This comes to us courtesy of Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph and thanks to RoveOnline for transcribing it.

…while news of the double departure spoiled the station’s plans to stage manage the exit, it sparked a new round of wireless whispers, including speculation that Rove McManus and Peter Helliar had tested to take their place.

Industry sources said the TV duo worked well with Merrick Watts, the last man standing when the Merrick and Rosso and Kate Ritchie show signs off next month.

Station insiders said management believed only a “mega name” would narrow the [ratings] gap, with McManus or Helliar likely to broadcast from their home base of Melbourne.

I’m not sure about this for a number of reasons.

a) They have done a radio show before with Rove, Pete and Corrine and I’ve never heard of any reports that Rove was interested in ever returning to radio and he is quite busy as it is.
b) Nova would want their Sydney show predominately out of Melbourne.
c) Peter just left a radio gig this year at Triple M and would he want to go back so soon?

Another ‘we’ll see’ I guess.