Radio duo Ben and Liam reveal why they decided to leave Triple J

After three years as hosts of the Triple J breakfast show, Ben and Liam shocked fans last October when they quit. Here’s why they left.

Ben Harvey and Liam Stapleton have revealed why they decided to leave Triple J.

After three years hosting the Triple J breakfast show, the pair blindsided fans last October when they announced they were moving back to their hometown Adelaide to host the Nova 91.9 breakfast show in 2020.

“Three years at Triple J was a good amount of time,” Ben told news.com.au. “After the three years we kind of felt like we’d ticked all the boxes.

“At Triple J we definitely got very comfortable. If you’re too comfortable that can be a bit of a worry because you start to cruise, and we didn’t want to cruise.”

The decision to leave Triple J wasn’t an easy one, though, with the pair telling news.com.au they loved their time at the station.

“They (Triple J) definitely wanted us to stay, which was nice,” Liam said.

“It was a tricky decision … There were positives and negatives for both. It really could have gone either way. But since we’ve made the call we haven’t looked back once and thought, ‘Oh damn, we made the wrong call’.”

Ben and Liam left Triple J to host the Nova breakfast show in Adelaide.

Ultimately, it was a desire to have a crack in the competitive world of commercial radio that convinced the pair to jump.

“If you want a long-term career in the game, sooner or later you’re going to have to learn how to do commercial radio and be good at it,” Liam told news.com.au.

“In community radio, ratings don’t matter. At Triple J, they try to say it matters but no one really cares … I think we were ready, we want to be on the scoreboard and really get a bit more competitive about things.”

Another reason behind their decision to leave was the drawcard of returning back to their hometown of Adelaide.

“It’s not every day you get an offer like this, doing breakfast on the station you listened to growing up in the town you grew up in,” Liam told news.com.au.

“We loved Sydney but it takes a bit of getting used to … it’s just a lot easier living where you grew up.

“You walk out of the Nova 91.9 building and you just see someone you know on the street, not because they’re camping out to meet us or anything,” Liam joked. “Every day I walk home I literally see someone I know. It’s good to be home.”

Ben and Liam’s Nova breakfast show kicked off last week, and the broadcasters told news.com.au their content would be almost identical to what they’d been doing on air for the past three years.

“Nothing’s really changed in terms of us doing the show together, it’s just a different setting with different music,” Liam said. “It doesn’t feel like we’ve started a new show, more just picked up from where we left off.”

Ben and Liam were replaced on Triple J by Sally Coleman and Erica Mallett who started hosting the breakfast show last week.