Kim Williams’ BBC dream comes to life at Radio National
By Calum Jaspan
Sally Sara and a trio of reporters will front ABC’s new-look Radio National Breakfast show in 2025 in a bid to revive the show’s ratings, as the broadcaster continues its revitalised approach to audio content.
Sara, a two-time Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year, will host the show at a new starting time of 5.30am, instead of 6am. She replaces Patricia Karvelas, who is leaving the show after three years.
Sally Sara, two-time Australian Journalist of the Year, will host Radio National’s breakfast show in 2025.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
It is part of a push to refresh Radio National, touted as the ABC’s ‘heartland’ by chair Kim Williams since his arrival at the broadcaster in March, who has said he wants all of its programming to be bold and distinctive.
The changes, announced on the show on Friday, model Breakfast on BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today program, with a team of journalists bolstering the show alongside Sara each morning, including political correspondent Melissa Clarke, business correspondent Peter Ryan and newsreader Luke Siddham Dundon. It will also focus more on international news.
“We’ll be covering what’s going on right across the country, and also, given the kind of stories that are unfolding internationally as well, obviously, that international news would be hugely important as well,” Sara said on Friday morning.
Last week, this masthead revealed an organisational restructure at the ABC, breaking out ‘audio’ into its own division, putting it on equal footing with News and Content. Staff were told on Friday morning to also expect changes to Radio National’s Drive and The World Today shows, the latter of which is currently hosted by Sara. It is also expected the station will update its “think bigger” mission statement.
The ABC is attempting to arrest the recent decline in reach and audience share of Radio National, particularly the Breakfast show.
In this month’s radio ratings survey, Breakfast had a 2 per cent share in Sydney and 2.2 in Melbourne. In the same survey in 2021, its audience share was 4.6 per cent in Sydney and 4.5 per cent in Melbourne.
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. However, audience declines are not limited to Radio National.
Patricia Karvelas is leaving RN Breakfast after three years.Credit: Scott McNaughton
In a staff meeting in July, Williams said Radio National should aim to reach 17 per cent of the Australian public weekly, as the BBC’s Radio 4 does in Britain.
ABC news director Justin Stevens called Sara a hugely experienced journalist and broadcaster, and said the new lineup is a formidable team that will bring great expertise and insights to audiences and be part of setting the national agenda every day.
Karvelas will host Afternoon Briefing on the ABC News channel in 2025, alongside a new politics podcast Politics Now, while continuing to host Q+A.
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