Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jodi Haydon got married last Saturday afternoon in a moment that was somehow kept remarkably private. Obviously the attending guests knew what was to happen at the PM’s Canberra residence and I suspect that some core political journalists would also have been informed with a strict embargo on the sharing of the news until Albo did himself, through two sweet social media posts – one simply saying married, the other, an I love you to his new bride.
I heard when watching the ABC on Saturday night and imagined all the media publications who didn’t have people on deck for the breaking news scrabbling to put a story together with a hook angle. Who paid for the wedding (Albo and Jodi, privately)? Who made the dress (Sydney company Romance was Born)? Who was celebrant (Bree from the Central Coast – what a gig!)? Who attended (the PM’s dog Toto was the cutest ring bearer), and who did the flowers, my favourite story. ACT florist Moxom & Whitney were approached by the ‘bride’s brother’ to make a bouquet for the backyard wedding of ‘Marie and Matthew’. Imagine their surprise seeing Jodi holding their beautiful bouquet that evening!
The Prime Minister had also, brilliantly, managed to coincide the wedding with the PM’s XI cricket match which is held annually in Canberra and meant that he would have reason to be in town that weekend.
The vast majority of Australians have responded to the nuptials like we would of any couple who are clearly smitten and committing to spend their lives together. The ABC interviewed people in Albo’s Sydney electorate on their thoughts, with one woman saying,
“It shows he’s human.”
At the end of each year I usually reflect on the stories that particularly grabbed my attention in radio and podcast land. This reminder from a punter on the streets of Sydney that our Prime Minister is a person, a son, father, dog owner, husband and friend as well as the leader of our country is a much needed one.
I found last Friday, November 28, to be a broadcasting’s own Black Friday.
Lauren Joyce, Chief Audience & Content Officer with ARN lost her job with it also being the last day for breakfast hosts Robin Bailey, Kip Wightman and Corey Oates on ARN station KIIS 97.3 in Brisbane as they make way for Craig ‘Lowie’ Low who takes over next year.
Then Ash Bradnam announced it was his last day on Nova 106.9 Brisbane. His twin brother Luke, who wrapped up a fill in gig on 4BC breakfast the same day used the end of his shift to make perfectly clear what he thought of his brother’s sacking after being No 1 in breakfast in the radio survey released that Tuesday. Ash, Kip and Robin have 70 years of on air experience, serving Brisbane listeners, between them.
In Sydney, it was later announced that Jimmy Smith who co-hosts SCA‘s 2Day FM breakfast alongside Nath Roye and Emma Chow, would leave the show to tend to his mental health, saying in the release, “I am not okay right now.” Jimmy and Nath are best friends and have worked together, on radio, for 12 years.
Lauren Joyce was promoted into the Chief Audience & Content Officer role in January. In similar fashion to the trust and embargoes that had to be in place ahead of Albo’s wedding, all this year I have watched and listened to Lauren speak up the ARN brand and its people while those around her sought to eviscerate it.
That was her job.
She had to find the silver lining in ratings results, financials, key appointments and dismissals much like the PM does during the budget and election years. If Lauren’s role is indeed made redundant permanently then ARN is left without many executive options for a spokesperson to the good, bad and otherwise. Mostly it should be acknowledged that across five years in a role she was highly experienced in, and ten months in a new one where we are all watching the wheels falling off, she continued fronting up for the organisation in a way that she should be very proud of.
Former Take That boy band members Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams released a song called Shame that they wrote together in 2010. There’s had been a competitive relationship where both wanted to be the alpha in the band and solo and had a massive and nasty falling out. Neither were prepared to see their own contribution to the issues, back down or say sorry. Until 2010 when the band temporarily reformed and the two sat down and discovered the distance between them didn’t matter anymore. The songs is a lyrical rebuilding of what is now a close friendship.
The first line of Shame goes:
“There’s three versions of this story, mine and yours and then the truth.”
For Ash Bradnam and Jimmy Smith on Friday this felt particularly relevant. It was and is tough for those who care for them, the teams who work with them and for Nova and SCA in general who need to present the news to the media so as to give Ash and Jimmy ‘grace not disgrace’.
Both are real people for who today will have been especially difficult as their colleagues returned to work and the airwaves without them.
Of the moments that have lingered most with me this year is a session at SXSW featuring broadcasters and podcasters Ryan Jon Dunn from the Toni and Ryan podcast and Triple M’s Luisa Dal Din and Jack Archdale who also host the We Mean Well podcast. The clever and highly articulate Ryan Jon said:
“Radio’s mistake is that they like to think you don’t listen to anyone else. Stations compete with each other in a race to the bottom. You can be a fan of more than one thing at once.”
Radio’s Black Friday affected the three major commercial radio networks in Australia. I’m hoping that ‘off the record’ there was a lot of support and encouragement offered not just to Lauren Joyce, Robin Bailey, Kip Wightman, Corey Oates, Ash Bradnam and Jimmy Smith specifically, but to and from all sectors of the media who are witnessing the changes and challenges ahead.
It’s time to remember we are a human race.
Jen Seyderhelm is writer, editor and podcaster for Radioinfo. Email: [email protected]
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Image: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon walk down the aisle after getting married in Canberra, Australia, November 29, 2025. Mike Bowers for PMO/Handout via REUTERS, licenced to Radioinfo