This was published 8 years ago
Canberra's 104.7 to be rebranded Hit104.7 as it works to lock in younger listeners
By Megan Doherty
Canberra's 104.7 station is joining the Southern Cross Austereo's Hit Network in the new year and will be rebranded as Hit104.7.
Canberra FM general manager Eoghan O'Byrne said the move would not affect existing local content or ownership arrangements and was about locking in its key 18-39-year-old demographic.
New 104.7 breakfast show hosts Tanya Hennessy, 30, and Ryan Jon, 28, start on air in Canberra on January 18.
104.7 will have access to the national network"s content and move towards a "playful, new, colourful brand".
The station also begins its new breakfast show on January 18, with hosts Tanya Hennessy, 30, and Ryan Jon, 28.
Former 104.7 breakfast announcer Nigel Johnson will also take over the drive show on sister station, Mix 106.3 from February 4.
He replaces Greg Allan who is understood to have taken up a government media position.
Mr O'Byrne said Johnson was a good fit with Mix 106.3's slightly older target market.
"As Nige said to me, he wasn't a Rihanna sort of guy," he said.
It has been a tumultuous year for 104.7 marked by the dumping of popular and long-running breakfast host Scott Masters in October. Masters is pursing legal action against the station.
A new breakfast show was installed featuring Johnson and newsreader Kate "Knuckles" Rice but lasted only a few weeks with the resignation of Johnson.
Rice has since gone back to the 104.7 newsroom but will move to Mix next year. Katarina Slavich will move to 104.7.
Mr O'Byrne said despite all that had gone on, moving 104.7 to the Hit Network and installing younger breakfast hosts Hennessy and Jon had never been part of a grand plan.
He also denied the short-lived Nige and Knuckles for Breakfast show had always been intended as a stop-gap measure.
"From my point of view, I always saw great potential in Nige and Kate but people do things for their own reasons," he said.
He believed the Canberra market would embrace Hennessy and Jon.
"We're looking forward, we're not looking to the past," he said.