Nova Adelaide breakfast duo Ben and Liam make switch to Melbourne

Nova Adelaide breakfast duo Ben Harvey and Liam Stapleton are making a big change – but they won’t be lost to local listeners entirely.

Nova Adelaide breakfast duo Ben Harvey and Liam Stapleton are making the switch to Melbourne – but they won’t be lost to local listeners and there’s a new member of the show.

The top-rating pair have revealed they will replace Nova Melbourne’s outgoing trio of Chrissie Swan, Jonathan Brown and Sam Pang in the high-profile early morning time slot from January.

They’re also adding a new full-time member to the team, longtime producer Belle Jackson.

The new Ben, Liam and Belle breakfast program will air from 6-9am in Melbourne, but will also record a special one-hour Adelaide-only show from 6-7am.

A new 7-9am Nova Adelaide breakfast show will be announced soon.

Nova’s Ben Harvey and Liam Stapleton are heading to Melbourne. Picture:The Advertiser/ Morgan Sette

“We are all so grateful for the opportunity to wake up with the people of Melbourne every day, as well as our beloved Adelaide. Melbourne has Australia’s most competitive radio market and we are looking forward to proving ourselves against some of the biggest shows in the country,” said Harvey.

Stapleton said the duo were “stoked” to have Jackson join the show.

“She’s done the hard yards with us for the last five years and we can’t wait to have her on-air more,” he said.

“Belle has moved all over the country for us and we can’t wait for our listeners to fall in love with her, while they continue to put up with us.”

Nova's new breakfast team Ben, Liam & Belle

The trio will take an immediate break from the airwaves and will make the move to Melbourne ahead of the new year.

Nova has not revealed who will take over the new Adelaide breakfast show but rumours abound that Jodie Oddy – who hosts a Saturday morning show on Nova 919 – will be one of the stars of a new-look weekday program.

There’s also suggestions SEN breakfast host Andrew Hayes could make the move to join Oddy in the early morning timeslot.

Jodie Oddy could host a new-look weekday program at Nova. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Sam Pang, Chrissie Swan and Jonathan Brown have called it quits.

Speculation has been rife in radio circles that Harvey and Stapleton were favourites to secure the coveted role, having hosted the Nova Summer Breakfast show for the past two years. They were also described as “Nova superstars” in the press release announcing their summer breakfast gig.

The popular duo have proved themselves in their hometown, having had Adelaide’s No.1 rating breakfast program on the FM dial for the past two surveys.

When they joined Adelaide’s Nova 91.9 in 2020 – Harvey aged 26 and Stapleton 23 – they were the youngest breakfast hosts on commercial radio across the five metropolitan cities.

The South Australian-born duo’s gig at Nova marked their return to Adelaide after becoming household names nationwide thanks to a stint on Triple J as its breakfast hosts.

In a shock announcement last Friday, Swan, Jonathan Brown and Sam Pang revealed they were calling it quits at the end of 2022 after seven years in breakfast.

Pang’s decision not to continue with the show in 2023 is understood to have been the catalyst for the team to call it quits.

Swan will remain with the network and host her own national Nova program next year, with The Chrissie Swan Show set to launch in January, airing from 2-4pm.