Radio 91.3FM tells the deejay of The Morning Show to leave after his co-host Petrina Kow resigns
By Eddino Abdul Hadi
POPULAR radio personality Joe Augustin was asked to go by Radio 91.3FM last Tuesday but he promises fans he will be back on air.
Augustin, 38, was asked to leave after his co-host on The Morning Show Petrina Kow tended her resignation last month to devote more time to her family.
He was told last Tuesday that his services would no longer be required.
He tells Life! that he will still do radio: 'Of the various things I like to do, radio pays me the least but I get the most out of it, so it's still going to be something I want to do.'
At the moment, he is busy with compering and voiceover work.
When contacted, Kow says that the decision to fire Augustin was 'baffling'. She admits that there were minor disagreements about the way the show was run: 'Our programme director was trying to tighten up the show and make it less talky and what not.
'I think there might have been some creative differences but it wasn't to the point where he was going, 'look, if you guys don't shut up, we're going to have to fire you'.'
The station's programme director Jamie Meldrum says that the station has new hosts who will start work next Monday.
He does not want to reveal the names but says that they will be known personalities.
He adds that the decision to let Augustin go was not a rash one. While there was a discussion with Augustin about possible replacements after Kow resigned, Meldrum says the final decision lies with management: 'If they (radio deejays) just assumed automatically that if one of them left and the other one would automatically get to stay on and pick his own partner and basically run the radio station, then probably it'd be naive of them.'
According to him, Augustin and Kow's show is the fourth in the ratings for their demographic audience - English-speaking listeners in their 40s.
Ms Goh Wee Wang, general manager of SPH UnionWorks which operates Radio 91.3FM and Radio 1003FM, says that even if they were to get a new partner for Augustin, there would be endless comparisons, so 'we decided perhaps this is an opportunity to make some changes to the programming by introducing a new team'.
I heard about it this morning. Was quite shocked.
harnor!
He's quite good what.