Dan Debuf and Maz Compton returned to the Hit Network breakfast on weekdays for two weeks in the winter break.
The show was produced out of 2DayFM’s studio in Sydney, where they once sat as the hosts of the local breakfast show.
“If the 2DayFM breakfast show had been given time, I am very confident that the Dan and Maz show would have absolutely kicked a lot of arse” – Dan Debuf
Rove and Sam replaced Dan and Maz at the end of last year. The ratings for the Dan and Maz show peaked at 3.9% in 2015.
“I am not going to say that I don’t want to do a successful radio show,” Debuf said. “We got one year in drive and one year in breakfast. We were #1 in drive and in Sydney breakfast we were going up.
“If the 2DayFM breakfast show had been given time, I am very confident that the Dan and Maz show would have absolutely kicked a lot of arse.”
2DayFM’s Rove and Sam
Compton echoed Debuf’s view, but said the fact the duo is still getting air time is a sign of a successful show in itself.
Following the end of their run as the hosts of Sydney breakfast, the Dan and Maz show became a national weekend breakfast show on the Hit Network.
The approach to the weekend show, Compton said, is like catching up with friends for brunch.
“A weekday breakfast show is different from doing a relaxed show on the weekend,” Compton explained. “For a weekday breakfast show, you need to communicate with your listeners about the biggest news stories of the day and what is happening in the city. On a weekend show, people really just want to have a laugh. It’s the same vibe with the drive home. When we were doing the drive show, the vibe was very much about escapism – people have had a tough day so they just want to have a laugh on the way home.
“The approaches to the different timeslots have to be vastly different.”
Debuf added: “It’s quite cool to not have to chase the news cycle, but instead to be able to reflect it.”
A segment that has worked well for the Dan and Maz show in all the timeslots that they’ve hosted is Mythbuster Rhyme, where they take a song lyric and ask their callers if they’ve experienced what that lyric is saying.
“It’s astonishing how many people call when we ask really ridiculous questions,” Debuf laughed. “It’s affirming when you can get on air and ask something stupid like, ‘Who do you think is the best fictional pirate?’ You can get a full break of callers all weighing in passionately.”
Since they hung up their headphones as 2DayFM breakfast presenters last year, Debuf and Compton have both revisited their old passions.
Debuf, who labelled 2015 as a “crazy year”, has been involved with the Melbourne Comedy Festival and was a regular contributor on TEN’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! Now hosted by Joel Creasey and Heather Maltman. Meanwhile, Compton has been focusing on running the F45 gym she owns in Avalon, Sydney.