Grubby And Dee Dee's Decade Of Gold

The Age

Thursday December 4, 2008

michael lallo

GOLD breakfast presenters Grubby and Dee Dee have met their fair share of eccentric celebrities over the years, but none was as kooky as Cybill Shepherd.

First, the American actor arrived at the station with patches of saliva on her shirt. Then she scurried into the bathroom, only to emerge some time later in dark sunglasses. She spoke of her sexual encounters with Elvis Presley, which made her cry. Then she removed her shoes, crossed her legs and warbled a series of high-pitched notes.

"We recorded for several minutes but there was nothing we could put to air," says Diane "Dee Dee" Dunleavy. "She was very odd."

"And the dribble really put us off," adds Peter "Grubby" Stubbs, brother of 774 ABC presenter Richard.

They exchange knowing glances, then launch into their next anecdote. This is how it is with Grubby and Dee Dee, now in their 10th year at Gold.

The pair met in 1988 at Fox, with Dunleavy taking an instant dislike to Stubbs.

"I thought he was big-headed," she says. "But he wasn't. I just got the wrong impression."

After 21 years, they claim never to have had an argument

"I have a hot temper, but it goes away very quickly," Dunleavy says. "I've yelled at Grub a couple of times - once about porridge and once about football - but we've never had an actual fight."

The reason, according to Stubbs, is a shared sense of equality. "When negotiate our contracts together," he says. "There's none of this 'I've got a penis so I should get more money' stuff. It's dollar for dollar. Cut her and you cut me. I'll defend her over anyone else at the station.

"And we sit side by side in the studio so we present a united front to guests. It's not me cutting to the little lady over the other side. Besides, Jonathan Coleman has already got that routine down pat. And we don't want to take that away from him, do we?"

"Grubby!" Dunleavy cries, before steering the conversation into safer waters. It's a refrain heard almost every morning on their show - and she knows it leaves her vulnerable to criticism.

"Sometimes we fall into that thing of Grubby being the big, bad bloke and me being the girl who goes, 'Stop it!"' she says. "But Grubby has to be a bit out there. Our on-air personas are exaggerated versions of ourselves."

The pair seem to have a precise understanding of what their audience wants - and serious news analysis or edgy comedy is not it. "I'm not a comedian," Stubbs says. "I'm not my brother. And I'm not clever Wil Anderson, who's been recently sacked."

"Grubby!" says Dunleavy. "Well, he has. Another ABC person bites the dust. But anyway, we have a fantastic job and we're lucky to be here."

"We don't flatter ourselves and think everyone is hanging off our every word," Dunleavy continues. "They're jumping in and out of the car and getting the kids ready for school. If we can give them a laugh in between the songs and the weather, we're happy. And our show is the only breakfast show that doesn't get advertised. I quite like the fact we rate by stealth."

"We were rating 5.1 per cent when we started 10 years ago," Stubbs says. "Back then, Nova and Vega weren't around and Mix was targeting a younger audience. We've been as high as 9 and 10 per cent and now we're just below 6 per cent. But we're still in front of Vega, Magic, Mix and 3MP. And we're also ahead of Triple M, despite their high-profile personalities and the millions they spent on billboards."

Although the industry has a reputation for scheming and skulduggery, the pair say Gold has always been a happy place to work - unlike their previous home.

"I always felt like I was in trouble at Fox," Dunleavy says. "But the people at Gold are lovely. It's a different culture here."

Not that she didn't enjoy her time at the top-rating youth station. In fact, Stubbs had to twist her arm to persuade to her to jump ship to Gold.

"I was sad to leave Fox," she says. "But it was the right time to make a change."

That change, however, was prompted by a long-running pay dispute, which culminated in the pair's management notifying Austereo of their resignation while they were on air.

"It was done for maximum impact, but I don't know that I agree with the way it was handled," Dunleavy says. "But the negotiations had been dragging for a while and the (station) management had been quite insulting to us. Everything had turned sour."

Gold quickly snapped them up, but a clause in Stubbs' Fox contract prevented him from starting at the rival station until April 1999.

"It wouldn't have stood up in court (if we had challenged it)," Stubbs says. "We didn't want any trouble, though, so we came to an agreement. Most of my 10years at Fox were really happy. But it was time to move on. We're in the right place now. We love what we're doing and we want to keep doing it."

mlallo@theage.com.au

© 2008 The Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home