Nick ‘Ducko’ Allen-Ducat to depart Hit Network’s Jess & Ducko show
The Jess & Ducko show will wrap on 19 December (Hit Network)
Hit Network’s New South Wales breakfast show is losing a co-host, with Nick ‘Ducko’ Allen-Ducat announcing this week that he will finish up in December.
In the extra content at the top of Wednesday’s podcast, Allen-Ducat said he’s “not being fired or forced or pushed”.
On the radio program, he said: “There is no easy way to say this, but this will be my last year on the Jess & Ducko show. This will be my last year on Hit. And this will be my last year living in Newcastle. My time here will wrap up when the show finishes on December 19th. Don’t worry, I’m not getting fired, I’m not getting walked. It’s not the company – the company wanted me to stay. Nothing to do with that. This is all my own decision.”
The radio host said he can’t yet reveal what he’s doing next, but noted it was a good opportunity for himself and his family back in Queensland.
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“In this industry, it’s not often, if at all, that you get an opportunity that is just too good to pass up. And sometimes these opportunities come when you least expect it. It will all come out in the coming weeks as to where I’m going and what I’m doing, but this was a decision I made professionally, but ultimately, mainly, for my family,” he said on Wednesday’s radio broadcast.
Mumbrella understands Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) will announce a new co-host for Jess Farchione this side of Christmas.
Allen-Ducat joined Hit 106.9’s Newcastle breakfast show in 2020, transforming the Nick & Jess show with Nick Gill and Farchione into the Nick, Jess & Ducko show.
Gill then departed at the end of 2023, and the following year, the Jess & Ducko show extended its reach from Newcastle, to take on the rest of regional New South Wales as part of the Hit Network’s ‘super’ program syndication across the regions.
Previously, Hit Breakfast NSW was hosted by various combinations of talent, including Ash Pollard, Daniel Gawned, Maz Compton, Danny Lakey and Matty Baseley. The super breakfast show strategy was first introduced in 2020, when SCA axed 19 localised shows in favour of the format.
Allen-Ducat noted the Jess & Ducko show had been “the longest iteration of a super show”.
He added: “It’s been an honour and a privilege to do this show… [to] the amazing people of New South Wales, and to do it with my best mate. The world can be a grim place, and lots of people are doing it tough, so nothing makes me happier than putting a smile on people’s faces and being a voice that they can trust every day,” he said.
Allen-Ducat’s new role in Queensland will trickle out in the coming weeks, he said.
In Brisbane, ARN’s Kiis 97.3 recently announced Craig ‘Lowie’ Low would replace the Robin & Kip with Corey Oates show in 2026. The Hit Network’s B105 announced in October 2024 that it had locked Abby Coleman, Stav Davidson and Matt Acton into “new, long-term contracts” for the long-running Stav, Abby & Matt show, which SCA said would be heard “well into the future”.
Nova Brisbane currently has the Ash, Luttsy & Nikki Osborne show after Susie O’Neill left the program at the end of last year.
