Wendy Harmer returns to radio as new host of ABC 702 Sydney Mornings program

WENDY Harmer will be back behind the microphone fulltime in 2016. So what crazy stunts can ABC listeners expect to do for a Dr Who DVD boxset?

Wendy Harmer. Public meeting on World Heritage forest delisting at Hobart Town Hall.

WENDY Harmer will be back behind the microphone, with the announcement she’s taking over from Linda Mottram as presenter of ABC 702 Sydney Mornings program.

The 60-year-old radio veteran, who spent 11 years as co-host of Sydney’s 2Day FM breakfast show The Morning Crew, will take over the 8.30am-11am weekday shift next year. Making the announcement on Twitter Friday morning, she wrote: “Just a bit excited to be part of the @702sydney team! #turnupthevolume.”

ABC managing director Mark Scott also took to Twitter to welcome Harmer.

“Is that the voice of @wendy_harmer I will be hearing in the mornings on @702sydney next year? Indeed it is! Wonderful news,” he wrote.

While Harmer has been a regular fill-in host on 702, and presented the breakfast program over the summer period, this new role will be her first fulltime radio gig since her stint at the short-lived station Vega (now Smooth).

Speaking with news.com.au about the appointment, Harmer revealed her plans for the program (and also asked that we use a decent photo of her). And there’s one thing she’s particularly excited about.

“I’m so looking forward to going up against my good friend Ray (Hadley),” she joked about her soon-to-be competition. “We don’t always agree about the footy but he’s a good broadcaster and I like to think I could take a couple of points off him.”

Jokes aside, Harmer — who this year clocks up 22 years as a Sydneysider (“I think I’m pretty much qualified to be a Sydney girl now”) - is aware of what makes residents tick.

“2016 is going to be a huge year,” she says. “We’ve got an election year here and in the US, the Rio Olympics and — probably more boring for some but not for me — we’ve got the NSW council amalgamations. When I was a journo I spent 10 years doing the local government urban affairs round so all that stuff’s right up my alley. I’m looking forward to grappling with what the government has in store.”

But Harmer assures the program won’t be too serious.

“Of course, I’ve got lots of buddies in the comedy industry who I’m hoping to be calling on,” she said. “Because the ABC has a really big roster of news programs, I think there’s room for a bit of fun as well.”

Perhaps the most exciting part about returning to the airwaves for Harmer is being given the chance to reconnect with listeners who used to tune into The Morning Crew for more than a decade.

So can ABC listeners expect to participate in any zany stunts in the hope of winning a Doctor Who DVD box set?

“When I was on 2Day we once got a person to eat cockroaches for State of Origin tickets,” she laughs. “The most awful thing about it was you could hear the crunch on air. They (the listener) ate one, and I felt so bad I took them home and kept them for years in my house. I kept them in a terrarium. I just don’t want to be stuck with giant burrowing cockroaches for several years again.”