Radio stars diss celebrity guests

SOME of Australia’s biggest radio stars have opened up about why they’re not fond on having celebrity guests on their shows.

The Hit Network’s Kate Langbroek, Nova’s Kate Ritchie and KIIS FM’s Will McMahon all spoke about the downside of having big name stars on their drivetime programs during a presentation at the Radio Alive conference in Melbourne today.

“We’re not particularly guesty,” Langbroek said about the drive show she co-hosts with Dave Hughes.

“By the time someone’s come to town, they’ve had the marrow leached out of their bones. Who needs to hear them talk any more or promote their book or their sh*t film? The rule is: If they come to Australia to promote a film, it’s a sh*t film.”

Langbroek said the rules that are put in place by publicists about what you can ask celebrity guests are now so extreme that it’s unlikely to result in an interesting interview.

“Very often the way they’re constructed, they’re almost set up for you to fail … You can’t ask about their love life and really that’s the only thing that is of any interest to anybody — it’s certainly not their talent,” she joked.

“Hughesy and I are quite intolerant of those clipboard interviews. We’re just so not into it. And if it’s not interesting to us, we assume it’s not interesting to our listeners.”

Kate Ritchie, who co-hosts Nova’s drive show with Tim Blackwell and Marty Sheargold, said they rarely have celebrities on their show for the same reasons.

“We don’t really do guests,” she said. “We have one guest in a week and they come in and play a game called Quick Draw.

MORE: Kate Ritchie’s most awkward radio moment

MORE: Dave Hughes snaps at Kate Langbroek behind the scenes of radio show

“I’m glad we don’t have guests. It would be my biggest fear of ever having to go back to breakfast radio,” she said. (It’s common for breakfast radio shows to have more celebrity interviews.)

As one of Australia’s top actors, Ritchie’s used to being the person getting interviewed and understands why such strict rules are put in place about what you can ask celebrities.

“I don’t like being asked some of those questions,” she said. “So I’m glad that we have one guest come in and we play a game. We’re not being intrusive because I’m never going to be good at that … I don’t want to offend them.”

McMahon, who co-hosts KIIS FM’s drive show with Woody Whitelaw, said he’s becoming more wary of having big stars on his program.

“We played an interview with 5 Seconds of Summer and the interview was sh*t, real sh*t,” he said

“They’d been doing a whole day of recording. We had our 15 minutes with them and it was a stinker. I think we cut it down to two-and-a-half minutes.

“I was having a chat with my producer and she said, ‘We’ve got to play it.’ And then afterwards my boss was like, ‘You shouldn’t have played that.’

“That’s a good lesson to learn,” he said. “If it’s sh*t content, it doesn’t matter if it’s Tom Cruise.”

Australia’s top broadcasters are currently in Melbourne ahead of tomorrow night’s Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRAs).

Chris Taylor and Andrew Hansen from The Chaser are hosting the event for the third year in a row with Conrad Sewell, Amy Shark, Vera Blue and Cyrus set to perform.

The big award on the night is the ACRA for Best On Air Team. Nova’s Kate, Tim and Marty won it in 2016 and 2017 and face stiff competition this year from KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O, the Hit Network’s Hughesy and Kate, WSFM’s Jonesy and Amanda, Fox FM’s Fifi, Fev and Byron and Triple M’s Kennedy Molloy.

Kate Ritchie is also nominated for Best Entertainment Presenter up again Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald, Carrie Bickmore and Tim Blackwell, among others.

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