Surprising trend taking over Australian radio industry as popular host fired

Radio star Mitch Churi surprised listeners late last week when he announced live on air that his roles at KIIS FM “wouldn’t be returning in 2025”. The 28-year-old, who co-hosts The Pick Up with Laura Byrne and Brittany Hockley as well as his own national night show, explained that it “wasn’t [his] decision” to leave the network.

“It wasn’t my call. I really wanted to stay on this show with you two and I wanted to stay on The Night Show, and I wanted to stay at ARN and KIIS,” he shared while Laura admitted she and Brittany were “utterly devastated”.

Following the announcement, multiple reports claimed the decision to let Mitch go was due to “financial reasons” as all radio networks continue to see a decline in advertising revenue. While this is partially true, a radio insider tells Yahoo Lifestyle there’s another reason behind the move.

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“To put it bluntly, [radio] stations no longer want to develop new talent or the next generation of broadcasters [like Mitch] and he wasn’t famous enough,” they share.

“They want influencers, reality stars and people who already have an established following that will hopefully translate to more people listening to radio. Radio is dying and executives think this is the only way it’ll survive.”

KIIS FM's plans for 2025

This is a strategy KIIS already appear to be rolling out across the network with former reality TV stars Laura and Brittany, who have hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers between them, set to continue hosting The Pick Up in 2025 without Mitch.

Meanwhile, just five days after announcing Mitch’s redundancy, the network also announced they had hired recently retired Brisbane Broncos star Corey Oates to join their Brisbane breakfast show - which is similar to how NRL star Cooper Johns joined The Kyle & Jackie O Show at the start of the year.

Influencer Amy Gerard, who boasts over 150,000 loyal followers, was also given a weekend breakfast show on KIIS - despite having no background in radio.

Nova following the trend with recent announcements

Nova appears to be taking this approach to new shows as well, announcing last week that TikTok stars-turned-podcasters Luisa Dal Din and Jack ‘Jarch’ Archdale would be hosting their own national weekend show on Saturdays.

Luisa and Jack had both previously worked behind-the-scenes in production roles at Nova while expressing their desire to one day become on-air talent but were only given this opportunity after leaving the network in 2022, building a huge following on their own, and starting what is now one of Australia’s leading podcasts, We Mean Well.

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The network also announced on Wednesday that comedian Nikki Osborne, who boasts almost 300,000 followers and appeared on this year’s season of Dancing With The Stars, is the new breakfast co-host in Brisbane.

The social media star will join long-standing Nova announcers Ash Bradman and David ‘Luttsy’ Lutteral in 2025, replacing former Olympian Susie O’Neill who announced her departure last month.

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