The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show

''The Christian O'Connell Show'' is a multi award winning radio show, hosted by Christian O'Connell.

The show was originally produced in the United Kingdom, starting as ''The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show'' on a local station in Bournemouth in 1998, going national in 2001, then moving with O'Connell to Australia in 2018. Though still broadcast live as a morning show, the word "Breakfast" has been dropped from the title to reflect the various times it airs in different Australian markets. The show airs between 6am and 9am on weekdays on Gold 104.3 in Melbourne and between 7pm and 8pm on Gold 104.3 in Melbourne, WSFM in Sydney, 97.3 FM in Brisbane, Mix 102.3 in Adelaide and 96FM in Perth. A daily podcast of the previous morning's show is also produced.

History

O'Connell's started ''The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show'' in 1998, broadcast to the local Bournemouth, England market on station 2CR FM. In January 2000, the show moved to the larger, but still local, Liverpool market, on station Juice FM. O'Connell moved to London in January 2001, where the show was broadcast on XFM London. In January 2006, the show went national in the United Kingdom, broadcasting on Virgin Radio UK. In September 2008, the broadcast moved to Virgin Radio's successor station, Absolute Radio.

In February 2018, O'Connell announced he would be leaving Absolute Radio and emigrating to Australia to host the breakfast show on Gold 104.3 in Melbourne. The final UK show was broadcast on 18 May 2018. The last song played on the show was " Nothing Lasts Forever" by Echo & the Bunnymen.

Christian started his new show on Melbourne's Gold 104.3 on Monday 4 June 2018. The first song played on air was "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" by AC/DC.

In October 2019, ARN announced that the show will remain on Gold 104.3 until 2022.

In April 2020, ARN announced that ''The Christian O'Connell Show'' will be syndicated across the country from Monday 27 April, airing for one hour from 7PM until 8PM on weeknights on Gold 104.3 in Melbourne, WSFM in Sydney, 97.3 FM in Brisbane, Mix 102.3 in Adelaide and 96FM in Perth. The show is highlights from the breakfast show which airs on Gold 104.3.

in February 2022, ARN announced that ''The Christian O'Connell Show'' will be further syndicated across country Victoria and New South Wales airing from 5PM until 6PM on 3CS Colac, 3YBFM Warrnambool, 3HA Hamilton, 3WM Horsham, 2QN Deniliquin/Echuca, 3NE Wangaratta and Gippsland’s Gold.

Team

Christian O'Connell

Christian O'Connell (born 7 April 1973) is a British radio presenter. He began presenting on 2CR in Bournemouth in 1999, moving to Juice FM in Liverpool in 2000. He later moved to the weekday breakfast show on XFM and hosting Fighting Talk on BBC Radio 5 Live. After departing xFM, O'Connell began hosting the weekday morning breakfast show on Virgin Radio, then Absolute Radio (from 2006 - 2018) and Gold 104.3 in Melbourne, Australia.

Jack Post

Jack Post (born 10 November 1987) is O'Connell's producer and sidekick. He was previously a producer and contributor to the Hamish & Andy radio show. He continues to work on the Hamish & Andy Podcast as a hobby.

Patrina Jones (Pats)

Patrina Jones (born 27 June) is a newsreader and regular contributor on the show. She has been the voice of Gold 104.3 breakfast news since 2012.

Regular segments

*At Work Timewaster: Daily, based on a news story or event from that morning's show or the previous day's show, two topics (films, bands, songs etc.) are selected and puns are encouraged fusing the two together. O'Connell and Post put forward their suggestions before O'Connell reads out submissions sent in by listeners, which Post jokingly rates on a Gold, Silver, Bronze scale
*Late to the Party: Christian reads emails on past topics from listeners who might not have been able to chip in on something when the show was live.
*6 Word Weekend: Send in a summary of your weekend, using only 6 words.
*The Song Detectives: Listeners are invited to leave a voice message if they're trying to remember a song. They can hum it or sing a snippet, it will be played on the show for listeners to help identify the song. This is more of an irregular segment than something that shows up on a certain day.
*Misheard Lyrics: A listener of the show has an excel document on his computer with over 300 song lyrics that he has different interpretations of. Christian shares them on the show 5 at a time, on Mondays, and then reads out listener contributions. Each is rated for whether they agree, don't agree, or if the Mondegreen is an 'Instant Hall of Famer'
*Three Topic Tuesday: Listeners are invited to phone in and share an anecdote relating to one of three topics suggested by O'Connell. Originally it launched as Five Topic Tuesday (for the first *two* years of the show), but has been pared back for better focus.
*Funny Business: On Tuesdays, listeners are invited to share businesses that have funny names, like a bakery called "Knead the Dough" or a gardener called "Russell in the Bushes"
*Your Weakest Claim To Fame: On Wednesdays, Christian asks listeners to share their run-ins with celebrities that are almost not worth mentioning.
*One Second Winner: Usually on Thursdays, Christian plays a one second clip of a song, while Jack & Pats try to guess the answer the fastest.
*Naked Hour: every Thursday listeners pick the songs from 7-8am.
*House of Pain: On Thursdays, Christian asks listeners to tell the story of an injury they had in a specific part of the house.
*Double Thumbs Up Friday: Top of the show on Friday mornings, Christian, Jack, & Pats share what the best things they've watched, listened to, done, or read as a recommendation to listeners.
*Knock Off Friday: Listeners are invited to phone in and share when they're starting their weekend, and what they're going to do. Christian, Pats, and Jack also share what they're doing too.
*Caller of the Week: Each Friday, the team awards $1000 to a caller who had the best call in story of the week.
*Isolated Vocal (AKA Naked Vocal): Christian will play an isolated vocal from one of his favourite songs. The music is stripped back from the original recording and only the vocal is heard. He then plays the original song in full.

Podcast

The best bits of the show are released as a daily podcast that runs for roughly an hour's worth of material. This started with the UK version of the show and continued when it moved to Australia. Additionally, usually 2 mini episodes are released that focus on a specific highlight of the show, but aren't new material separate are created. These mini-episodes are also released daily and started with the Australia version of the show. Advertisements started being inserted into the main podcast as of the return of the team from Christmas/summer break in Jan 2022 (prior to this, new episodes were ad-free).

Competitions

Sing It For Melbourne

In mid-August 2018, the Global Liveability index was released from the Economist Intelligence Unit, which showed that Vienna had unseated Melbourne as the best city to live in. Christian, after conversing with the mayor, decided that Melbourne needed a song about how wonderful it is, somewhat similar to the idea of Ultravox's 1981 hit "Vienna" as he thought that was the only thing Vienna had over Melbourne. Jack Post wrote the song, with input from listeners.

The song reached #1 on the iTunes rock chart. All proceeds from the song are being donated to the Starlight Foundation.

Christian O'Connell's Gran Final

Leading up to the 2018 AFL Grand Final Christian started a football competition for Melbourne Grandmas to compete in a longest kick competition. The event was held at Whitten Oval on Saturday 22 September 2018. The competition, which was entered into by more than 100 Melbourne Grans, was won by North Melbourne supporter, Bronwyn Fyfe. Her winning kick was 28.54 metres long.

The Gran Final was held again on Sunday, 22 September, 2019 at the Whitten Oval. This year's winner was Carmel Hine with a winning kick of 27.9 meters.

The 2022 Gran Final is changing to see how far someone can kick a footy over 100 cars, if they can get that many. Listeners are donating their cars for this, including a hearse and the yellow Interceptor from the Mad Max movie. This competition is being called "Put Your Car On The Line" (with a jingle modeled after Toto's song 'Hold The Line'). The show ended up with 25 cars, all donated, at Middlepark Bowls Club. The winner is called Paul, who landed his kick on the 15th car and won $5000.

One Last Dream

Christian asked bands to reunite and compete for the chance to play at One Electric Day with Jimmy Barnes and The Angels. The competition was won by Bungalow, a band who last performed in 1996.

Christian's $50,000 Pay Your Bills

Semi-regular segment (it comes and goes at different parts of the year). Listeners can enter on the Gold 104.3 website, for any bill and any amount, and if chosen the bill will be paid in full.

Christian's $10K Power Tower

New contest segment as of July 2020. Christian provides a subject (such as pizza toppings, or girls names that start with the letter a) and listeners have 15 seconds to name as many things as they can in that category.

The Tradie Games

In July 2022, the team started a competition to find out who is the toughest, hardest working of all the tradies (tradesmen) for a $5000 prize from Sutton Tools. Competitions included a coffee run, a reverse parking challenge, and a Tradie Pentathlon comprising wheelie heavy barrow, skip basketball, the mystery saw, hammerschlagen, the Hero's Crawl, ending in a final sprint to grab the cash. A plumber called Jason was declared the King of All Tradies.

The Kitchen O'Connell Show

In October 2022, listeners have been asked to provide short videos to win the opportunity to have Christian and the gang take the show on the road to their house. The winner will host the gang (and their equipment) in their house, along with 80s band Pseudo Echo, and win a $60,000 kitchen makeover. Ultimately, a listener called Monika in Dingley Village, who has "Melbourne's tiniest kitchen" won the competition.

Christian O'Connell's Gold-A-Thon!

In summer 2021, during the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the gang was giving away a gold washing machine every time Australia won a gold medal. In summer 2022, the Gold-a-Thon returns for the Commonwealth Games. Every time gold is won in Birmingham, a gold kettle will be given away.

Who's Calling Christian

O'Connell encourages listeners to contact celebrities and ask them to ring the show during a period of time. Originally launched on Absolute Radio, the celebrity who wins the public vote wins £10,000 for their charity, and the listener who gets them to call wins £10,000 for themselves (should a celebrity call without prompt from a listener, they will get the full £20,000). The best five telephone calls are selected by the presenters, and the listeners then vote for their favourite. In 2015, Maisie Williams was the winner, and in 2016 Judy Murray won.

Christian relaunched this competition on Gold 104.3 in Melbourne in August 2019, with 57 celebrities calling into the show. The winner was Olivia Newton-John, and her Cancer Wellness And Research Centre received $20,000. The listener who convinced Newton-John to call said he was going to donate $10,000 of his winnings to the same charity.

In September 2020, the next round of Who's Calling Christian launched, with 53 celebrities calling in. The winner was Ricky Gervais, and the charit
All Dogs Matter
will receive $40,000, as the listener who convinced Gervais to call in is located in the UK and therefore could not receive his $20,000 prize due to contest restrictions in the terms & conditions. Christian also surprised the second-placed celebrity, Shane Warne, the day after announcing Gervais as the winner, to give a $10,000 donation to an Australian charity supporting kids with cancer, as Christian wanted a local charity to benefit as well.

In August 2021, the next round of Who's Calling Christian launched, with a prize of $25,000. The winner was Dean Boxall and the charit
Daniel Morcombe Foundation
will receive $50,000. The charity itself asked Dean to call, so they get all of the prize money.

Former Team Members

Richie Firth

Richard Mark Firth (born 8 May 1977) was Christian's co-host in the UK. He began working at Absolute Radio when several other members of the breakfast show left for different positions elsewhere in Absolute Radio and on other stations.
Richie previously worked with O’Connell at a Bournemouth radio station, where he famously was the Travel Chicken. In 2015, he and Christian competed in and won the Red Bull Soapbox Race.

Richie is married and a father of 3.

Firth also broadcasts on Absolute 80s between 13:00 and 16:00 every weekend. Since September 2018, he has co-hosted The Absolute Radio Hometime Show with Andy Bush.

Glenn Moore

Glenn Moore (born 20 January 1989) joined the team as the sport newsreader in October 2017 after the departure of Matt Dyson. He is a stand-up comedian and film buff. He currently serves as the sport newsreader on The Dave Berry Breakfast Show on Absolute Radio.

Margaret 'Maggie' Doyle

Maggie from Wexford, Ireland was the sport and travel presenter on the show before moving to BBC Radio Kent. Currently she works for RTÉ.

Andrew Bailey

Andrew Bailey was the newsreader for Absolute Radio, reading the news for the Breakfast show. He left the show on 25 September 2015, as well as leaving his position as head of news across the Bauer network, joining Sky News to become Senior News Editor.

Faye Carruthers

Faye Carruthers was the sports reader and a journalist for Absolute Radio, reading the sports news for the Breakfast Show. She joined the breakfast show in June 2014 and departed in February 2017.

Emma Jones

Emma Jones (born 1988) was a newsreader. She currently serves as the newsreader for The Dave Berry Breakfast Show.

Jenny Barsby

Jenny Barsby became resident newsreader in March 2017 taking over from Matt Dyson following the departure of Faye Carruthers from the show. Her final show was on Friday 25 August 2017.

Matt Dyson

Matt Dyson was the resident sports reader on Absolute Radio until October 2017. He joined the station in October 2015 to become the resident newsreader after the departure of Andrew Bailey. Dyson left the Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show to join Dave Berry on the Absolute Radio Hometime show. Matt also co-hosts Rock n Roll Football on Absolute Radio every Saturday with Matt Forde. He formerly worked for the now defunct XFM on the Breakfast Show. He also presents the Fantasy Premier League podcast; Gameweek. Matt is known on the show for his love of Avocado Pears and as the host of duck racing, with his catch phrase "release the ducks".
https://audioboom.com/channel/gameweek He currently serves as the co-host of The Dave Berry Breakfast Show and the Saturday edition of Rock 'N' Roll Football on Absolute Radio.

Past segments

UK Show

*Richie Firth: Did He Really Say That?!: A listener referred to as The Samnster puts together a top 10 list of odd and ludicrous things Firth has said on the show over the week, which O'Connell counts down on a Friday. The Sammster has now released a top 100 of Firth's sayings from the breakfast show, prior to the show ending.
* Radio Times TV Schedule bingo game: Richie hosts a game around the Radio Times TV listings from years gone by, but from the same date as the current week. Richie reads the day of the week, time and synopsi icof the show for the team to guess.
*Celebrity Interviews: Various famous celebrities have called the show over the years. When celebrities are unavailable, interviews are occasionally conducted with impressionist Alex Lowe.
*The Vegas Hour: Between 6am and 7am, topics are discussed that will not be talked about after 7am. These are often odd or risque subjects.
* The Mug Emails: Listeners email the show with amusing anecdotes relating to the subjects being discussed by the presenters. O'Connell then reads out a selection of these emails on air throughout the show. If both O'Connell and Firth deem an anecdote to be funny enough, the sender will receive a 'Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show Mug' as a prize.
* Hitler's Toilet: A daily feature on the show at 6.50am in which Firth reads out a comical, offbeat or vulgar news story, usually from a tabloid newspaper, which is then scrutinised by the presenters. The feature began when Firth once read out a news story about Adolf Hitler's toilet being sold at auction. This then led to a regular segment containing stories that would be considered as newsworthy as Hitler's toilet being sold at auction. Stories often feature obscure 'Top Tens', tales of animals mating or previously unheard of research from 'respected' universities. The feature formerly had a heavy bias towards stories about oversized rodents, escaped big cats and Kim Jong-Un. This segment now features on the Absolute Radio Hometime Show.
* Buzz List: Things the presenters are interested in at the moment, such as a book, app, TV show or life hack. Each member of the show gives their buzz list, followed by the listeners.
*Brian's Fantasy Guest: Brian Murphy cut together an interview with a celebrity from their 'canon of work'. This feature was often sabotaged by O'Connell.
* The Early Morning Game: A game is devised around a listeners job with a theme tune composed by Richie such as Kit Bingo, or a game devised around guessing which fish a fishmonger has slapped his colleague around the face with by the sound of the smack.
* Would you rather...: Two hypothetical statements are given and the team must pick one, such as would you rather be stuck in a lift with a clown or a badger.
* Doc Hollywood: The title of a movie is made up and O'Connell has to come up with the plot and actors.
*Phone Buckaroo: Listeners guess how long O'Connell can keep telephone psychics and sex lines talking about inane and irrelevant subjects.
*Kettle Classics
*The People Carrier of Doom
*First Friday
*The Diamante Lounge: A members club for listeners that has discounts such as 5% off at Ormskirk Arials. Membership is limited to three new members a day. Entrance to the Diamante Lounge is across a drawbridge and through a beaded curtain.
*Snack Genius: Three recipes a week are sent in for Firth to taste and declare them to be either 'snack genius' or 'snack hell'; a casting vote may be given by Christian if necessary. The recipes often contain odd combinations of food which go together surprisingly well.
*The 40 List: O'Connell attempts to tick off items on a list he wrote at the age of 13 of things he wished to accomplish before turning 40. The list includes thirteen items, such as date Kelly Le Brock, kick in Darth Vader, have an amazing splurge gun party like Bugsy Malone, and do what Ferris Bueller did when he skived off.
*Guess what's in the box: Firth walked 5 minutes from the studio to buy an item that he has placed in a box- only Firth knows what it is. Listeners call in every Friday and ask a "yes or no" question before guessing what they think is in the box. With each wrong answer the "prize pot" goes up by 99p. Each week Firth shakes the box, controversially he changed the box on 30 March 2015 to exclude the "extraneous rattle". After two months of incorrect guesses, the feature was abandoned by O'Connell. Firth revealed on the show in January 2018 that the item in the box was a bag of iced gems.
*Bus Stop: Firth would go to various bus stops around the studio and ask members of the public, unaware they were being recorded; "what you doing?" and "where you going?".
*Show in numbers: At the end of every show Firth would summarise each show in numbers.
*Reasons to be cheerful: The members of the team offer up their reasons to be cheerful and then open it up to the listeners.
*Starting Eleven: Every Monday the team picked a football starting eleven, normally in the 4-4-2 formation, of a new subject. For example; sweets, quiz show hosts, guitarists.
*Midweek Scores: On a Wednesday each presenter gives an assessment of their week with a score as if it was halftime during a football match, giving a reason for the score. Listeners then send in their own responses.
*Name game, "as in...": Listeners are invited to call in if they have a name that if they say it people always say the same thing back to them, for example "Hello my name is Chris Martin" and the response would be "as in Coldplay?". A caller will come on the line and say their full name and then Firth and O'Connell will buzz in and guess what people normally say to them when they say their name.
*Dear Aliens: An item is discussed each week with the decided best thing in that category being the thing offered up to Aliens. Categories included: dips, TV shows, takeaways, chocolate bars.
*Win or Lose your Weekend (Monday Scores): On Monday mornings, the team goes over the little wins they had over the weekend, and then listeners are invited to share their wins/losses.

Australia show

*Jack Post: Did He Really Say That?: A listener called The Sammster in the U.K. provides a Top 10 list of the strange things co-host Jack Post has said during the week, which Christian counts down on Fridays. This is fairly identical to the version that was done in the UK with co-host Richie Firth. Sammster retired from providing this list to the show.
*Put It In A Decade, Baby: Jack Post lists either movies, songs, books, birthdates or events and the caller has to put them into the correct decade. They have to score 4 out of 5 correctly to win, though O'Connell often gives the contestant the prize regardless.
*Facebook Marketplace Price Is Right: Christian finds things for sale on Facebook Marketplace and has Jack and Pats guess the asking price on each item, similar to the gameplay in Price Is Right.
*Fine Pay Friday: Listeners are invited to phone in and share their fine with O'Connell and he will pay it off.
*All Request Friday: Each Friday, O'Connell will play song requests from listeners throughout the show.
*Beat the Boss: An employee and their boss are invited to answer random trivia questions. The one with the most correct answers wins: if the employee wins, they get the rest of the day off immediately; the boss gets 20 seconds of free air time to promote their business should they win.
*Dave's Amazing Historical Facts: On Wednesdays, a listener named Dave calls in and shares the history of various things (Handshakes, chopsticks, and why you drive on a particular side of the road are examples of what's been covered)
*Make us say WOW: Listeners are invited to call in on Wednesdays with a story that will make all 3 presenters (Christian, Jack, and Patrina) say WOW.
*Midweek Mixed Tape: Listeners are invited to phone in and help O'Connell build the most epic playlist ever.
*The Footie Report: Shane Crawford comes in once a week to discuss the weekend matches and state of the game.
*OTT Radio: Christian and the team would discuss topics requested by the listeners.
*The Missing Link: Once a month on Fridays, the music team picks 6 songs with a connection, and the listeners and presenters have to guess what the link is.
*Two Thumbs Up Friday: The team gives their weekly recommendations of what they're into. (Similar to the Buzz List feature originally on the UK show)
*Anonymous Confessions: On Fridays, Christian reads texts from listeners about things they're confessing to. The team also prints out confessions that Christian reads. Once they're all read, Jack will shred them.
*Snack Genius: The recipes, sent in by listeners, often contain odd combinations of food which go together surprisingly well. This was a short revival of the UK segment, with the following rules: no more than 30 second prep time, unless microwave is involved to melt something, preferably cheese, in which case, then no more than 1 minute.
*The Wonder Year: On Wednesdays, a specific year is discussed by the team - what they were doing back then, some trivia, and then guessing songs from that year based on 1 second of the song. Then listeners get to guess a one second song, sometimes for a prize (a.k.a. The One Second Winner)
*Are You Smarter Than Google...(baby): On Wednesdays, the team proposes questions about things they don't know about (such as 'How does Wi-Fi work?' or 'How a painkiller work?') and request listeners to call in and answer the question according to what they know (whether they are experts or not)
*Mount Rushmore: On Thursdays, the team starts building what they would put on a new Mount Rushmore, and invite listeners. Topics have included what breads would you nominate for Mount Rushmore, or what takeaway foods.
*Wheel of Four Tunes: Also on Fridays, a song is randomly picked from a group of 4, and that song is the theme of the next call-in.
*Songs That Sum Up Your Weekend: On Mondays, the team shares the songs that sum up their weekend, along with why that song is appropriate.
*Do You Own A....: On Tuesdays, Christian puts out 3 items and asks listeners to call in if they own such things, like a home bar or a pinball machine.
*Stand By Your Band: Listeners are challenged to defend a song or a band that they would usually never admit that they love (the "secret songs of shame"). The team also participates.
*Rage Against the Weekend: Listeners are invited to share the rant that you have from something irritating from the weekend, get it out there, so that you can start the week fresh.
*Mashup Monday: Listeners are encouraged to send in mashups of two songs, and they are featured on the show and judged on how good they are.
*Is Your Name Related to Your Business: On Wednesdays, Christian and the team talk to listeners who have stories of Nominative Determinism, such as a gastroenterologist called Dr Butt, or a weatherman with the last name of Rain.
*A to Z of the (item/decade): On Wednesdays, Christian and the team take a consecutive letter of the alphabet and reminiscence about something iconic from the selected decade that starts with that letter (like E: electric typewriters or D: Duran Duran). Listeners are invited to call in with their memories as well. The team went through the 80s, and are going through the 90s starting in Jan 2022. They're also working through the A to Z of various things weekly, like girls names in songs or street names.

Awards

Sony Radio Academy

Other Awards

* 2011 The Arqiva/Triple A Media Commercial Radio National Breakfast Show of the Year
* 2013 Commercial Radio Roll of Honour Award 2013 Celebrating 40 years of commercial radio. Award for one of the industry’s most significant talents
* 2014 Youngest Ever DJ Inducted into the UK Radio Academy Hall of Fame
* 2014 Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards National Presenter of The Year
* 2014 Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards Gold Winner - Best UK National Breakfast show of The Year
* 2014 Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards Gold Winner - Best Feature Award the 40 List
* 2014 Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards Gold Special Achievement Award
* 2015 Red Bull Soapbox Challenge World Champions
* 2016 Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards Gold Winner - Best UK National Breakfast Show
* 2017 ARIAS Gold Winner - Best Music Presenter (Breakfast)
* 2017 ARIAS Gold Winner - Best Branded Content or Partnership (Wickes)

References

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show, The
Virgin Radio (UK)
Absolute Radio
British radio breakfast shows
2006 radio programme debuts
2018 radio programme endings
2006 establishments in England
2018 disestablishments in England