The Cage (radio show)

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The Cage is the name of two different breakfast shows on Australian radio network Triple M, broadcasting in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Previously Sydney and Adelaide received the Melbourne version, however these cities now have their own individual shows.

1 The Cage (Melbourne)
- 1.1 Events
- 1.2 History
2 The Cage (Brisbane)
3 References
4 External links

[edit] The Cage (Melbourne)

The Cage Melbourne hosts. (From left to right) Parko, Fitzy, Brig, JB and Pete.

The Melbourne version of The Cage is made up of Peter Berner, Brigitte Duclos, James Brayshaw, Matt Parkinson and Mike Fitzpatrick, however they are often referred to by their nicknames: 'Pete', 'Brig' (or 'Top Flight'), 'JB' (or also 'Top Flight' by Brigitte), 'Parko' (or 'The Walking Comedy Unit') and 'Fitzy' respectively.

The show runs from 6 am to 9 am weekdays (AEDST), and contains such regular segments as Can O' Worms, Parko's Idiot Box, JB's Spin On Sport, Old Man Berner, Brig's Mags, The Duclos Report (featuring cutting and insightful political commentary), JB's Internet Joke, Pete's letter to Kapu (his sponsor child in Papua New Guinea) and the Scared Weird Little Guys doing "Stump the Scaredies" and "Song of the Week", Progressive Story, the Great Cage Debate as well as celebrity interviews, snap "cage" phone polls (or 'schnappies'), music and comical chatter.

It features characters created by Matt Parkinson including Doctor G.I. Low, Keith McKorkin (the man who does the talkin'), Nicky Knuckles, Hugh Jorgen (West-Indian cricket commentator), Gene Creamer, Gavin Spotswood (Brigitte's first true love), Randy Buff, Antonio Banderas and Becks. Duclos also contributed her own character in one episode, to gender-balance the characters on the show. Her character was known as 'Pretty McClitty' and Duclos basically talked in a drawn-out bogan style voice.

Regular celebrity guests include Paul 'Fatty' Vautin, Michael Slater, Liz Ellis, Scott Cam, Jules Lund and Tamsyn Lewis.

Previous regular Cage members include Tim Smith ('Timbo'), Matthew Quartermaine ('Quarters'), Russell Gilbert ('Gilbo'), and Trevor Marmalade ('Trev').

[edit] Events

During the period of 16-20 October 2006, The Cage ran a competition where listeners had to travel across Australia to Escape the Cage - this meant that teams of people had to get as far away from either Sydney or Melbourne within 5 days and whoever went the furthest distance would win $5000 cash.

To coincide with the 12th FINA world championships in Melbourne, The Cage held a Suburban Swim Challenge on 23rd March 2007 at the Waves Leisure Centre in Highett, Victoria.

Brigitte completed a Meditation Painting course in March 2007, and had the four artworks (one blank, from the week she missed) auctioned on April 3rd at the Triple M offices. $1850 was raised for the Camp Quality charity.

[edit] History

The show began in Melbourne at the start of 2002, when Tim Smith was given free reign to put together a new drive time show.^[1] When the breakfast show at the time flopped, The Cage was moved to the vacant breakfast slot only 3 months after it began. A relay of the breakfast show, with about 20% new content, was played in the drive slot. Triple M eventually decided in July 2002 to concentrate The Cage on breakfast only.

While Triple M Melbourne’s line-up was proving successful during 2003, the Sydney station was in a ratings dive, partly due to the popularity of a new competitor, Nova. In August 2003, Triple M networked The Cage into Sydney, adding former Sydney breakfast member Peter Berner.

At one time, the show also broadcast into Adelaide. This was eventually replaced with a local show, The New Zoo.

In 2005, The Cage was the number 1 FM breakfast radio show in Melbourne and number 2 in Sydney.

In October 2006, Sydney radio ratings [1] had 2Day FM winning the FM market and Triple M, with the Cage breakfast team slipping to 6.8 per cent, down 1.2 points, and reigniting speculation over whether the show will continue next year.

At the end of 2006, it was reported that the drive-time program The Shebang would replace The Cage in the breakfast shift in Sydney, due to declining ratings, put down the shows inability to be able to talk about local issues due to the Sydney/Melbourne duality of the show.^[2]

Austereo announced on 14 December 2006 that The Shebang would move to the morning shift for Triple M Sydney in 2007. ^[3]

From January 29th 2007, The Cage has only the morning shift in Melbourne. The cast remained unchanged from 2006.

[edit] The Cage (Brisbane)

The Cage Brisbane hosts. (From left to right) "Sully", "George", "Marto" and "Skip".

The breakfast show on Triple M Brisbane shares the name and timeslot of its interstate counterpart as well as using a roughly similar format, with many similar but differently named segments while the sections involving the Scared Weird Little Guys are identical, but is hosted locally by Ian 'Skip' Skippen, Greg 'Marto' Martin, Greg 'Sully' Sullivan and Georgina 'George' McEncroe, McEncroe frequently networked from Melbourne. The show's producer is Jamie "the Pom" McDonald.

The transfer of Skippen by Austereo from the immensely popular B105 Morning Crew to rival Triple M in 2004 caused a stir when it occurred.