A key moment in Christian O'Connell's new book Unscript happened backstage at last year's ARN Upfront event in Sydney.
As he explains in this podcast interview with Mumbrella's Tim Burrowes, it was a high pressure situation. O'Connell had decided to present to the audience without the safety net of the autocue.
To increase the pressure, he was about to welcome to the stage the two people whose time slot he was about to take over in Sydney -- Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones, who had been the regular breakfast voices on the station for 20 years.
An unnamed ARN executive adds to the tension further, telling O'Connell: "This really needs to go well."
O'Connell, presenter of the Gold FM breakfast show, now networked across Melbourne and Sydney, has published his latest book, Unscript: The Radical Act of Being Yourself, which is the reason for today's interview.
He discusses the progress of his push into Sydney, which began with the crucible of introducing himself to his new audience the morning after the Bondi Beach terror attack.
When the UK-born broadcaster first introduced himself to his Melbourne audience in 2017, he needed to win over the sceptics. He says: "The backlash at the time felt like it would never end. Professional underdog - I want to get it on my business card. I've always felt an outside on commercial radio. I get a lot of power from that."
O'Connell is going through the same process again, with his ratings so far down in Sydney, compared to his predecessors Jonesy and Amanda.
He says: "I look back and there were early signs that it was working. I can feel it again. I can see it, I can sense it. You can feel [the listeners] coming over one by one - that's how you build it."
He also discusses his evolving team, including Pete Deppeler, a refugee from The Kyle and Jackie O show on sister station Kiis, where he aptly played the role of show clown.
O'Connell wasn't interested in what he dubs "the cartoon character".
"His next evolution is as an adult," he says of Deppeler. "He's in his 40s and trying to do something different."
O'Connell also pushes back against those who describe his evolving format as zoo radio. He says: "I do see it as a campfire. My job is to light the fire. I'm always trying to make radio less like radio."
And there's an intriguing hint about what comes next: "There's a couple of opportunities for next year that would involve me going beyond Australia - not leaving Australia, not leaving ARN; this would be with ARN -- but doing stuff that's bigger than just Australia.
Get the latest episodes here.
Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.
