The Rock: Serving Up Breakfast For 10 Years

Serving Up Breakfast For 10 Years

From an audience of a few dozen listeners in Waikato milking sheds, to a breakfast audience of over 175,700*, The Rock’s breakfast team, Nick and Rog, celebrate ten years together on-air this April.

Nick Trott (32) and Roger Farrelly (31) – “The Morning Rumble” - have one of the longest-standing network breakfast shows in the country. Their popularity continues to grow as they serve up the breakfast show for New Zealand’s biggest rock station.
The Rock started in a basement in Hamilton in 1992 - its transmitter on top of Hamilton’s Hospital cafeteria. In 1994, management were in a dilemma as to what to do with the crucial breakfast slot. In the interim it was decided that The Rock’s night announcer Roger Farrelly and The Buzzard’s breakfast jock Nick Trott would fill in until someone suitable could be found. Nick and Rog debuted April Fool’s Day, 1994 and replacements have never been found.

Rog remembers the first couple of months well. “Nick and I would have breakfast show meetings with the boss and we’d come out of them ready to jump off the Claudlands Bridge . . . mind you, nothing much has changed”. Nick agrees, “we couldn’t work out why we weren’t toping the ratings, we thought we were hilarious … apparently no-one else thought so.”
Nick had no intention of ever working in radio. Originally from Otorohonga, he had planned to become a policeman – however, a mooning incident on a rugby bus trip put paid to that. Rog (born-and-bred in Katikati) has career beginnings steeped in legend - the story being that Rog arrived for his first interview at Tauranga’s Coastline FM with his Mum, wearing in his school uniform. When the station manager came to reception to greet “Mr Farrelly” he turned around and went back to his office – thinking that the kid in reception with his Mum was just picking up a prize.

Brent Impey, CanWest New Zealand CEO**, believes the boys have a long career in front of them, “ . . . their credibility as broadcasters goes from strength-to-strength and with the addition of new breakfast team members Simon Doull and Leah Panapa, I believe the show will generate an even wider appeal, compared with say, even 3-years ago.”

Nick & Rog now broadcast in fourteen markets across New Zealand. In the last ratings period, The Morning Rumble had significant growth in the competitive Auckland market for the lucrative 25 – 39 Male target audience#. They now hold the top spot in Auckland## and nationwide^ for this audience.

*Research International National Database 2/2003, Cumulative Audience, All 10+, Mon-Fri 6am-10am Does not include figures from Kapiti and Taupo (not currently part of surveyed areas).

**CanWest New Zealand is the owner of RadioWorks NZ Limited - New Zealand's second largest radio group. RadioWorks owns and operates four national radio networks and 27 local stations in New Zealand.

# Research International Auckland 2/2003 & 1/2003, Stataion Share, Males 25-39 years, Mon-Sun 12mn-12mn

## Research International Auckland 2/2003, Station Share, Males 25-39 years, Mon-Sun 12mn-12mn

^ Research International National Database 2/2003, Station Share, Males 25-39 years, Mon-Sun 12mn-12mn

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