“You have no idea what the Brisbane audience wants.”
That was the blunt message a senior producer delivered to Sydney management during meetings held after the axing of 4BC breakfast hosts Sofie Formica and Dean Miller.
And honestly, that one line sums up a frustration that has been building across Brisbane’s media industry for years.
Too many decisions about this city’s radio and television landscape are being made in Sydney by executives who do not live here, do not work here and, too often, do not seem to trust the people who do.
Brisbane breakfast radio should be one of the most proudly local parts of our media industry.
Instead, it has become a revolving door of sudden axings, programming backflips and syndicated shows dropped in from interstate.
The problem is not a lack of talent. Brisbane is full of journalists, presenters, producers and creatives who understand this city because they actually live here. They know the suburbs, the humour, the issues that matter and the way Brisbane talks.
What they often lack is a genuine opportunity.
Rather than developing local talent, networks fall back on the same familiar names, reshape Brisbane roles from interstate or fly people up from Sydney and expect them to instantly connect with local audiences.
That is not building a strong media market. It is managing one from a distance.
The same thing is happening in television.
Roles are being reshaped, resources are being cut and Queensland teams are being asked to do more with less, usually to suit a national strategy created somewhere else.
Brisbane is treated like a market to control, rather than a city worth backing. And I say that as someone who genuinely loves this place.
I know what Brisbane is capable of. I see the talent in our newsrooms, radio studios and production offices. I see people working hard, building experience and waiting for someone to trust them with something bigger.
This is our city. Brisbane is not some outpost to be managed from Sydney, or a convenient backdrop when advertisers and major events come calling.
It is the host of the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Games should be Brisbane’s moment to tell its story to the world.
But if this industry keeps heading in the same direction, our city risks becoming nothing more than the backdrop.
The skyline will be ours. The stadiums will be ours. The crowds, the culture and the stories will be ours.
Yet the people deciding how Brisbane is presented could still be sitting in Sydney.
Brisbane should not host the world only to have its own story told through somebody else’s lens.
Train local talent. Back it. Promote it. Give people time to build trust, take risks and grow.
Hey Sydney, leave Brisbane alone.
This is our city.
Start trusting us with it.