The Christian O'Connell Show

The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show

Genre	Talk and Music
Running time	Weekdays 6am - 10am
Country of origin	Australia
Language(s)	English
Home station	Gold 104.3
Hosted by	Christian O'Connell
Starring	Christian O'Connell Jack Post Patrina Jones
Produced by	Brad Hulme Beck Lewis Bryan Madigan
Original release	3 June 2018 – present
Website	Gold 104.3 Radio Website
Podcast	Podcast

The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show is a multi award winning morning radio show, broadcast on Gold 104.3 and presented by Christian O'Connell.

The show runs between 6am and 10am on weekdays. A daily podcast of the previous morning's show is also produced.

History

Previously the show has aired on the original Virgin Radio (January 2001 - October 2005) and its successor station Absolute Radio (September 2008 - May 2018) in the United Kingdom.

In February 2018, O'Connell announced he would be leaving Absolute Radio and emigrating to Australia to host the Gold 104.3 breakfast show 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.

Team

Christian O'Connell

Main article: 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 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.

Patrina Jones (Pats)

Patrina Jones is a newsreader on the show. She has been the voice of Gold 104.3 breakfast news since 2012.

Regular segments

• At Work Timewaster: 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
• Five Topic Tuesday: Listeners are invited to phone in and share an anecdote relating to one of five topics suggested by O'Connell.
• Half Time 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.
• Midweek Mixed Tape: Listeners are invited to phone in and help O'Connell build the most epic playlist ever.
• All Request Friday: Each Friday, O'Connell will play song requests from listeners throughout the show.
• Fine Pay Friday: Listeners are invited to phone in and share their fine with O'Connell and he will pay it off.
• 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.
• 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.
• Put It In A Decade, Baby: Jack 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.
• 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.

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.

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.

Former Team Members

Glenn Moore

Main article: Glenn Moore (comedian)

Glenn Moore 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.

Emma Jones

Emma Jones was the newsreader on the show in September 2017.

Richie Firth

Richie Firth (born 1977) was Christian's co-host. 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.

Firth also broadcasts on the station’s 1980s themed show between 10:00 and 13:00 every weekday.

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.

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 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".

Past segments

• 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.
• Who's Calling Christian: O'Connell encourages listeners to contact celebrities and ask them to ring the show during a period of time. 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.
• 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 [sic] of 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 6 am and 7 am, topics are discussed that will not be talked about after 7 am. 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.
• 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.

Awards

Sony Radio Academy

Year	Award	Entry	Result
2003	Best UK Breakfast Show of the Year	The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show	Gold
2004	UK DJ of the Year	Christian O'Connell	Gold
2005	Entertainment Award	The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show	Gold
	National Breakfast Show of the Year	The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show	Gold
	Best Competition	The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show	Gold
2006	Sports show	Fighting Talk	Gold
2007	Best Competition	Who's Calling Christian?	Gold
2010	Best Competition	Who's Calling Christian	Gold
2013	Music Radio Personality of the Year	Christian O'Connell	Gold
	Best Use of Branded Content	The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show	Gold
2014	Best Use of Branded Content	The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show	Gold

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)

External links

• Official website