Breakfasters

The Breakfasters is a long running morning program on 3RRR, a radio station based in Melbourne, Australia. It is currently presented by Steve Wide, Alicia Sometimes and Josh Earl.

The program has seen a number of line-up changes since it began in the 1984. The first team consisted of Stratos Pavlis and Chris Hatzis. They weren't given very much direction from RRR but Chris and Stratos quickly established a strong following amongst a broader RRR audience who were perhaps not as cool as the inner city Carlton folk who were the original audience. Unlike many other RRR jocks, Chris and Stratos didn't mumble and didn't drone, and often involved the audience on the air. They invited many people on as guests in order to keep the show fresh and to have other personalities to bounce off. They were relatively articulate, witty and not afraid of expressing joy in the music and talk they presented.

This approach was a shock to the RRR old guard who were prone to long silences between sentences and speaking in a monotone, mostly off-mic to their friends in the studio. Initially the old guard thought they were selling out but as Stratos often said "We're not selling anything, we want to get Melbourne to buy in". Denise Hylands and D-Gen writer/comedian Santo Cilauro, joined them in their second year and the Breakfasters never looked back. Sponsorship increased for RRR as did their share of the mainstream audience across the board. RRR soon backed this up with a regular drive time show hosted by Stephen "the Ghost" Walker. This strategy ensured that RRR had a loyal and regular following.