Craig Reucassel (left) of The Chaser and dear friend of B&T, will take over hosting duties on ABC Sydney breakfast radio, with James Valentine returning to afternoons and Indira Naidoo handing over control of her evening show to producer Renee Krosch.
Reucassel has produced three seasons of War on Waste for ABC TV since 2017 and last worked a regular job in radio nearly 20 years ago when he hosted Today Today on Triple J with fellow Chaser and even dearer friend of B&T Chris Taylor (right in lead image).
The moves were revealed on air on Wednesday morning and come a fortnight after afternoon host Josh Szeps announced he was leaving the ABC. Reucassel will start his new gig in January.
“There is some trepidation,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald. “But what I love about radio is you have the capacity to just talk and explore so many different topics, from local to national, global, whatever. Every day, it’s going to be finding out new things, and I think that sounds quite fun.”
Despite his very funny hosting of the B&T Awards on Friday, Reucassel said that listeners shouldn’t expect a gag-a-minute show when he starts after Christmas.
“I don’t think people should turn on expecting to hear a sketch show. I think the humour will be whatever comes naturally to it. It’s going to be a local news show covering what’s going on in Sydney, what’s going on in people’s neighbourhoods, and what’s going on in national politics and otherwise.”
Valentine’s return to the afternoon follows his very strong ratings performance when he last held the slot — recording a 12.7 per cent share of the audience. At the time, the breakfast team of Wendy Harmer and Robbie Buck held 15.7 per cent of the audience and the ABC’s overall share was 13 per cent.
But, since the network’s share has dipped to just seven per cent.
