3AW’s Tony Moclair to be replaced by Tony McManus as shake-up continues

The changes at 3AW keep on coming with the new host of Australia Overnight locked in — as Neil Mitchell reflects on his career which is slowly coming to an end.

Perth’s Tony McManus will take the reins.

The changes continue to come at 3AW with the replacement for Tony Moclair on the overnight shift finally locked in.

Moclair hosted Australia Overnight for seven years amassing a loyal and engaged following.

With Moclair’s appointment as the host of 3AW’s afternoon shift, Overnights has seen a revolving door of hosts for several weeks.

Now the baton has been officially passed to Tony McManus.

McManus will kick off his tenure as the Australia Overnight host on Monday.

McManus’s association with 3AW goes back decades, once filling in for Keith McGowan among other roles, before heading to 6PR where he had a variety of hosting positions.

Tony Moclair is moving to the arvo shift.

And Tony McManus will take his spot.

Meanwhile, 3AW giant Neil Mitchell has spoken about being an accidental radio star.

Mitchell, who will hand over the reins of his 3AW morning show on December 1 after 34 years at the helm of the top rating program, initially thought his time in radio would be a brief interlude between newspaper jobs.

He started work at 3AW in March 1987 after leaving The Herald newspaper.

Neil Mitchell will leave his morning show at the end of the year. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

“I filled in for (Derryn) Hinch and I still thought it would only be a brief thing, and then they offered me weekend breakfast,” Mitchell said.

“Then Hinch resigned and I went into Drive.

“I thought I would do it for a couple of years and see what happens, and that was 30-odd years ago.”

Mitchell moved to the morning shift in 1990.

His 37-year run with 3AW as a headline maker and news breaker takes on even greater significance as the centenary of commercial broadcasting in Australia looms.

While radio had been around for decades, commercial radio crackled into life in Australia in November 1923 with stations licensed to broadcast.

The milestone is being marked by Commercial Radio & Audio Australia on Thursday.

Neil Mitchell’s 37-year run with 3AW is about to end. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Mitchell said the most significant change in talk radio over his three decades was the proliferation of the mobile phone.

“Talk radio has changed enormously (because of) communication,” he said.

“When I first started I used to have a specific little segment for mobile phones only because the rest of the time it was all landlines (calling in) and now I don’t think I would ever take a call from anything from a mobile phone.

“It has empowered people and it has opened our audience up.

“The sales representative on the road a lot, they might have listened before but they could not participate.

“Now they are participating and they are not only participating with opinions, but they are reporters, they are filming things. Everybody is a reporter. It has broadened the audience significantly.”

While Mitchell will sign off from Mornings on December 1, he has no intention of dropping out of the news cycle.

“Of course I will miss daily news, but I have to do it, I know it is time, sadly,” he said.

“I love doing the podcast (Neil Mitchell Asks Why), I will be doing a radio spot, I will probably be doing a newspaper column, and I will be doing bits of TV. I am looking forward to running some campaigns.”