Triple M breakfast crew Basil Zempilas, Jenna Clarke, Xavier Ellis surprise listeners with early debut

Triple M disrupted the FM dial this morning when listeners — and the competition — heard the inaugural Basil, Xav and Jenna breakfast show.

Former AFL star Xavier Ellis, The West Australian’s Jenna Clarke and Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas quietly slipped into the commercial radio pack when they appeared unexpectedly on the airwaves, doing away with the fanfare of their pencilled January 18 launch.

Their entry today lines up with the return of their main competition — Nova’s Nathan Nat and Shaun, which wrapped up 2020 by winning the number one breakfast show crown.

While they didn’t give listeners much warning before they burst onto the breakfast scene, Zempilas is “confident” that their collective experience will make for a show with “spark”.

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“We haven’t spent a lot of time together on air, I’m confident it’s going to work, people will hear a chemistry straight away,” Zempilas said.

“I think we have had conversations now for a month or so (about how we will launch), it seems pretty natural, radio is not serious... if it doesn’t work move on, if it does keep doing it,” Ellis added.

It was announced late last year that Clarke, Zempilas and Ellis would head up Perth’s very own Triple M station, which has taken over the Hit 92.9 moniker.