Christian O’Connell blindsided by Amanda Keller’s radio reveal

Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones’ surprise on-air announcement last week had unexpected consequences for Christian O’Connell.

Christian O’Connell was blindsided last Friday when Sydney radio duo Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones unexpectedly revealed on air they were shifting timeslots, a bombshell that lit up his phone mid-show.

“There are going to be some changes,” Keller said on Sydney’s Gold FM shortly after 6am. “Brendan and I are going to go to the drive shift (4-6pm).”

The pair, who have been hosting their breakfast show for 20 years, said they felt compelled to share the news that morning due to recent media reports that claimed they were to be replaced by O’Connell’s Melbourne-based show in 2026.

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“We wouldn’t have otherwise mentioned this, but there is a podcast that’s gonna come out on Saturday about it (Game Changers) … and it was in the trade papers yesterday,” Jones said.

“We should own the news of it,” Keller added.

The sudden on-air announcement caught not only their loyal listeners off-guard, but also Christian O’Connell, who was sitting 850km away in Gold FM’s studios in Melbourne.

“I thought my phone was gonna actually burst into flames during Friday’s breakfast show,” O’Connell told news.com.au’s podcast, From the Newsroom.

Behind the scenes, a deal had been done for The Christian O’Connell Show to be networked into Sydney breakfast from 2026, with Jonesy and Amanda to become an afternoon show on the same two stations.

But that deal wasn’t meant to be made public for a few weeks.

“Look, it did surprise everybody,” O’Connell told news.com.au. “I’m not gonna BS you.

“But my god, those two (Keller and Jones) really deserve to do their news when they think it feels right.

“Radio is the leakiest industry in the world,” he added. “So I get that they had this big thing that was going on and it must be hard for them not to be able to talk about it.”

Christian O’Connell.

Jonesy and Amanda.

O’Connell said he’s thrilled that Jonesy and Amanda will be heard on Gold FM in the afternoons next year, and raved about one of the hosts in particular.

“I think Amanda is one of the best broadcasters in Australia,” he said. “I think she’s incredible.

“Whenever she’s come on the show to do stuff with me, I get nervous,” he admitted. “Because … I know I’m funny, I know I’m good, but … you’ve really got to have your A-game ready because Amanda is like a ninth dan black belt.”

O’Connell said he received a text from Keller over the weekend in which she said she was glad that he was the ‘new guy’.

“She’s invited me to come out for a long lunch in a couple of weeks time so we can talk about it all,” he told From the Newsroom.

Christian O’Connell’s big announcement

After Keller and Jones’ big announcement on Friday, O’Connell shared his exciting news with listeners on Monday morning.

“From January next year, we get to break new ground,” he said on Gold FM in Melbourne.

“We’ll be the first ever commercial breakfast show to go live to Australia … Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and then Sydney, from Melbourne.”

O’Connell confirmed to news.com.au that his breakfast show will be broadcast onto Gold FM in Sydney and Melbourne, whereas he’ll be heard on DAB+ (Digital Audio Broadcasting) stations in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

You can tune into DAB+ stations in most modern cars, online, or with digital radios.

“The future of radio listening in this country, as it’s been shown with TV as well, is digital,” he said. “So it’s a great way to be able to roll it out.”

Christian O'Connell with his new recruit, Alex Cullen.

Dream come true

Having his show networked into multiple cities is a dream that O’Connell has had ever since he moved to Australia.

“There hasn’t been a day I haven’t thought about this for the last seven years,” he said on-air on Monday.

That move happened back in 2018.

At the time, he was one of the biggest radio stars in the UK, having hosted a hugely successful breakfast show over there for 12 years.

But craving a new challenge, he quit his show, packed up his life and moved to Melbourne with his wife and kids to join Gold 104.3.

It didn’t take long for the city to accept the Brit, and within 18 months his breakfast show had gone to number one on the FM dial.

The Christian O’Connell Show has gone through a couple of changes of late.

Longtime co-host Jack Post quit in May, with ex-Today Show presenter Alex Cullen joining the program a couple of weeks ago.

Also on the show is newsreader Patrina Jones, who O’Connell described as a “wild and unpredictable powerhouse”, and producer Riordan Lee aka Rio, who has “a very smart joke IQ and is a great storyteller”.

The Christian O'Connell team in their Gold FM studio.

His wildest on-air moment

While speaking to news.com.au, we asked O’Connell to tell us about the most bizarre thing that’s ever happened to him while live on air.

The experienced broadcaster didn’t hesitate.

“I’ve done this competition called … Who’s Calling Christian?” he said.

“The idea is that we say to listeners, ‘contact a celebrity … and get them to call the show and they could win thousands of dollars for the charity of their choice … and you could win thousands as well.’

“I did it in the UK and Rod Stewart called in,” he said. “Then Liam Gallagher called in.

“Liam said the F-word 13 times and on the radio in the UK, that is not cool, but he offered to pay any fines.

“Literally in the last 10 minutes (of the show) my producer goes, ‘you’re not gonna believe who’s on the line right now … it’s the Prime Minister from Number 10!’

“I’m trying to just suddenly ground myself in this moment,” O’Connell recalled. “I’m thinking, what the hell am I gonna say?”

But just seconds before he went live on air with the PM, one of O’Connell’s producers buzzed through with some rather unhelpful advice.

“He goes, ‘don’t f**k this up!’ I remember just getting angry, like why would you even say that?

“I remember we did this 10 minute live interview and he (the PM) was at his desk at 10 Downing Street.

“In one show, to go from Rod Stewart to Liam Gallagher and then the Prime Minister, it was like the greatest line-up on a chat show,” he said.

For O’Connell, it’s that sense of unpredictability, the mix of chaos and connection, that makes radio “magic”.

“You’re on a tightrope every morning and sometimes you fall off it, but there’s no other medium that can offer that.”