In 2016, just after 97.3FM’s Robin, Terry & Bob show celebrated 10 years on air, Robin Bailey was swapped out with Bianca Dye when she left for a stint on Brisbane’s Triple M breakfast show. Three years later, ARN resigned Bailey and her former radio colleagues Terry Hansen, and Bob Gallagher to re-launch the Robin, Terry & Bob show.
After getting back on air in January 2020, Robin, Terry & Bob had only been broadcasting for a few months before Covid lockdowns hit the country.
Mediaweek spoke to Robin Bailey, Terry Hansen, and Bob Gallagher about reuniting after three years, working through Covid, and what makes the Brisbane radio market so special.
Reuniting Before Lockdown
The trio say that while launching a new show just before everything shut down was not the plan, it gave them the opportunity to connect with the audience during times of uncertainty.
Bailey: “It was a slightly different experience for all of us. For me, personally I was grieving because my husband had just died in September, so coming back was a fairly big deal. Then the pandemic hit and in some ways that, on a personal level, felt like the rest of the world had caught up to the way that I was feeling anyway. From a professional perspective though, I wish we’d had a couple of more months just to get back into the groove of everything.”
Hansen: “The superpower of Robin, Terry & Bob has always been connection with the audience, and so the fact that we came at a time when disconnection was so great I think gave us a great start to go well. We’re used to thinking every day about where our audience is at, what’s happening with their days, and all of that was changing.”
Gallagher: “We also came to a brand new radio station that had only been there for six months with the world’s best views from Milton, but of course the rest of the office were working from home. There was only us and a very small team on the air, so that felt like a whole fresh brand new beginning.”
97.3FM’s Robin, Terry & Bob celebrate their first day on air in 2020
2021 So Far
With the pandemic changing the way that people go about their lives, the trio say there has been a lot of joy in broadcasting to the city as it opens back up.
Gallagher: “It’s changed from a listening point of view – people have changed their whole workspace, a lot of people have enjoyed being home and said ‘wow, you know what? I don’t need to be back in an office anymore’ which has changed the nature of their days.
“I like things when they’re live, I like things when they’re not set and we need to respond to those things.”
Bailey: “When you’re looking for the small wins in your life because everything else has changed, being in a bright sunny climate coming back into a new year, it certainly felt like anything was possible again or that things were starting to lift. Coming back into this year I had a completely different mindset and I think that’s been reflected as we’ve moved through the year, it felt like things were opening up and it was exciting.”
Hansen: “We did launch last year saying we felt like we were getting the band back together. After the Covid situation in 2020 turned things upside down it was like getting behind the wheel of your favourite old sports car and saying ‘let’s go!’.”
The Brisbane Market
Despite having some of the fastest population growth in Australia, the trio say that Brisbane is a very tight-knit community – for better or worse.
Hansen: “Brisbane is built as a series of suburbs in many different ways. It’s got more internal hubs and suburbs of people with shared experiences, and that’s essentially the model of radio. You contact a person as an individual and you make them realise how much they are actually part of a shared experience. I think that’s the power of the localism of Brisbane, that connectivity in your local community but also in the broader community.”
Bailey: “You know how they say there’s six degrees of separation in Sydney and probably four in Melbourne? In Brisbane it’s two. If you say anything here, you’d better be damn sure you’re right, because someone will know someone and they will come after you!
“I’ve worked in Sydney and Melbourne and Adelaide and I feel that people in Brisbane invest a lot more in what you’re saying. I think they really care about what you say and what you think, but on the flip side of that, if you say stuff that they’re not happy with, you will know about it.”
Gallagher: “From a commercial radio point of view, I think it’s more competitive than it’s ever been. Of course it’s not just about commercial radio anymore with our involvement in iHeartRadio and people taking up podcasts like it’s going out of style, the competition is fiercer than it’s ever been. You’ve got to stay on your game as much as you can.”
Working in Brisbane
While it’s always difficult to look into the crystal ball and see what is coming next, the trio say that the feeling around Brisbane right now is overwhelmingly positive.
Bailey: “Because the audience has shifted what they’re doing, I think we’re reflecting that a little bit more. Things are much more fast-paced, people don’t want to get bogged down in too much. The other thing is – and I say this personally too, from someone coming out of intense grief – I want to feel hopeful, and I want to feel happy, and I want to laugh, and I want to be with people that make me feel good. Not that we weren’t that in the first version, but I think it was different and the world was different.”
Gallagher: “I think we’re probably closer to our listeners than we have been because of the Covid situation, we’ve actually taken more opportunities to go out and meet people, particularly restaurants and cafes who we tried to help out through the whole year.”
Hansen: “In terms of people coming back out into the open, we’re right next to the Brisbane River. When you’re not looking at a rower, you’re looking at a bike rider or you’re looking at a group of joggers going around, you get a real feel of the volume of the city.”