EXCLUSIVE
NRL star turned television presenter Beau Ryan will be the new host of Triple M’s breakfast program in Sydney next year, Daily Mail Australia has learned.
The station will announce on Thursday morning that Ryan will replace fellow former rugby league player Mark Geyer, who was sacked earlier this month.
Ryan is familiar to TV viewers from his stint on Nine’s now defunct Footy Show and recent hosting gigs on Ten’s Amazing Race, Gladiators Australia and Top Gear.
But the 39-year-old has limited experience in radio, lasting just three months co-hosting a breakfast show on the short-lived Macquarie Sports Radio network in 2018.
He has also filled-in at breakfast on KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O Show when Kyle Sandilands has been unavailable.
Ryan has been tapped for a fulltime role on radio’s most important timeslot during a turbulent period within Triple M’s Sydney studios, which has included the sudden departure of Geyer.
NRL star turned television presenter Beau Ryan (above) will be the host of Triple M’s breakfast program in Sydney next year
Geyer was told on November 20 he would not be returning next year to Mick & MG in the Morning, which ran from 6am to 9am. He finished up immediately.
The 56-year-old, who had been with Triple M since 2009, hosted the show alongside Melbourne comedian Mick Molloy, with Cat Lynch and Natarsha Belling as their offsiders.
Triple M had already announced Molloy would be returning to Melbourne to host the local breakfast show with Nick Riewoldt, Titus O’Reily and Rosie Walton, after two years in Sydney.
Radio insiders confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that Ryan would be billed as the star of the new Sydney program, which would have one male and one female co-host.
Ryan, who played for the West Tigers and Cronulla, will inherit an audience which Geyer and Molloy had increased 0.5 points to a 5.1 per cent share of listeners in the latest ratings survey.
Melbourne presenters appear to be the biggest winners as Triple M continues to overhaul its programming around Australia.
The Marty Sheargold Show, which is currently heard nationally from 3 to 4pm, will be broadcast for an additional two hours in NSW and Queensland next year.
Triple M will announce on Thursday morning that Beau Ryan will replace fellow former rugby league player Mark Geyer (above), who was sacked earlier this month
Those extended hours have meant the axing of Sydney and Brisbane’s Rush Hour programs which aired from 4pm to 6pm.
Sheargold’s show will not run in Melbourne in the drive slot it has been allocated in Sydney and Brisbane.
In NSW, The Rush Hour was hosted by Gus Worland, who revealed in October he was quitting radio, with Jude Bolton and Aaron Woods.
In Queensland, The Rush Hour was presented by Leisel Jones, Liam Flanagan and Ben Dobbin.
Melbourne’s The Rush Hour with James Brayshaw and Billy Brownless will from next year be broadcast from 4 to 6pm in the Victorian capital as well as Adelaide, Hobart and Perth.
Adelaide’s The Rush Hour with Bernie Vince, Greg Blewett and Andrew Jarman, and Perth’s The Rush Hour with Andrew Embley and Katie Lamb will be cut from their respective schedules.
Saturday 10am to 12pm sports program Dead Set Legends, hosted in Sydney by Richard Freedman, Candice Warner and Brendan Annakin, last aired in October and its future is yet to be confirmed.
Annakin, who was also Triple M’s morning presenter in Sydney and had worked at the network for 12 years, was made redundant a fortnight ago.
The network’s Sydney content director Rex Morris’s position has recently been made redundant.
Melbourne-based Dave Cameron, the chief content officer for Southern Cross Austereo – Triple M’s parent company – was spotted in the Sydney offices at the time of Geyer’s sacking.
