Congratulations to Brisbane’s own Michael Atkinson, who has been named the new co-host of Weekend Today alongside Alison Piotrowski and news presenter Lizzie Pearl.
Atkinson, a former sport reporter for 9News Queensland, is no stranger to working on the weekends. He first rocketed to fame in the early part of this decade as a contributor to the Radio 4BC Weekends show, hosted by Spencer Howson and produced by me. (He and Howson are pictured, above, at an outside broadcast from the Ekka grounds.)
He played a key educative role during the pandemic by wearing a “squirty watch” full of hand sanitiser (a gift from Howson) on a 9News sport report.
The Today show has a record of poaching Brisbane’s best and brightest — although longtime Monday to Friday host, Karl Stefanovic, is widely rumoured to be on a victory lap before bowing out at the end of the year.
Triple M Brisbane’s Dan Anstey presents the weather on Weekend Today, and Brisbane 9News co-anchor Joel Dry was one of a roster of hosts on the weekday show over summer.
Atkinson, a QUT graduate and rugby tragic, says: “I grew up in regional Queensland where weekends are about family, sport and catching up on what matters, so this role feels especially meaningful.”
Who gives a fig?
Former Courier-Mail columnist (and ex-boss, former colleague and longtime friend of mine) Terry Sweetman makes a good point on social media about the loss of one of our city’s landmark Moreton Bay figs in West End:
“If they planted a replacement now, I guess it would be decades before anyone could enjoy it. Wonder if we have a council replacement programme to ensure figs don’t disappear all at once.”
If they don’t have such a scheme, it’s certainly a good idea.
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R.I.P. Vicki Martin
Friends and colleagues are paying tribute to former 612 4QR (ABC Brisbane) Weekends presenter Vicki Martin, who died on February 2.
“I’ve never known anyone work so hard,” her former colleague, Spencer Howson, told me about Martin (who is pictured, above, right, in a publicity shot with Andrew Lofthouse and Cathy Border).
“Every week, she would visit a town in South East Queensland and record a package about that place.”
Working with producer Jason Hagen, Martin “produced brilliant community-building profiles of different locations across the southeast”.
Disclaimer: Brett Debritz used to work in newspapers, radio and online media.