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Radio listeners are notorious for not liking change to their regular programming.
Chris Bath is usually one of them. So it is with some trepidation the television newsreader is preparing to take over from Richard Glover as the host of ABC Radio Sydney’s Drive program.
“Whenever Richard’s not there, I’ll turn the radio on and then I’m usually angry, unfairly, at whoever’s filling in,” Bath said.
“This time it’s going to be permanently me, so I just don’t know how I’m going to juggle that.”
ABC Radio Sydney presenter Richard Glover will present his final Drive program next Friday. (ABC Radio Sydney: Declan Bowring)
Bath was announced as the new Drive presenter on Thursday after Glover announced last month that he was stepping away from the microphone after 26 years on the program.
In another shake-up to the station’s on-air line-up, Mornings host Sarah Macdonald revealed that she would not be returning next year.
“The ABC has decided not to renew my contract here at Mornings,” Macdonald told listeners on Thursday morning.
Macdonald has been presenting Mornings for two years. Before that she presented Evenings and Weekend Nightlife.
“I have absolutely loved sharing the mornings with you, and the evenings and the wee small hours of the nightlife.”
Sarah Macdonald said she was proud of the show her and the Mornings team had created.
She thanked the “wise, savvy, thoughtful, funny, generous” 702 listeners.
“You have taught me something every day in this job, you have made me laugh, you have made me cry, you have changed my perspective on things and expanded my mind.”
The new host of Mornings is yet to be announced.
The popular TGIF show created and hosted by Glover, which has become a weekly staple of Drive, will continue on with comedian Charlie Pickering taking over as host.
From TV to radio
Bath is still in disbelief at having been given the opportunity, feeling both excited and daunted.
“I always thought that Richard was going to be there forever and actually when they [ABC management] rang me, I couldn’t speak.”
She has a simple request of loyal listeners.
“Please give me a chance,” Bath said.
“A quarter of a century of attachment is really hard to deal with, but please give me a chance because I really enjoy radio.”
Chris Bath is a familiar face on Australian television. (ABC Radio Sydney)
Bath has spent the majority of her career in television, including nearly 20 years at Channel 7, but said talkback radio is special.
“The thing I love about radio is something that I just don’t think you can create in television and that’s a sense of community that you can actually have live on air,” she said.
“You can be a good broadcaster, but honestly it’s the audience that helps make the show so that’s why I really want the audience to give me a chance.”
On her side is that Bath is already a familiar voice to ABC Radio Sydney listeners, having filled in for Glover at times and she was the presenter of Evenings for two years until 2019.
Broadcasting near where she grew up
The program is now broadcast from the ABC’s new studios in Parramatta, just a short way from where Bath grew up in South Wentworthville.
“Much of my early life until I was in my late teens was pretty much spent just around the corner from where the ABC studios are,” she said.
From dance lessons at St Andrew’s Church hall, to part-time jobs at the newsagents and Pizza Hut in Harris Park, Bath has fond childhood memories of the area.
“When we were little, if we were really good we got to go to a bookshop — I think it was in Marsden St — and it was this fairytale building because the bookshop was built in something that looked like a turret.
“So every time I went in there I felt like I was entering a castle.”
Sadly, she said she was never allowed to go to Stallions, the local nightclub.
“I was very disappointed.”
Most of her childhood landmarks have been replaced with skyscrapers and new restaurants and shops as Parramatta has transformed over the past decade.
“It was a city when I grew up, but it didn’t feel like a city. It does now.”
‘Taking the audience with us’
Bath said she is looking forward to working with the team at ABC Radio Sydney.
“One of the highlights of my professional life has been working with the people in that radio station on all shifts. They are a really great bunch of dedicated people who are really collegiate and I am really looking forward to working with them again.”
There is unlikely to be any wholesale changes to the familiar structure of the program straight away.
“It’s really important that we take the audience with us. Obviously we’ll probably do some different things and put our own spin on it, but I’m just not sure what that looks like just yet.”
Listeners may find they’re hearing more about the fortunes of the Parramatta Eels.
“The Parramatta Eels have been the great love and disappointment of my life. Really, just still waiting for the 80s glory that I experienced while I was at high school.”
Glover’s last Drive show will be Friday, November 29, featuring a special Thank God It’s Friday featuring comedians Tommy Dean, Wendy Harmer and Tahir, with music from The Backsliders.
Bath will start on air in January.