{"id":418347,"date":"2026-01-19T00:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/418347\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T00:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T00:39:08","slug":"19-phone-in-topics-in-one-show-as-christian-oconnell-officially-goes-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/418347\/","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":418348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[175609,150756,49,48,75,175610,175611,175612,175613,341,175614,175615,175616],"class_list":["post-418347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-alex-cullen","tag-arn","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-gold-101-7","tag-gold-104-3","tag-gold-network","tag-jonesy-amanda","tag-music","tag-patrina-jones","tag-riordan-lee","tag-the-christian-oconnell-show"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}