Just after 5.30am, 3AW breakfast hosts Ross Stevenson and Russel Howcroft started their show with the breaking news that Olivia Newton-John had passed away. The hosts got a quick update from newsreader David Armstrong and then got a busy Peter Ford on the phone. The hosts reminded listeners that just 24 hours earlier, in his regular Monday spot on 3AW breakfast, Ford had said the only two people you never hear a bad word about were Judith Durham (the Seeker passed away on the weekend) and ONJ.
“This is heartbreaking news for us all. This is almost Australia’s Princess Diana moment,” said Ford. “Three-and-a-half-years ago one of the US tabloids wrote she had three weeks to live. Olivia recorded a piece to camera saying she was fine and they should stop writing this stuff. She had not been present on social media for quite some time, maybe three or four months. She hasn’t been seen in public for a couple of years.”
A busy Peter Ford juggled TV and radio appearances Tuesday morning
Ford was also getting a good workout on Seven’s Sunrise too where they were making good use of pre-recorded tributes Ford had prepared with career highlights. He was also live across the channel on Sunrise and The Morning Show.
During the 3AW show, Ross and Russ took some great calls from people who spent time with Olivia during her years living in Melbourne. Morning host Neil Mitchell and then other hosts across the day also shared stories about the entertainer and spoke with people she had impacted.
Across the other side of the city, Melbourne’s #1 FM breakfast show started with Gold FM’s Patrina Jones telling host Christian O’Connell about her brush with cancer and how she benefited from the campaigning work that ONJ did. “She’s Australia’s sweetheart and she always will be,” said Pats.
Christian, Pats and Jack Post also remembered when they were involved in a Melbourne charity walk with ONJ who seemed to have so much energy.
“Today is a day to celebrate what it is to be alive,” said Pats. Christian then asked Pats what song they should play. “It has to be Xanadu, always been my favourite Olivia song.”
The song then boomed out of the Richmond studios of ARN’s Gold 104.3.
On Sydney’s #1 FM breakfast show, Kyle and Jackie O too started with the news about ONJ. Once the KIIS FM very long, long, long, breakfast intro ended, a teary Jackie O admitted “Olivia was literally my idol growing up. Every single day growing up I would dress up as her and pretend I was her.” Underrated newsreader and breakfast contributor Brooklyn Ross also came close to tears as he read the news before the breakfast show started.
Kyle managed to find a clip from the archives with Kyle and Jackie trying to sing Summer Loving with Olivia. The podcast clip is hilarious.
KIIS 106.5 socials shared the news on Tuesday morning
Sydney’s highest-ratings breakfast show, 2GB’s Ben Fordham Live, started August 9 with a weather report as usual and then got into the breaking news about Olivia Newton-John. After reading through the official statement from the family about the superstar’s passing, Ben Fordham then gave out details about how listeners could donate to the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund. Not a lot of music gets played on 2GB, but before 6am Hopelessly Devoted to You boomed out of the speakers.
Regular Ben Fordham contributor Richard Wilkins wasn’t available early partly because he was in demand at Nine, but Fordham had him on later in the show. Fordham also took some great calls from listeners who had ONJ connections and others who just wanted to talk about how much the singer meant to them. Peter Ford made in on air too.
smoothfm managed to secure the services of ONJ for some Sunday sessions last decade
Nova Sydney’s Fitzy and Wippa are good covering breaking news and they too were all over the passing of ONJ. They also published some extra podcast content featuring friends of Olivia, like Magda Szubanski, talking about the Grease star. And there was no way they would let the moment pass without tracking down long-time Nova and smoothfm contributor Richard Wilkins. The show also spoke to another smoothfm weekend host, David Campbell.
smoothfm and Nine’s David Campbell onstage with Olivia Newton-John
Olivia shared the stage with MG v Paul Kent at Triple M
Meanwhile, while Olivia Newton-John did feature on Sydney Triple M breakfast, the main memory listeners left with was how fired up MG was about one Sydney journalist.
MG unleashed on The Daily Telegraph’s Paul Kent and a column he wrote in support of controversial Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart. The thing that triggered MG’s reaction was Kent bringing up a matter where MG’s daughter was wrongly linked to an online controversy.
MG’s reaction, which is featured at the start of the Tuesday podcast, was labelled by the Daily Mail as “the angriest spray Aussie radio has EVER heard”.
It was epic, but Kyle and Ray Hadley have had better!
Triple M’s Jess and Pagey lightened the tone a little in breakfast recalling some of Olivia Newton-John’s best tunes. Music that’s not often talked about on the Sydney home of “rock’s greatest hits”.