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The Christian O'Connell Show is a multi-award-winning radio show, hosted by Christian O'Connell.
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| Genre | Talk and Music |
|---|---|
| Running time | Weekdays 6am–9am (Gold 104.3) Weekdays 7pm–8pm (Nationally) |
| Country of origin |  Australia |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | Gold 104.3 |
| Syndicates | 101.7 WSFM Mix 102.3 96FM |
| Hosted by | Christian O'Connell |
| Starring | Christian O'Connell Jack Post Patrina Jones |
| Produced by | Caitlin McArthur (Acting EP) Whitney Plowman (Senior Producer) Riordan Lee (Producer) Sarah Riordan (Audio Producer) Mel Davis (Audio Producer) |
| Original release | 3 June 2018 – present |
| Website | The Christian O'Connell Radio Show |
| Podcast | Podcast |
The show was originally produced in the United Kingdom, starting as The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show on a local station in Bournemouth in 1998, going national in 2001, then moving with O'Connell to Australia in 2018. Though still broadcast live as a morning show, the word "Breakfast" has been dropped from the title to reflect the various times it airs in different Australian markets.
The show airs between 6 am and 9am on weekdays on Gold 104.3 in Melbourne and between 7 pm and 8pm on Gold 104.3 in Melbourne, WSFM in Sydney, Mix 102.3 in Adelaide and 96FM in Perth.[1]
A daily podcast of the previous morning's show is also produced.
O'Connell's started The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show in 1998, broadcast to the local Bournemouth, England market on station 2CR FM. In January 2000, the show moved to the larger, but still local, Liverpool market, on station Juice FM. O'Connell moved to London in January 2001, where the show was broadcast on XFM London. In January 2006, the show went national in the United Kingdom, broadcasting on Virgin Radio UK. In September 2008, the broadcast moved to Virgin Radio's successor station, Absolute Radio.
In February 2018, O'Connell announced he would be leaving Absolute Radio and emigrating to Australia to host the breakfast show on Gold 104.3 in Melbourne. The final UK show was broadcast on 18 May 2018.[2] The last song played on the show was "Nothing Lasts Forever" by Echo & the Bunnymen.
Christian started his new show on Melbourne's Gold 104.3 on Monday 4 June 2018.[3] The first song played on air was "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" by AC/DC.
In October 2019, ARN announced that the show will remain on Gold 104.3 until 2022.[4]
In April 2020, ARN announced that The Christian O'Connell Show will be syndicated across the country from Monday 27 April, airing for one hour from 7 pm until 8 pm on weeknights on Gold 104.3 in Melbourne, WSFM in Sydney, 97.3 FM in Brisbane, Mix 102.3 in Adelaide and 96FM in Perth.[5] The show is highlights from the breakfast show which airs on Gold 104.3.
in February 2022, ARN announced that The Christian O'Connell Show will be further syndicated across country Victoria and New South Wales airing from 5 pm until 6 pm on 3CS Colac, 3YBFM Warrnambool, 3HA Hamilton, 3WM Horsham, 2QN Deniliquin/Echuca, 3NE Wangaratta and Gippsland’s Gold.[6]
In November 2023, ARN announced that it had renewed Christian O'Connell's contract until 2029.[7]
Christian O'Connell (born 7 April 1973) is a British radio presenter. He began presenting on 2CR in Bournemouth in 1999, moving to Juice FM in Liverpool in 2000. He later moved to the weekday breakfast show on XFM and hosting Fighting Talk on BBC Radio 5 Live. After departing xFM, O'Connell began hosting the weekday morning breakfast show on Virgin Radio, then Absolute Radio (from 2006 - 2018) and Gold 104.3 in Melbourne, Australia.
Jack Post (born 10 November 1987) is O'Connell's producer and sidekick. He was previously a producer and contributor to the Hamish & Andy radio show. He continues to work on the Hamish & Andy podcast in parallel.[8]
Patrina Jones (born 27 June) is a newsreader and regular contributor on the show. She has been the voice of Gold 104.3 breakfast news since 2012. In October 2023, Jones won an ACRA, The Glenn Daniel Award - Best News Presenter FM.[9]
The best bits of the show are released as a daily podcast that runs for roughly an hour's worth of material. This started with the UK version of the show and continued when it moved to Australia. Additionally, usually two mini episodes are released that focus on a specific highlight of the show, but aren't new material separate are created. These mini-episodes are also released daily and started with the Australia version of the show. Advertisements started being inserted into the main podcast as of the return of the team from Christmas/summer break in January 2022 (prior to this, new episodes were ad-free).
In mid-August 2018, the Global Liveability index was released from the Economist Intelligence Unit, which showed that Vienna had unseated Melbourne as the best city to live in. Christian, after conversing with the mayor, decided that Melbourne needed a song about how wonderful it is, somewhat similar to the idea of Ultravox's 1981 hit "Vienna", as he thought that was the only thing Vienna had over Melbourne. Jack Post wrote the song, with input from listeners.
The song reached #1 on the iTunes rock chart. All proceeds from the song are being donated to the Starlight Foundation.[10]
Leading up to the 2018 AFL Grand Final Christian started a football competition for Melbourne Grandmas to compete in a longest kick competition. The event was held at Whitten Oval on Saturday 22 September 2018. The competition, which was entered into by more than 100 Melbourne Grans, was won by North Melbourne supporter, Bronwyn Fyfe. Her winning kick was 28.54 metres long.
The Gran Final was held again on Sunday, 22 September, 2019 at the Whitten Oval. This year's winner was Carmel Hine with a winning kick of 27.9 meters.
The 2022 Gran Final is changing to see how far someone can kick a footy over 100 cars, if they can get that many. Listeners are donating their cars for this, including a hearse and the yellow Interceptor from the Mad Max movie. This competition is being called "Put Your Car On The Line" (with a jingle modeled after Toto's song 'Hold The Line'). The show ended up with 25 cars, all donated, at Middlepark Bowls Club. The winner is called Paul, who landed his kick on the 15th car and won $5,000.
The 2024 Gran Final for the show is being called the Hand Final, where contestants will be challenged to get a footy ball into a front loading washing machine on a single handball try. The first 20 people to make the shot will win the washer. The competition was held on Sept 26, 2024. The first competitor's throw went wild enough to break a window, narrowly missing Jack playing the drum. The first winner was an 8 year old who wanted to win it for his dog. Jack even threw in for a caller who couldn't make it in due to upcoming heart surgery.
Christian asked bands to reunite and compete for the chance to play at One Electric Day with Jimmy Barnes and The Angels. The competition was won by Bungalow, a band who last performed in 1996.
Semi-regular segment (it comes and goes at different parts of the year). Listeners can enter on the Gold 104.3 website, for any bill and any amount, and if chosen the bill will be paid in full.
New contest segment as of July 2020. Christian provides a subject (such as pizza toppings, or girls names that start with the letter a) and listeners have 15 seconds to name as many things as they can in that category.
In summer 2021, during the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the gang was giving away a gold washing machine every time Australia won a gold medal.[11] In summer 2022, the Gold-a-Thon returns for the Commonwealth Games. Every time gold is won in Birmingham, a gold kettle will be given away.[12]
The Gold-A-Thon came back for the 2024 Paris Summer Games, with prizes from E&S and Bosch. The prizes weren't painted gold this time, however. Prizes have included a vacuum, free standing dishwasher, and a washing machine.
In July 2022, the team started a competition to find out who is the toughest, hardest working of all the tradies (tradesmen) for a $5,000 prize from Sutton Tools. Competitions included a coffee run, a reverse parking challenge, and a Tradie Pentathlon comprising wheelie heavy barrow, skip basketball, the mystery saw, hammerschlagen, the Hero's Crawl, ending in a final sprint to grab the cash. A plumber called Jason was declared the King of All Tradies.[13]
In October 2022, listeners have been asked to provide short videos to win the opportunity to have Christian and the gang take the show on the road to their house. The winner will host the gang (and their equipment) in their house, along with 80s band Pseudo Echo, and win a $60,000 kitchen makeover. Ultimately, a listener called Monika in Dingley Village, who has "Melbourne's tiniest kitchen" won the competition.
In January 2023, the team had access to 100+ digital billboards all around Melbourne that could be updated in real time, with input from listeners. The team would take calls and hear stories from listeners and choose the most compelling message to put on the billboard. After a disaster that spoiled someone's marriage proposal early in the contest (known as the 'Sorry Mitch' incident [14]), no more marriage proposals were allowed.
Win-A-Billboard returned in July 2023 and at the end of January 2024 (for two weeks).
In February 2023, just at Valentine's Day, Christian and the team got the idea to help someone get married, as they had an officiant available to perform a ceremony with no real venue or anything else. Listeners started calling in, not only to be the folks who won the wedding, but also to offer services that the team had not thought of (like rings, or the hair/makeup for the bride). A couple named Aaron and Laura got married in "Christian's Chapel of Love" in the sales office of the radio station on Feb 17, with a cello player, serenaded by an opera singer, all put together in less than 3 days.
With the 2023 Women's World Cup when the Matilda's score a goal, listeners have the chance to win prizes from ENS on the next morning's show. The first gift give away is a cordless Bosch vacuum. This is likely in lieu of the Commonwealth Games not happening in Australia, which would have been the usual Gold-A-Thon activity.
Near the start of the pandemic, in 2021, a caller made a plea for donations to help Backpacks for Vic Kids, which provides school backpacks for underprivileged kids. Listeners, in the span of a couple days, donated over $1 million. Christian and the team is holding a live event in August 2023 at a local club where 100% of ticket sales will benefit the charity, as they've run out of funds.
In November 2023, the show made another plea for Santa Packs for kids that are going to be in care away from families during the Christmas season as they were out of donations again. In 24 hours they raised $109,000 when they initially were hoping for $35,000. As a result, the donation will be able to fulfill most requests. While on-air Christian informed the charity that one of the directors of Chemists Warehouse is going to make a personal donation of $52,000, which would raise the total to roughly $162,000 and provide packs to over 4600 children in care.
A few days after they started as of the end of the show Monday, Nov 20, people worldwide (due to the podcast reach) had donated a total of just over $200,000, which will provide packs for 5725 children.
O'Connell encourages listeners to contact celebrities and ask them to ring the show during a period of time. Originally launched on Absolute Radio, the celebrity who wins the public vote wins £10,000 for their charity, and the listener who gets them to call wins £10,000 for themselves (should a celebrity call without prompt from a listener, they will get the full £20,000). The best five telephone calls are selected by the presenters, and the listeners then vote for their favourite. In 2015, Maisie Williams was the winner, and in 2016 Judy Murray won.
Christian relaunched this competition on Gold 104.3 in Melbourne in August 2019, with 57 celebrities calling into the show. The winner was Olivia Newton-John,[15] and her Cancer Wellness And Research Centre received $20,000. The listener who convinced Newton-John to call said he was going to donate $10,000 of his winnings to the same charity.
In September 2020, the next round of Who's Calling Christian launched, with 53 celebrities calling in. The winner was Ricky Gervais,[16] and the charity All Dogs Matter will receive $40,000, as the listener who convinced Gervais to call in is located in the UK and therefore could not receive his $20,000 prize due to contest restrictions in the terms & conditions. Christian also surprised the second-placed celebrity, Shane Warne, the day after announcing Gervais as the winner, to give a $10,000 donation to an Australian charity supporting kids with cancer, as Christian wanted a local charity to benefit as well.[17]
In August 2021, the next round of Who's Calling Christian launched, with a prize of $25,000. The winner was Dean Boxall[18] and the charity Daniel Morcombe Foundation will receive $50,000. The charity itself asked Dean to call, so they get all of the prize money.
In September 2023, the idea of letting people who didn't have a speaking part in their school plays (so called High School Rejects) have a moment in the spotlight came to be. Listeners were invited to call in and pitch for being in the production, which was put on October 26, 2023 for one night only.
Because of legal entanglements, the team can't do the musical stage version of Grease, so they're doing a parody called "Grouse" as suggested by listeners, and it will be set in Australia in the 1980s. Grouse the Musical highlights can be seen here
A couple of years ago (as of late 2023), the show had the idea of creating a large catapult (6 meters tall) that would fire bags of cash at listeners and it was dubbed the Cash-apult. It was actually made from $10,000 of Douglas Fir, but never used due to the pandemic lockdowns starting up, and it was proven to work. Every once in a while it is brought up as something the show would still love to do. As of November 2023, it apparently had gone missing, and a new one needs to be constructed.
In order to win tickets to the Men's Final of the Australian Open, the show had a contest called The Longest Serve that was held on Jan 24, 2024. Fifteen competitors, broken into three age groups completed - the Young Guns (18-30 year olds), the Seniors (30-60 years old), and the Veterans (60 and over), trying to hit a tennis ball across the Yarra River. The winner, known as Hot Shot (a member of the Seniors), with a 72 meter serve. On a second hit after he was declared winner, he completely cleared the Yarra at 70+ meters. [19]
Upon learning that the Holden Museum was being shut down, the team started scouting for a piece of history to give away to listeners. A listener gave up his 2002 golden Holden Commodore to be restored. A parts distributor contributed parts to restore it after finding that the car needed about $40K AUS worth of work, and listeners donated 2000s era car memorabilia such as fuzzy dice, a 5 CD stacker, and reproduced bumper stickers. Listeners just had to re-write lyrics to their favorite songs commemorating the wonder of the Holden to win.
The winner was declared on March 1, to be the listener who took on a song by Cold Chisel by listener vote. As stated in her song, she plans to take the car down to Frankston, Victoria. The winner finally got possession of her "new" car at the end of March 2024, just before the Easter holiday break, due to the extra amount of time required to work on the Holden.
The station has access to a wall on Lygon Street in Melbourne, and is going to pain a wall of fame of legends. Listeners were invited to call in during the first week of March 2024 to nominate those that represent footy for them - this could be your childhood idol, a current legendary player, or someone who is a legend to them.
In March 2024, inspired by a discussion on the team, Christian started soliciting recipes from listeners for a "Bogun Cookbook" that they hope to assemble shortly. As of September 2024, it hasn't been mentioned again.
At the start of May 2024, the show started looking for members of the Rebel Bin Alliance - listeners who were willing to put large stickers on their garbage bins advertising the show - turning them into bin-boards. This was in response to their marketing budget (and their trusty and reliable Lexmark printer) being taken away due to all the money being put towards promoting The Kyle and Jackie O Show, which is being syndicated by the same network that promotes Christian's show. Listeners can give themselves their own rank in the army, and can request as many bin stickers as they want. Volunteers from the show and listeners are helping distribute the stickers across the neighborhoods. In May 2024, the team sent Rio out to give away prizes (like the a show beanie) to people he found with the bin stickers appearing at the curb.
Starting May 17, 2024 the team started giving away trips to the Frasier Coast for 4 nights. Listeners just email the show to enter the contest and are randomly selected as winners.
In May 2024 the team started up the 10K Beer Run. Listeners could call in to try and be chosen as one of the 8 who would be participating in a race down Chapel Street, holding multiple beers. If they complete the run while having the liquid below a line designated on the glass (an entire debate about the meniscus line ensued), they will win the $10K prize.
In October 2024, on Halloween, listeners gathered to compete for $5000 by seeing who could launch a champagne cork the farthest. They brought folks to the top of the station building. They had 10 seconds in which they could shake the bottle, and then a count of 3 to pop the cork.
Richard Mark Firth (born 8 May 1977) was Christian's co-host in the UK. He began working at Absolute Radio when several other members of the breakfast show left for different positions elsewhere in Absolute Radio and on other stations. Richie previously worked with O’Connell at a Bournemouth radio station, where he famously was the Travel Chicken. In 2015, he and Christian competed in and won the Red Bull Soapbox Race.[20]
Richie is married and a father of 3.
Firth also broadcasts on Absolute 80s between 13:00 and 16:00 every weekend. Since September 2018, he has co-hosted The Absolute Radio Hometime Show with Andy Bush.
Richie is also fond of A KFC bargain bucket that he will eat as a starter before his Sunday roast.
Glenn Moore (born 20 January 1989) joined the team as the sport newsreader in October 2017 after the departure of Matt Dyson. He is a stand-up comedian and film buff. He currently serves as the sport newsreader on The Dave Berry Breakfast Show on Absolute Radio.
Maggie from Wexford, Ireland was the sport and travel presenter on the show before moving to BBC Radio Kent. Currently she works for RTÉ.
Andrew Bailey was the newsreader for Absolute Radio, reading the news for the Breakfast show. He left the show on 25 September 2015, as well as leaving his position as head of news across the Bauer network, joining Sky News to become Senior News Editor.
Faye Carruthers was the sports reader and a journalist for Absolute Radio, reading the sports news for the Breakfast Show. She joined the breakfast show in June 2014 and departed in February 2017.
Emma Jones (born 1988) was a newsreader. She currently serves as the newsreader for The Dave Berry Breakfast Show.
Jenny Barsby became resident newsreader in March 2017 taking over from Matt Dyson following the departure of Faye Carruthers from the show. Her final show was on Friday 25 August 2017.
Matt Dyson was the resident sports reader on Absolute Radio until October 2017. He joined the station in October 2015 to become the resident newsreader after the departure of Andrew Bailey. Dyson left the Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show to join Dave Berry on the Absolute Radio Hometime show.[21] Matt also co-hosts Rock n Roll Football on Absolute Radio every Saturday with Matt Forde. He formerly worked for the now defunct XFM on the Breakfast Show. He also presents the Fantasy Premier League podcast; Gameweek. Matt is known on the show for his love of Avocado Pears and as the host of duck racing, with his catch phrase "release the ducks".[22] [23] He currently serves as the co-host of The Dave Berry Breakfast Show and the Saturday edition of Rock 'N' Roll Football on Absolute Radio.
| Year | Award | Entry | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Best UK Breakfast Show of the Year | The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show | Gold |
| 2004 | UK DJ of the Year | Christian O'Connell | Gold |
| 2005 | Entertainment Award | The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show | Gold |
| National Breakfast Show of the Year | The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show | Gold | |
| Best Competition | The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show | Gold | |
| 2006 | Sports show | Fighting Talk | Gold |
| 2007 | Best Competition | Who's Calling Christian? | Gold |
| 2010 | Best Competition | Who's Calling Christian | Gold |
| 2013 | Music Radio Personality of the Year | Christian O'Connell | Gold |
| Best Use of Branded Content | The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show | Gold | |
| 2014 | Best Use of Branded Content | The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show | Gold |
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