Ben, Liam and Belle are heading back home to Adelaide later this year with their NOVA Entertainment networked Late Drive program continuing on as usual, but without executive producer Ben McDowell.

Ben and Liam (Ben Harvey and Liam Stapleton) started out on Fresh 92.7 as the Adelaide community station’s first full-time breakfast show (see above). They were picked up by triple j and hosted breakfast for three years alongside Brooke Boney, Dylan Alcott and Gen Fricker. At the start of 2020 they were given the opportunity by Nova to move back home, bringing their producer Belle Jackson with them to Nova 919 breakfast. Then, after stints hosting summer breakfast, the duo added Belle to the lineup and moved to Melbourne and Nova 100 at the end of 2022 replacing, on breakfast, Chrissie, Sam and Brownie. The shift to Late Drive happened early last year when Jase and Lauren joined Nova 100 from KIIS 101.1.

Ben McDowall said on LinkedIn:

“Come August, I’ll be on the hunt for my next challenge in radio, media, or content strategy.

I’ve decided not to relocate with the team as they venture back to Adelaide. Change is good – but so is my Melbourne life.”

Jodie and Hayesy are the Nova breakfast hosts in Adelaide, second in that market in GfK Survey 2 and only just behind long standing Triple M No 1s, Roo, Ditts and Loz.