The Top Marks Start This Monday on the Sound

20 June, 2014

The Top Marks Start This Monday on the Sound

Kiwi broadcasting legends The Top Marks, Mark Kennedy and Mark Staufer ‘get the band back together’ this coming Monday. From 6am they will host The Kennedy & Staufer Breakfast Show weekdays on The Sound.

The Breakfast Radio team that stormed the Auckland airwaves in the late 80s are looking forward to spending time in the studio with each other again, playing the greatest music ever made and getting to know The Sound listeners.

Vaughan Hobbs, Programme Director for The Sound, says Kennedy and Staufer are the voice of a generation, and a perfect fit for the station that’s #1 with men in the 40-59 demographic.*

“This is a Breakfast Show designed for The Sound audience, many of whom grew up listening to The Top Marks,” he says. “It will feature everything The Sound stands for; playing the greatest music ever made, with no silly games, gimmicks or B.S - presented by two legendary broadcasters. I’m delighted we’ve persuaded Kennedy and Staufer to get back into the studio.”

Launched on New Year’s Day in 2012, The Sound’s programming philosophy of focussing on the music loved by 40-59 year-olds quickly struck a chord with Kiwis. Since then the station has gone from strength to strength. In 2013, The Sound was named Network Station of the Year at the NZ Radio Awards. In the most recent Radio Survey, The Sound was the #1 station in its target demographic (men aged 40-59).*

* TNS New Zealand Commercial National Survey 1/2014, Station Share (%), 40-59, Mon-Sun, 12mn-12mn

The Kennedy & Staufer Breakfast Show
6am-9am on The Sound from June 23
www.thesound.co.nz

A Tale of Two Marks:

Mark Kennedy's first radio job was midnight to dawn announcer at Radio Windy in Wellington. Working his way up and down the dial culminated in the creation and launch of what rapidly became the #1 rating breakfast duo known as The Top Marks, first on Triple M 89FM in Auckland, then KZFM Melbourne and K-ROCK Geelong. Mark also launched VoiceWorks, New Zealand's first voiceover agency, representing actors and announcers in Australasia. Mark returned to his radio roots when he joined Sydney's WSFM, initially as presenter/producer of the Breakfast Show (Summer Edition) leading on to presenter/producer of Weekend Breakfast where he consistently rated #1 in the target 25-54 demographic. Switching to talk radio in 2006, Mark held various positions at 2GB including executive producer and talk host, later moving to 2UE as a regular on New Day Australia, broadcasting on the Fairfax Radio Network to three states and both territories.

Mark Staufer began his journalism career in radio, first at talk-back AM station Radio Pacific, then at Radio Hauraki. When he was 22, he was hired as a journalist by Auckland’s 89FM and subsequently promoted to News Director. There he made the switch into on-air announcing as part of the successful breakfast show duo, The Top Marks, with co-host Mark Kennedy which quickly went to the top of the ratings. Staufer eventually moved into television as a writer, producer and on-camera reporter for TVNZ’s Newsnight before moving to Sydney where he worked as a director/producer at the Foxtel network and as a presenter on Channel 10’s Sex/Life. His work in television took him to London, where he became Head of Production at Universal Studios Networks in London, with overall creative control of Sci-Fi UK and movie channel The Studio. Staufer has been away from New Zealand for 25 years, living in Australia, the UK, Europe and most recently Los Angeles where he's been working on film projects with Oscar winner Russell Crowe. He's also been working on two books, one of which is due to be published next year

ENDS

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