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'.
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