{"id":422222,"date":"2026-01-19T00:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/422222\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T00:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:31:08","slug":"19-phone-in-topics-in-one-show-as-christian-oconnell-officially-goes-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/422222\/","title":{"rendered":"19 phone-in topics in one show as Christian O’Connell officially goes national"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChristian O’Connell. Image: ARN\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

One of the hallmarks of Christian O\u2019Connell\u2019s radio success is that he doesn\u2019t do things by halves. In fact, he does them in multiples of nineteen.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s first national instalment<\/a> of the Gold Network\u2019s Christian O\u2019Connell Show features not one but nineteen phone-in topics.<\/p>\n

Today, as O\u2019Connell and his on-air team of Riordan \u2018Rio\u2019 Lee, Patrina Jones and Alex Cullen made history by networking to Sydney and Melbourne on FM and across Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth via DAB+ \u2013 the phone topic theme was all about \u2018firsts.\u2019 First detention, first pet, first car, first lie, first heartbreak.\u00a0You get the drift.<\/p>\n

In welcoming his new national audience to what he referred to as \u2018The bright side of the dial,\u2019 O\u2019Connell said:<\/p>\n

\u201cGood Morning Australia. This is the start of a brand new adventure for us, and for you as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNever in radio history in Australia has there been a national Breakfast show. Since I moved here and started on the radio here seven years ago, it never made any sense. How come these radio stations have a national Drive time show?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was told by so many bosses these same people in the morning, they won\u2019t have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am aware that there\u2019s a high chance what we\u2019re starting today will be short-lived. But sometimes in life, a great short-lived thing is good too!\u201d<\/p>\n

The first song played was John Farnham\u2019s rousing anthem You\u2019re The Voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we don\u2019t make the show just FOR you,\u201d O\u2019Connell explained. \u201cWe make it WITH you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yesterday, O\u2019Connell took to social media explaining why January 19 will always be a special day in his heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause this has never, ever been done before in radio history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor seven years, I\u2019ve been dreaming of tomorrow. Would it ever happen? Would I get to take my radio show \u2013 which has been in Melbourne for seven years \u2013 to all of Australia? Five cities. One show.\u201d<\/p>\n

From 3 this afternoon, the previous long-time Sydney Breakfast team<\/a> of Jonesy & Amanda start their new Drive show on ARN\u2019s Gold network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian O’Connell. Image: ARN One of the hallmarks of Christian O\u2019Connell\u2019s radio success is that he doesn\u2019t do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[9743,33024,64,63,134,33025,222127,222128,222129,136,222130,222131,222132],"class_list":{"0":"post-422222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-alex-cullen","9":"tag-arn","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-gold-101-7","14":"tag-gold-104-3","15":"tag-gold-network","16":"tag-jonesy-amanda","17":"tag-music","18":"tag-patrina-jones","19":"tag-riordan-lee","20":"tag-the-christian-oconnell-show"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}