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Popular radio duo Jonesy and Amanda have shocked listeners of their morning show by delivering some “big” news live on air.
Brendan Jones and Amanda Keller were forced to speak out after details of their huge career change were leaked.
“You and I have some big news,” Amanda shared on their Gold 101.7 breakfast show on August 1.
“We have re-signed here at Gold. Re-signed. But there are going to be some changes,” Amanda, 63, went on. “Brendan and I are going to go to the drive shift.”
The move to the drive slot at Gold 101.7 means fans will be able to listen to the duo on the way home from work in the afternoons, and the breakfast radio slot will be filled by The Christian O’Connell Show instead.
“We could have stayed doing breakfast for years,” Amanda told listeners. “We’ve never fought the hours.”
“We’ve spent 20 years with you guys. And this is the thing. We’re going to drag you kicking and screaming with us to drive,” the star went on.
“We’ve spent every morning with you guys for 20 years, and now we’re going to spend time with you later in the day. We’re really excited about that.”
Jonesy, meanwhile, admitted to listeners that the pair “wouldn’t have otherwise mentioned this, but there’s a podcast that’s going to come out on Saturday about it”, and the news was “in the trade papers”.
“We weren’t going to announce this for some time,” he said.
The move comes after two decades on breakfast radio for the popular pair. MediaWeek reported that the change was understood to be part of Australian Radio Network’s ongoing rebrand of WSFM to Gold 101.7.
Fans of Jonesy and Amanda reacted with dismay to the news.
“I will really miss Jonesy, damnit. This really sucks,” one peeved listener responded on social media.
“Shame, I need you guys in the morning,” another wrote.
The duo’s chemistry has seen them build a huge fan base over the years, although their professional partnership came about by accident.
Amanda used to co-host a radio show with Andrew Denton, until one day he called in sick and Jonesy came to fill in.
“By the end of it, I thought, ‘That’s the best day of radio I’ve done in my life,’” Jonesy recalled to New Idea in 2023.
The pair finally got their wish to work together when Andrew left the show.
“Every morning we go in with a goal that is we don’t want to do this show half-a**ed,” Amanda told New Idea.
“We go in and do it full-a**ed,” Jonesy added with a laugh.
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