Jack Post on how Christian O’Connell changed Australian Breakfast radio

GOLD 104.3’s Jack Post has praised his co-star Christian O’Connell for reshaping the local Breakfast radio landscape.

Post said prior to O’Connell’s arrival, Aussie Breakfast radio tended to rely on a certain line-up formula.

“This isn’t completely unknown in Australian radio, but for a long time, Breakfast shows here have been like one guy/ one girl or one girl/ two guys – like, in Melbourne, it was Fifi, Fev & Dave, and Fifi, Fev & Jules, and a few other ones, and then Chrissie, Sam & Browny – and all the Breakfast shows sort of sounded like each other. There wasn’t a lot of difference,” he said on the Dyl & Friends podcast, hosted by Dylan Buckley.

“So, Christian’s show really stood out, because it’s him. It’s only him on the posters. It’s called The Christian O’Connell Show. He’s the captain of the team, even though there’s other voices like me and the newsreader on the show, it’s really his ship and he’s in charge of it.

“So I think it really stood out on Breakfast radio in Melbourne, and we’re #1 FM now – so he came from people not knowing him at all, to the #1 Breakfast show in the city at the moment.”

In the most recent radio ratings, O’Connell’s show had an 8.6% share of the market, ahead of its FM rivals, but behind AM’s 3AW, which boasted 20.1%.

Post also appears on the weekly Hamish & Andy podcast and was equally full of praise for its hard-working hosts, Hamish Blake and Andy Lee.

Dyl & Friends’ host, Buckley, observed that Blake and Lee make radio, podcasting and entertaining people look far easier than it actually is.

“I think they’ve done something that’s incredible, but I also think they’ve fucked it for everyone in a way, because they’ve made it look so easy that every dickhead, including myself, thinks that they can do it as well,” Buckley said. “Like every two mates out there that go ‘We’re so funny, let’s start a podcast’ – like, I’m the biggest victim of that as well – like they’ve just made every kid in the world think ‘I can be Hamish & Andy’.”

Post agreed and noted just how hard the duo work, despite appearances to the contrary

“Yea, but I kind of like that. And we did see it a lot, like people would email all the time or just stop you on the street like ‘Oh, no way, you would never believe I’m like Hamish and my best mate’s like Andy’….[But] like, you probably don’t realise how much of that success is the hard work that they put in behind the scenes. And those guys work so hard. Really, really hard to make anything they’re doing – radio, the TV show – it’s not just like ‘rock up and piss around’, which probably is the image that [people have]…. But they work really hard. And I learnt a lot of my work ethic off how hard those guys work.”

Post recently extended his contract with ARN for four more years. He is also signed on to continue with Hamish & Andy, which recently extended its deal with SCA’s LiSTNR.