Bazz (Barry Ion) and Pilko (Tony Pilkington) take 5AD to record 42% breakfast rating before jumping to 5KA in 1983

Tony Pilkington and Barry Ion's breakfast show on 5AD broke all ratings records, before they moved to 5KA in 1983, then Sydney.
Newspaper image courtesy Adelaide Remember When

The Bazz & Pilko Show, starring Barry Ion and Tony Pilkington, on 5AD from 1976 were the highest rating radio show in Australia into the 1980s with record-breaking 42% of the South Australian audience at one point.

Barry Ion, who had combined playing football (including Victorian Football League level for Footscray) and an ealy start as a football commentator in Melbourne. He moved to Adelaide in 1967 to play for the Woodville club and started working for 5AD where he met Pilkington, who has worked in various radio jobs in country Victoria and New South Wales, before starting at 5AD in 1969 on the nightshift.

After doing a one-off Good Friday special for 5AD, the pair were thrown together in the breakfast slot as an experiment in 1976. That was the year Bob Francis had given up his morning show to became 5AD general manager.  

Spearheaded by the Bazz and Pilko show that introduced the character Peter Plus (voiced by Ion), 5AD became a clear market leader with its Top “Rhythm of the City”, 5AD won all day parts, including mornings with Peter Butler, afternoons with Sam Angelsea and the popular night show for teenagers Dial a Hit hosted by Steve Mill and Di Stapleton.

5AD’s ratings collapsed when Bazz and Pilko defected to rival station 5KA in 1983. As it had done with the Beates  in 1964, 5AD was also instrumental in bringing Culture Club to Adelaide in 1984. But in 1985, after poor surveys, 5AD became “Easy Listening 5AD” then “Today's easy listening 5AD” then “Adelaide's best place to relax".

Ion and Pilkington made another big move to Sydney radio 2UW in 1985 until 1993 when they came back to Adelaide’s new 5AA. Their final show together was in 1997 but Pilkington stayed on to form a decade-long partnership with Keith Conlon, chalking up 45 No.1 ratings in a row for their last five years.