Jen Seyderhelm is at Radiodays Europe, being held from March 22-24 in Riga, Latvia.

Having reached Latvia after spending most of the last month covering the breakdown of Kyle and Jackie O, I went into a session called “Building a Duo on Air” with some skepticism, but was reinvigorated by the mindset and practices demonstrated by the on air team at Studio Brussel.

Sam De Bruyn at Radiodays Europe

The facilitator in his introduction naturally mentioned chemistry immediately, but Sam De Bruyn, the shows Executive Producer and Talent Coach nipped that word in the bud saying that the most important thing for a radio duo was the groundwork put in before they set foot in the studio to create respect, trust and give full commitment to the show and each other.

The breakfast hosts are Eva De Roo, a veteran radio presenter and legacy personality in Belgium, and Dries Lenaerts, who was a product of Sam’s talent management and this his first major radio role. We’ve seen such scenarios play out on Australian radio many, many times before. The known radio star paired with the recent winner of a reality show or recently retired footballer, for example.

Sam himself is a well known TV and radio presenter who actually didn’t see himself in any sort of an EP role before this one. He’d had long ties with the network and with Eva. He’d said to Dries when he was mentoring him that he had ‘just the right kind of weirdness for radio.’ For Dries this was liberating as he didn’t feel he was going to have to change who he was and felt trusted to lean into his weirdness.

After Eva and Dries met, Sam showed the audience an image of a messy whiteboard where the two shared what they knew about each other, and what they didn’t. He then identified what was missing from the conversation and sought to fill those gaps with the rest of of the breakfast team.

The Studio Brussel breakfast team

In those whiteboard sessions, Sam, Eva and Dries created boundaries and non negotiables. Eva, a mum of two with a high profile partner, didn’t want to be a mum character on air, she just wanted to be Eva. Dries had just embarked on a new relationship when Sam offered him the job. He was worried that the breakfast hours would kill the relationship before it began. Sam had to convince him, the relationship is going strong, but it is something that Dries prefers to remain private too.

The non- negotiables fed from there, and they are valuable for any heathy workplace. They are:

• Boundaries are never to be crossed
• Follow the fun – Sam emphasised that breakfast radio people must be positive and optimistic. The opposite should be hosting shows elsewhere.
• All the crew should say good morning to Eva and Dries every morning when they arrive. That is an acknowledgement that they have turned up and are ready to work. The duo particularly loved this and how much this mattered to them.
• Music played on the station is a fluid thing, unlike Australia’s set logs. One of the team is a music director called Lyn. Lyn had the final decision on songs played and there would be no questioning her decisions until after the show.
• No silent treatment, ever. If all that could be managed was a ‘I’m mad and I’m not quite sure why I feel this way yet’ then that was preferred to an angry silence.
• Asking for help is not a crime, and
• We all have a life outside work and that matters. Eva added that you must, as it gives you content to talk about on the radio.

I was thinking about Jackie O in these non negotiables. To have worked in partnership with Kyle for so long, they had their boundaries too and it was the crossing of one that Kyle had set back in the early days that seems to have been the undoing of the pair. The loss of the support and boundary reminding voice of Duncan Campbell has also been telling too.

Should Jackie, a legacy announcer in Australia, choose to return to breakfast radio, somewhere and somehow post the legal battles ahead with ARN, taking the time to establish non-negotiables again from the outset will be crucial, whoever she is paired with, alongside the additional team who will need to fill the gaps in what is presented on air, particularly the youth voice, if it isn’t her co-host.

Sam said that you can build chemistry. Dries said that he was well aware of the difference with friends in his life who he had great chemistry with, but could not translate that to on air. Eva added that what she enjoyed most about the show was that she was unafraid to fail because the environment allowed her to be and do all manner of wonderful things, within the self defined boundaries. Dries made her laugh, really laugh and often, sometimes when it was not appropriate to as well.

As to the mayonnaise, Sam observed that open communication is an obvious concept, yet most workplaces don’t give themselves the time, space or energy to actually implement it to build respect, trust and commitment. He said that Belgians are particularly devoted to mayonnaise. The ingredients are disparate flavours and tastes – egg, mustard, vinegar or lemon and oil. The chef knows it’s not just a case of throwing all the parts in a bowl and mixing. It’s done in stages and it takes time and skill or else it may split. When these ingredients do come together, the result is magic.