No, there won’t be a Muster Dogs radio show in 2026, but nobody could resist holding the four legged star of the show’s 2026 tv season at yesterday’s ABC Upfronts. Not even ABC Director of Audio Ben Latimer.
Latimer, pictured with 702ABC Sydney’s Hamish Macdonald and the Head of Audio on Demand Jessica Radburn, was part of the Upfronts showcase. Steve Ahern was there.
It was good to see audio featured prominently at this year’s Upfronts presentation. New and returning radio shows and podcasts were at the beginning of the event.
New audio on demand offerings for 2026 will include a new weekly series from Alan Kohler in conversation with prominent movers and shakers of corporate Australia.
A new series of the crime podcast Unravel, examining a missing person’s case after a boy’s weekend goes horribly wrong in regional Queensland, is also slated for release next year.
Australian of the Year Grace Tame will present a new series exploring autism in women for the Ladies We Need To Talk podcast. Granny Bingo promises “chaotic interviews” as “Australia’s nastiest nannas interview celebrities. The Bluey Listen Along podcast will also return in 2026.
A new comedy podcast, The Grill, will be launched, featuring best friends Izzy Wright, Ted Harawa and Ben Ilobuchi hilariously overanalysing everything that is wrong with the world. The Grill sprang from the ABC’s New Wave initiative to identify new podcast talent.
Dr Karl will be back next year on triple j and as a regular science commentator on ABC Radio stations around the country. “I’ll be answering important questions like why do farts smell more in the shower,” the popular 77 year old youth radio station presenter told the Upfronts audience. Dr Karl’s science hour on triple j, with Lucy Smith, which is also available as a podcast, is the station’s longest running segment.
Corban Middlemas and Ed Cowan team up with Jim Maxwell for a new cricket podcast that begins today, in time for the first Ashes test. “The world sounds better with ABC Podcasts,” is the national broadcaster’s message for its expanded slate of new podcasts.
Matt Bevan returns with twice the number of episodes of If You’re Listening in 2026. He will also present a four part podcast series called Black Swans. If You’re Listening is one of the ABC’s most successful multimedia podcasts, having successfully transitioned to video. Without the traditional high cost tv studio production requirements of shows created primarily for television, Bevan has been able to experiment with innovative visual production elements which has made the show perfect for Youtube, iView and broadcast television. It is a leader in the new trend of video podcasts.
Another innovative visual podcast is Assassins, presented by Aslan Pahari. The series launched last month and has already covered assassinations of historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Benazir Bhutto to the more recent assassination of Tupac. This series also features visual production elements that have seen it extended from the audio podcast platform to the ABC’s iView and Youtube.
Assassins is part of the ABC’s Creator Program, which is reaching out to young Australians across new and existing platforms. With more than 140 million views from Australians, mostly aged under 34, the Creator Program output, “where expertise meets influence,” is part of the new wave of audio and video content being developed by the national broadcaster.
New Audio Books will also be released next year, with the national broadcaster’s first original audiobook collection ABC Timeless Audiobooks due for release exclusively on the ABC Listen App and ABC website. Six timeless titles, from Frankenstein to My Briliant Career will be given a fresh take by a new generation of Australian voices.
Radio shows and features returning in 2026 include triple j’s Hottest 100 and One Night Stand, Unearthed High and Like A Version.
A new country music show called Country Club hosted by the iconic Outback Tom will also be heard on triple j next year and Latifa Tee will host a new electronic music show called, appropriately, Doof.
Classic FM will celebrate it’s 60th birthday next year, with special new features and events. “Just seven years away from being pension age,” quipped the cheeky triple j hosts revealing the Classical network’s milestone.
On ABC Radio Australia, morning show Nesia Daily willl return in 2026, hosted by Jacob McQuire and Michael Chow. Other returning shows on Radio Australia include In The Fale, Sista Sounds and On The Record.
A small number of presenters are expected to depart some ABC Radio networks next year, but those announcements were held over for another day. We will cover them when they are made public.
It was good to see the ABC taking the mickey out of itself, bringing an element of comedy and satire to the whole event. Shaun Micallef sent himself up, as well as roasting Hamish Macdonald and Todd Sampson from the stage and Tom Gleeson said this whole Upfronts event “could just have been a pdf,” as he lambasted Chair Kim Williams, Bluey, Muster Dogs, and everyone in the room.
“Let’s pretend we’re an enthusiastic live studio audience, not a bunch of jaded media people,” he joked. Gleeson’s show Hard Quiz will be back next year on ABCTv.
Another radio star who couldn’t resist a cuddle with Jules, the Muster Dogs’ 11 week old Border Collie, was WSFM breakfast star Amanda Keller. What was a commercial radio presenter doing at the ABC Upfronts? She is not defecting to ABC Radio, but she will be hosting a new series of The Piano on ABC TV next year with Guy Sebastian.
Almost all of the radio people I spoke to at yesterday’s upfront are excited by the new Australian Audio Awards and keen to go head to head with their commercial counterparts in some of the categories.
Steve Ahern is publisher of this industry trade journal.
Disclosure: Steve has previously worked for the ABC, amongst many other jobs in his career.