Sammy J announces departure from breakfast radio

Sammy J is quitting breakfast radio so he can finally sleep in, he told his ABC Melbourne listeners on Wednesday. But in truth, the decision to leave the chair after five years had more to do with his burning desire to do other things.

“The sleep will be a wonderful bonus, but it’s not the primary reason,” he says. “I’ve just felt my creative stuff has been pushed to the edges to the point where it was now or never.

Sammy J is calling time on his stint as ABC Radio Melbourne host.Credit: Simon Schluter

“I got into showbiz because I love variety, I love mixing it up. I have a habit of five-year plans. I did five years of [comedy puppet act] Sammy and Randy, I did five years of doing my TV sketches for the ABC, and five years of radio. So it just felt like a natural point to me.”

Sammy J – real name Samuel Jonathan McMillan – will do his last shift on December 13. Former Western Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy and Channel 7 reporter Sharnelle Vella will co-host from January 2025.

By then, McMillan will be deep in preparation for a national stand-up tour in which he will play at the Athenaeum Theatre during next year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival. But that’s just the start.

“Radio has blown my career open in terms of skills and interests,” he says. “The fact I can hold serious conversations and discussions is a joy because I was a nerd before I was a comedian, and radio has let me combine those two.”

He’s working with the education program at Old Parliament House in Canberra, has ambitions to write a musical, and hopes to continue doing documentaries with the ABC.

“I’ve got all these projects I just want to have a crack at,” he says. “Some of them will go somewhere, some won’t. But I can finally stop having to apologise for taking on creative projects. I want to be able to embrace those wholeheartedly, and when you’re falling asleep every day at two o’clock in the afternoon that’s just impossible.”

It may not be his primary motivation, but the early starts are a grind, leaving him with what he calls “a feeling of fairly permanent jet lag”. So too is the scrutiny of radio ratings, each round of which inevitably produces a state of euphoria or dismay in station management every six weeks or so.

Channel Seven reporter Sharnelle Vella will co-host Breakfast with Bob Murphy next year.Credit: Jason South

Not that McMillan – who enjoyed some notable ups and downs over his tenure – was ever all that troubled by them personally.

“Nothing is more brutal than live comedy audiences, so I’ve always been sort of zen-like with the ratings,” he says. “They’re useful, and they’re helpful, and you want them to be good, but I haven’t been impacted by it in the way a lot of people assume. When they go up, a lot of people celebrate really hard. I smile, but I don’t celebrate because they’re up and down. That’s the business.”

For his comedy mates, the only surprise is that he stuck it out so long. But for those in the broadcasting world, the decision is more surprising. “People see I’ve got a salary and superannuation and consistency, so why would you give that up? But most of my life has been as a freelance clown, and that’s still the thing that drives me, the chance to make stuff.”

A couple of weeks ago, he tried out some new material in front of 40 people in St Kilda. “And I was more nervous about that than I am every day getting up and interviewing the premier or speaking to thousands of people. That’s where I feel there are higher stakes.”

Former Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy.Credit: Eddie Jim

When people come to see him live, they do it to see him. When they tune into Breakfast, he says, “they don’t listen because of me, they listen because of the station, as they should, and as I will keep on doing”.

What he will miss most is being part of a team. “The entire station is full of such smart, funny, wonderful people, and the contest of ideas is ever present,” he says. “The show itself I will miss because it’s a beautiful dance every single morning. But being part of something bigger has been the most special part.”

He leaves, he says, enriched by the experience, and hoping listeners feel the same way.

“I’ve tried my best to be myself, whilst also really respecting what the listeners want as well. That’s part of the juggle of radio.

“I came into the job wanting to turn it into a comedy show, and then COVID hit, and I threw that out the window and had to become a broadcaster. And that was a beautiful gift.”

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