Amanda Keller and Brendan “Jonesy” Jones have opened up about the moment they were told they’d be leaving Gold FM’s breakfast shift in 2026, describing it as a “kick to the ego”.
The duo, who have been hosting the Sydney breakfast show since 2005, were told by management in March that Gold FM Melbourne star Christian O’Connell would be taking over their slot next year.
As part of the shake-up, Jonesy and Amanda will move to afternoons in 2026, airing from 4-6pm weekdays on Gold FM stations in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, and on DAB radio stations in Adelaide and Brisbane.
Speaking to news.com.au, Keller said her initial reaction was twofold.
“First, it was a kick to the ego,” she said. “We’d had our best ratings here ever last year, so it was a surprise.”
But the revered radio star quickly saw the upside side of the move.
“Almost straight away I thought, ‘oh phew, someone helping me stop,’” she said.
“Life doing breakfast radio is hugely frenetic. It’s a flowing river, and it’s a voracious need to fill it with information, with stories, with everything.
“So mixed in with my, ‘well hang on a minute,’ was ‘oh phew,’ and that’s how I feel now is the ‘phew’.
“We still get to do what we love, which is radio, but the universe has said, ‘why don’t you have a calmer existence. And I needed someone else to make that decision for me,” Keller added. “But we still feel the ego ping.”
Jones seemed to take the news harder than his co-host.
He found out about the decision during a phone call from his manager, who called not only to break the radio news, but also to tell him a planned TV project had fallen through.
“I remember going, well this is the worst call in the history of the world,” he told news.com.au. “It was disappointing.”
Jones has now come around to the idea, saying, “I’m really excited about next year, I really am.”
The announcement that caught everyone off guard
The duo broke the news to their loyal Jonesy and Amanda listeners on August 1.
They had hoped to drop the bombshell later in the year, but the pair felt compelled to make the announcement that day as rumours of the move had been floating around in the press.
“There are going to be some changes,” Keller said on air. “Brendan and I are going to go to the drive shift.”
The sudden on-air announcement came as a surprise to Christian O’Connell, who was under the assumption the shake-up would be announced jointly later in the year.
“Look, it did surprise everybody,” O’Connell told news.com.au in August. “I’m not gonna BS you.
“But my god, those two really deserve to do their news when they think it feels right.
“Radio is the leakiest industry in the world,” he added. “So I get that they had this big thing that was going on and it must be hard for them not to be able to talk about it.”
O’Connell, whose breakfast show is number one FM in Melbourne, told his listeners on Monday, August 4 that he will be networked into Sydney in 2026.
Jonesy and Amanda’s tell-all book
The radio duo spoke to news.com.au to promote their new book, Pump Up The Jam, which is available now through Booktopia.
It’s a hilarious and eye-opening look back at their relationship, their most outrageous antics, and a love letter to the listeners who have supported them during their 20 years on air.
One of the best things about Pump Up The Jam is that it’s full of QR codes, which readers can scan to hear pieces of audio referred to in the book.
Whoever came up with that idea is a genius.
