only station that focuses on R&B and hip hop, which are the leading music genres in the world and in Australia, adding that the rebrand will have a strong emphasis on youth culture.
‘We know that if we were to try and relaunch The Edge as something different, it can’t just be the old radio model,’ he said.
Last week Emma Chow and Mike Etheridge announced they had a new home on the RnB FRIDAYS radio station on LiSTNR and DAB+.
Emma and Mike now have a daily live breakfast show on the newly launched station LiSTNR and DAB+ broadcasting weekdays from 7am to 10am.
The popular radio team will have a daily live breakfast show on the newly launched station from Monday, broadcasting weekdays from 7am to 10am.
During their time at The Edge, the duo grew the station into one of the best under-the-radar youth brands in Australia.
The ARN network of commercial stations include iHeartradio, Pure Gold and KIIS.
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