More details have emerged about Abbie Chatfield‘s decision to quit her nighttime radio show, Hot Nights With Abbie Chatfield.
ICYMI: The media personality announced on August 17 that she had resigned from her radio gig after 18 months to focus on other priorities, such as “television, podcasting and live tours”.
She also declared that it was “entirely [her] decision”.
The news didn’t come as too much of a shock, however, after Abbie revealed she was at a retreat in Thailand recovering from “burnout” in July.
At the time, sources told So Dramatic! that she had plans to ditch her It’s A Lot podcast in order to focus on nabbing a prime-time breakfast radio position.
While she’s done the opposite, insiders have since dished that “Abbie did give [HIT Network an] ultimatum”.
“She wanted breakfast radio but the network wasn’t keen on it,” one source said in episode 312 of the So Dramatic! podcast.
“She auditioned for the gig last year and didn’t get it and she auditioned again this year (for next year) and didn’t get it again. They didn’t think she was ready for it and wanted her to get more practice on her night show.”
They alleged that the 28-year-old was “adamant that she couldn’t keep working at this level”.
“Something had to give. So she told them that if she isn’t given a spot on breakfast radio, she doesn’t want to do radio at all,” they said.
“If she got breakfast, she would have ditched the podcast, but it went the other way.”
Why quitting radio is the ‘better’ decision for Abbie Chatfield
According to one insider, Abbie choosing to scrap her radio show is “better in the long run”.
“Radio was too much work,” they said. “It was five nights a week. She never saw her friends, couldn’t attend events and couldn’t go away whenever she wanted.
“She missed out on a lot of opportunities that will now open up for her.”
Adding the “the hours were tough and unsociable”, the insider said the “novelty of radio had worn off” for the FBOY Island host.
“The podcast is way less work. It’s once a week as opposed to every night and she often records two to four eps in the one day,” the source explained. “It’s way more manageable for her with her other projects.
“Radio is hard work. It’s not as glamorous as TV.”
What’s more, is that another radio insider said Abbie “didn’t really fit in with the radio crowd”.
“Some of her co-workers were hostile to her,” they confessed. “Most hosts are people who have slogged it out in regional radio for years, sometimes decades before landing a metro prime-time gig.
“Her peers in radio resented her for it and there was a lot ofhostility. Many people who have done the hard yards in radio would have given their firstborn child for that gig and for Abbie to just quit it because she didn’t want to do it anymore.”
They concluded: “Very privileged position to be in.”
Reports emerge that Abbie Chatfield opted to focus on podcast due to a slip in ratings
An industry insider previously told So Dramatic! that Abbie had “lost all inspiration and motivation” for her It’s a Lot podcast.
As such, her podcast network, LiSTNR, had been “putting pressure” on the reality star following criticism from fans that “her content isn’t as good as it once was”.
“Her numbers are down because of it, which Abbie knows.”
After Abbie announced she was quitting radio, Yahoo! Lifestyle reported that the focus on her podcast was to bring it back to its former glory after spreading herself thinly across projects.
“Since launching the show in January 2022, Abbie’s podcast It’s A Lot has suffered as a result of her ‘mining her life for content’ across too many platforms – with it consistently losing listeners and downloads,” the publication reported.
“In February 2022, It’s A Lot was the 8th biggest podcast in Australia with 287,000 listeners and 731,000 downloads that month.”
It was added: “Yet by April 2023, after 14 months of doing her evening radio show alongside the podcast, It’s A Lot had dropped to the 21st biggest podcast in Australia with 206,000 listeners and 490,000 downloads that month.”
Yahoo! Lifestyle noted that since Abbie has been channelling her efforts into her pod, it has “climbed back up the charts to number 18”.
So, it seems she may have made the right choice after all!
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