Saturday update: These programs have already gone to air. You can listen here.
When is a double act not a double act? When they appear sequentially rather than together.
That’s what’s happening — for one morning only (for now at least) — on Saturday January 3, when the duo formerly known as Collective Noun present programs back-to-back on ABC Brisbane.
The Saturday Breakfast show on ABC Brisbane, from 5am to 8am, will be hosted by Zach Mander, followed by Mornings with Dom Fay until 11am.
As I reported here, Mander was one of a roster of “various presenters” who hosted the Evenings show late last year (which still seems an odd way to refer to events from a few weeks ago).
Fay and Mander got their start in radio at B105 and were most recently heard together on KIIS, where their schtick ranged from “inventing Sauságe by Bunnings (the world’s first sausage-sizzle-scented fragrance), to catching food delivery drivers stealing chips, and investigating mysteries like the shrinking Big Mac”.
I believe there is a chance they will do a handover just before or just after 8am where you can hear them together. Just like old times — without the product placement (because it’s the ABC).
More media farewells
While it’s always nice to write about people with new jobs, albeit temporary, it’s also my sad duty to note how many people are starting 2026 without work or with the prospect of losing that work. This is true across the board, but it’s especially the case in “old” media such as radio and TV.
The UK gossip newsletter Popbitch reports “an extremely bah humbug move” that saw about 11 Virgin Radio presenters lose their jobs just before Christmas.
It also notes that four-hour on-air shifts and pre-records — cost-cutting measures also taken used by Australian stations — had failed to fix Virgin’s woes.
I wrote a lot about redundancies across the radio networks in this part of the world during 2025, and I am, sadly but truly, confident I will be again soon.
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P.S.
I have some big plans for Mister Brisbane in 2026 — but I need your help. Of course, I have many ideas of my own, but I want to know what you’d like to see in these newsletters in future. You can contact me here. In the meantime, a huge thank-you to everyone who has already taken out a paid subscription or bought me a coffee. I’ll do my best to reward your faith while staying true to myself and what I do.