By Calum Jaspan
A new-look Breakfast show will headline a revamped Radio National in 2025, with fill-in hosts Sally Sara and Steve Cannane early front-runners to replace the departing Patricia Karvelas.
Announced on Wednesday morning, Karvelas is the first major change to come as a result of an ongoing review into Radio National, which has endured a steady decline in audience.
Q+A host Patricia Karvelas will leave Radio National this year.
Karvelas leaves after three years, having replaced long-term host Fran Kelly in early 2022 and will take on a new role as an anchor on the ABC’s news channel in 2025, covering national politics, as well as hosting a new podcast, alongside her existing duties as host of Q+A and The Party Room.
While the ABC said it will announce replacement soon, there is speculation the program could implement a new format with multiple hosts, mirroring the British public broadcaster BBC’s like-for-like Today program on Radio 4.
‘Real impact’
While it remains highly influential, the station’s reach and total audience have declined severely over the last three years. The most recent radio ratings survey pegged its audience share at just 1.5 per cent in Sydney, and 1.8 per cent in Melbourne. The Breakfast show had a 2 per cent share in Sydney and 2.2 in Melbourne. In 2021, its audience share sat at 4.6 and 4.5 per cent respectively.
While ABC radio audiences have fallen across the board, Breakfast’s total audience in Australia’s two largest cities has halved over that period. In Melbourne, the show’s cumulative audience fell from 147,000 to 62,000, and from 140,000 to 70,000 in Sydney.
ABC chair Kim Williams has outlined his intention to expand and revamp Radio National’s services, with aspirations to emulate the footprint and influence of BBC’s Radio 4.
During a meeting with RN staff in July, this masthead quoted Williams saying the station should aspire to match Radio 4’s weekly reach of 17 per cent of the public weekly. In 2023, RN reached 529,000 Australians weekly, or 2 per cent of the public, according to the ABC’s last annual report.
“My aspiration would be to that level. My aspiration is to actually see it be a service that has a real impact,” Williams said in July.
Station manager Dina Rosendorff is leading the station review, which includes its programming schedule and how to replace its current “think bigger” tagline and mission statement.
Since Karvelas was appointed host of Q+A, Cannane has been the primary fill-in host of Breakfast, having hosted seven times in the past month. Sara has also been a regular fill-in.
Karvelas on Wednesday said, she is ready to take on a new cross-platform role.
“I’ll miss the Radio National audience enormously. There’s something magical about waking up when the country is asleep to bring the big news and conversations to the country.”
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