ABC’s Virginia Trioli to leave radio

The exit of the high-profile Melbourne presenter – to host a new ABC TV arts program – comes on the back of slumping ratings for the broadcasters’s metro stations.

Outgoing ABC Melbourne mornings radio host Virginia Trioli. Picture: Supplied.

High-profile ABC Melbourne mornings presenter Virginia Trioli will leave talkback radio to host a new ABC television arts program, the network has announced.

Trioli’s sudden departure comes amid ongoing problems at the ABC’s radio arm and management working to address long-running issues at its major metropolitan stations.

“After almost 20 years working to the hardest alarms that the ABC has to offer, presenting Mornings on ABC radio Sydney for several years, 11 years as the founding anchor of News Breakfast and on Melbourne Mornings here it’s a change that feels unavoidable for me right now,” she said on her program on Thursday.

“It’s something I think many of us here in Melbourne and Victoria well understand after the last few years.”

Trioli said she will spend more time with her family before taking up her role as host of the new arts program.

She said she informed her managers in April of her decision to step down from her radio hosting duties after she had an extended break.

Trioli’s replacement will be announced on her program on Friday.

An internal report was submitted to the ABC board in June to explain what had gone wrong with the public broadcaster’s radio stations and numerous recommendations were made on how to fix the systemic problems including a tide of leaving listeners.

These worrying signs also led the broadcaster to place all its on-air metropolitan station presenters “on notice” earlier this year.

The Australian revealed at the time that well-placed sources believed that some changes to the on-air line-ups before the end of the year were “inevitable”.

Separately, The Australian revealed earlier this year the ABC was considering an TV arts program helmed by Ms Trioli.

Ms Trioli took the reins of the ABC Melbourne morning slot in October 2019 and her last program will be on September

During her tenure, the ABC has had a slump in the ratingson both its major metropolitan morning radio stations – Sydney and Melbourne.

In the latest radio ratings released this week, Trioli had an audience share of 7.5 percentage points and the program was fifth in its slot.

ABC Melbourne had an audience share of 7.1 and it was the seventh-most popular station in the Victorian capital.

The ABC’s chief content officer Chris Oliver-Taylor said Ms Trioli’s new arts show would be part of the network’s “expanded arts coverage”.

ABC managing director David Anderson, who was on Trioli’s program on Thursday, said her “knowledge and undisputed passion for the arts will give our new arts line-up a significant boost in 2024”.