Summer across ABC Radio

On Local Radio the ABC is bringing metro and regional voices to the national stage, introducing new on-air talent and giving established presenters opportunities in new slots. 

Some Key National Shifts: 

·         From 21 December, Raf Epstein’s doing a week of national Mornings from Melbourne

·         Chris Taylor will be doing 2 weeks of national Afternoons from Sydney from 21 December, followed by 2 weeks from Ryk Goddard in Hobart

·         Gabrielle Burke will do a few days between Christmas and New Year on national Drive

·         Nakkiah Lui takes on national Evenings for 2 weeks from 21 December, followed by 2 weeks with Liz Ellis from Lismore

·         Rod Quinn will present Nightlife before Christmas, Jennifer Fleming will present post-Christmas.

Key metro presenters for Breakfast will be: Dan Ilic and Dom Knight (Sydney), Libbi Gorr and Brian Nankervis (Melbourne), Tim Cox (Brisbane), Rebecca McLaren (Darwin), James Lush and Di Darmody (Perth), Spence Denny (Adelaide), Jo Spargo (Hobart) and Greg Bayliss and Adam Shirley (Canberra). 

Key Program Changes: 

·         My Soundtrack, with Lucy Durack:  Ten programs featuring well-known Australians talking about the music that forms the soundtrack to their lives

·         Literary Lunches; as recorded throughout the year for Tony Delroy’s Nightlife, ten programs which feature prominent authors

·         CAFF Programming: AM continues throughout, except Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The World Today and PM go into two weeks’ recess from 21 December. 

The Sound of Summer: The Boxing Day Test from 26 December, and the Sydney test from 3 January. And on New Year’s Eve, Local Radio goes live nationally, celebrating in all five time zones. The lineup includes the Year in Review, a TGIF Special, the Woodford Folk Festivaland New Year’s Eve Live with Jennifer Fleming.

Regional colleagues who will be presenting on the national stage through the summer. Scott Lamond (Bundaberg) presents Australia All OverSteve Martin (Ballarat) presents a week of national MorningsNikolai Beilharz (Country Hour, Vic) presents Breakfast on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and Countrywide will look back at the big rural/regional stories of the year.

Classic FM celebrates summer with encore performances of 2015 standout concert broadcasts and features. Puccini’s La Boheme heralds the launch of the 2015/2016 Metropolitan Opera Season. 

Deborah Cheetham, AO, Indigenous Australian soprano, actor, composer and playwright will be hosting Afternoons from 21 – 24 Dec and again from 4 – 8 January. 

Music Makers commemorates the sesquicentenary of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius with the 4-part Letters to Sibelius beginning on Boxing Day. 

Classic FM kicks off the New Year with an uninterrupted broadcast of Max Richter’s 8 hour lullaby for a frenetic world, Sleep, on the night of January 1. There will also be four broadcasts from the Australian Youth Orchestra’s National Music Camp in Canberra from 9 – 20th January.

On RN, the summer schedule starts on December 21. The line up includes the best of RN from across the year: Best of the Festivals, an Andy Ford 20th year anniversary special, Science Extra with the Infinite Monkey Cage, summer movie updates on The Final CutTalking Plants with Tim Entwistle, and RN Summer School with Mark Sutton and Zoe Norton Lodge – an eclectic new series of brainy fun.

On RN Afternoons you’ll hear the hit podcast series Science Vs with Wendy Zukerman, comedy with Mitchell and Webb, and a reprise of the classic series Great Lovers with Amanda Smith.  And for those balmy summer evenings   (OK, wet and sticky in Darwin), we have Books and Arts with Michael Cathcart at 6pm, Life Matters with Natasha Mitchell at 7pm and Big Ideas with Paul Barclay at the usual time of 8pm. Patricia Karvelas returns with RN Drive on 25 January 2016.

Holding the fort on RN Breakfast for Fran Kelly will be: James CarletonHamish MacDonaldRN’s Religious Unit (on Christmas Day), Cathy Van Extel, and Sarah Dingle. 

And over on triple j, lunch presenter Lewi McKirdy will be doing Drive throughout summer. Kyran Wheatley and Gen Fricker will start their new partnership on summer Breakfast.  

Comedians Nazeem Hussain and Michael Hing are teaming up for a Late n’ Loose show to entertain people staying up later over summer. 

And a new program with Ollie Wards will be starting on Sunday nights; The Hottest 100 Tally Room will look at the songs to vote for, the history of the countdown and all the big news around The Hottest 100.

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