Nova Entertainment has avoided the carnage in the radio market toward the end of 2025 and waited until the start of the new radio ratings year to announce a major restructure of two critical timeslots.
The breakfast trio of Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald, Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli and Kate Ritchie will start broadcasting on February 9 from 4-6pm in the national drive slot.
Vacating national drive are Ricki-Lee Coulter and Tim Blackwell with the duo being given the plum job of hosting Nova 969 Sydney breakfast. Their drive co-host Joel Creasey is likely to get his own network show a little later this year. He will also continue as a co-host on Nova 937 Perth breakfast.
Ricki-Lee and Tim will maintain a national profile too, with an hour-long Best Of program each weekday at 6pm.
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The week of February 2 will be farewell tours for the respective teams ahead of their moves.
The move was not unexpected, with Mumbrella reporting two months ago:
“Fitzy and Wippa look like moving to Nova national drive. They could be doing a breakfast swap with drive duo Tim Blackwell and Ricki-Lee.”
Fitzy, Wippa and Kate are going national
Nova hosts revisit former timeslots
For some of the announcers it will be a return to former dayparts. In fact, Fitzy and Wippa and Tim Blackwell have swapped shows before. Back in 2011, the newly paired Fitzy and Wippa were hosting a new national drive show. Just six months after it launched, it was decided the duo would move to Sydney breakfast, replacing Merrick Watts and Scott Dooley.
Taking over the Nova national drive show back then were Kate Ritchie, Tim Blackwell and Marty Sheargold.
Blackwell is a longstanding Nova veteran, starting his radio career back when the network launched as the Melbourne late night announcer in 2001. He rose through the ranks quickly, getting the Perth drive show when that station launched in the following year and was the first voice heard on air. He famously shared the studio on launch day with the somewhat shy owner of DMG Radio, Jonathan Harmsworth, the 4th Viscount Rothermere, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers!
DMG Radio later sold 50% of the radio business to Lachlan Murdoch who later acquired the remainder of the DMG Radio shareholding.
Blackwell’s first taste of breakfast radio was working as the anchor for Hughesy and Kate at Nova 100 Melbourne breakfast. He later turned up on Nova 106.9 Brisbane breakfast alongside Meshel Laurie and later Marty Sheargold. That trio later became Nova national drive before Kate Ritchie arrived and replaced Laurie.
Ricki-Lee Coulter and Tim Blackwell
“Right moment” for new Sydney breakfast
Nova has made the change in Sydney after much upheaval in the breakfast market. Of the 10 commercial stations in Sydney, five are going into the new year with new breakfast line-ups.
Nova Network’s group programming director, Brendan Taylor said in a statement, “Ricki-Lee, Tim & Joel have been a consistent number one show in their timeslot, and we believe now is the right moment for a new sound for Sydney. Ricki-Lee and Tim are perfectly positioned to bring something exciting to Sydney Breakfast.
“They’re two of the best in the business and will continue to build on the incredible legacy of previous Nova Sydney breakfast line-ups, while delivering an exciting new show for Sydneysiders that’s live and local, every day.”
Nova Entertainment CEO, Peter Charlton added, “A key ingredient of Nova’s success has been consistency, so we’ve made these changes with consideration and a long-term view. This evolution is all about continuing to give our incredible talent the perfect platforms to deliver great content, market-leading audiences and trusted environments for our advertising partners.”
Ratings targets for new shows
It has been a year of big change for the Nova Network. For a radio brand that has built a loyal following because of consistent programming, it represents a big roll of the dice.
It is rolling the dice with proven performers, however. There are new Nova breakfast line-ups in Sydney and Brisbane; it lost the services of Smallzy and his award-winning production guru Zach La Cava to Kiis, plus Ben and Liam have moved on, starting on the newly re-branded Kiis 102.3 Adelaide after their Nova non-compete clause expires in April.
The immediate target for Nova will be to keep the ratings steady for the two timeslots. In 2025 Sydney breakfast, Fitzy, Wippa and Kate peaked in Survey 2 with 8.7%. The ratings dipped as low as 7.1% mid-year and the trio ended their breakfast run ranked #4 in commercial FM on 7.9%, trailing market leaders Kyle and Jackie O plus sister station Smooth FM and the outgoing Jonesy and Amanda at Gold.
Nationally, Nova drive ended 2025 #1 with an average network share of 10.7%.
That Nova national drive show in Sydney was a race between Nova, Smooth FM and KIIS 106.5. Nova drive finished the year in that market second on 10.5% behind Smooth but ahead of Kiis.
In Melbourne, Gold was the FM drive king with a music format (no pressure, Jonesy and Amanda). Nova drive finished the year as #4 FM in that market, trailing Gold, Triple M and Fox.
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