Mumbrellacast Interview: Why Christian O’Connell’s move to Australia was the biggest gamble of his life
Someone asked me the other day what my biggest gamble was in my life, was it moving to Australia? Yes, that was the biggest gamble, but the next biggest was this bloody book.
O’Connell was the host of a #1 national breakfast show in the UK before Australian Radio Network took a punt on bringing him to Melbourne’s Gold FM – a move that has paid dividends.
In this chat with Mumbrella’s Tim Burrowes, O’Connell goes behind the stories contained his new book ‘No One Listens To Your Dad’s Radio Show’, to talk about the move itself.
During the chat, the Gold host touches on the motivations for his move from the UK in the first place, as well as the hidden anxiety he faced before every show despite being the top-rating breakfast show during his time at Absolute Radio.
O’Connell dives into how the competitiveness of the Australian radio ratings was a shock to the system compared to the UK, and also speaks candidly about adapting to life in Melbourne, learning to love AFL, and the importance of not ‘trying to be a #1 rating show’.
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Music credit: RetroFuture Clean Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Backbay Lounge Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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Zanda Wilson was a reporter and podcast producer at Mumbrella, specialising in radio reporting. He left Mumbrella in September 2021.
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topics
Absolute Radio
ARN
Australian Radio Network
Christian O'Connell
Gold 104.3
Mumbrellacast
podcast
radio
