GOLD104.3’s Christian O’Connell took the very first celebrity calls to kick off the return of Who’s Calling Christian for 2020.
After the success of last year’s inaugural competition, Christian has again put the challenge out to his Gold 104.3 listeners to get celebrities they know, or have managed to get in contact with via social media, to call him on air for their chance to win $20,000 for themselves and $20,000 for the celebrity’s chosen charity.
And the first celebrity caller to kick off Who’s Calling Christian for 2020 was Ronan Keating, who called live from London. He spoke about what it was like during the birth of his daughter Coco just four days after London when into lockdown and also joked that he won’t be having any more children because his wife is keen for him to get a vasectomy.
Christian was also joined on air this morning by Amy Shark, Joel Selwood and Logo Masters Brickman Ryan McNaught.
Of launching the competition today Christian said, “The way this year has gone we didn’t know if we would do Who’s Calling Christian. But I think we all need the joy of playing a game like this. It’s live broadcasting on a tightrope where anyone could suddenly call in from anywhere in the world, like last year when my listeners got over 50 celebrities to call me.
“Like us, celebrities are all at home and bored, they aren’t working on projects, so feeling the love and being contacted by fans to call the show for the chance to win $20,000 for the charity of their choice is going to be welcomed.
We all know how much charities need our support at the moment and most celebs have charities that they are involved with and support.
Last year Aussie legend Olivia Newtown John won the competition, which was an Australian radio first, and received $20,000 for her cancer wellness and research centre.
Listener Ryan Stuart (who met Olivia Newton John when he was in Vegas working as a Chippendales dancer) who asked Olivia to call Christian also won $20,000 and generously donated half of that money to Olivia’s cancer wellness centre and the other half to the RSPCA.
In 2019, a total of 57 international and Australian celebrities took part in Who’s Calling Christian including: Chris Hemsworth, James Cordon, David Hasselhoff, Corey Feldman, Dr Karl, Michael Winslow, Bear Grylls, Guy Pearce, Richard Reid, Urzila Carlson, Jeff Fenech, Peter Wright, Jeff Horn, Steve Stevens, Jim Beaver, Shaun Micallef, James Sherry, Jack Thompson, Simon Pegg and Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley.
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