Following the announcement that Triple J’s longtime Drive host, Lindsay ‘The Doctor’ McDougall, will be leaving the national youth network some time this month, the station has finally announced that Veronica & Lewis will serve as the host’s replacements.
Veronica Milsom and Lewis Hobba have spent the last four years at Triple J, garnering popularity as the hosts of Weekend Breakfast and more recently Weekend Afternoons. The two also have a longstanding relationship with Triple J parent company ABC.
After meeting in high school, the duo went on to write and perform sketches for ABC TV’s Hungry Beast, and have made appearances on Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell, Backseat Drivers, Spicks & Specks, The Chaser’s Media Circus, as well as Ten’s The Project and SBS’s The Feed.
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Triple J have also confirmed further changes to their roster for 2015, announcing that mid-dawn presenter and SYN alum Joshua Merriel will be taking over as the host of punk and hardcore program Short.Fast.Loud. Former host Stu Harvey will depart to focus on his record label work.
As Triple J Unearthed continues to serve as a premier platform for independent Aussie artists looking for exposure, there will be some changes to the presenter lineup, with Triple J veteran Rosie Beaton set to leave the ABC at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Fenella Kernabone is set to conclude The Sound Lab after 11 years on air. Tim Shiel’s Something More will now also be heard on Triple J on Sunday nights in place of The Sound Lab.
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The network has also announced changes to their recently minted Double J station, with Caz Tran’s Saturday Mornings set to move to Saturday Afternoons. The changes follow a strong start from the young network, which includes the relaunch of the popular J Files series.
The Doctor announced his departure back in October via a music video titled I’m Fucking Off, in which he insisted that he is not leaving to go work for a rival station, nor has he been ousted by Triple J, instead explaining that he wishes to focus on his family and music career.
In a subsequent open letter in The Guardian, the Frenzal Rhomb guitarist praised Triple J as a bastion of listener-driven radio in Australia, also taking time to skewer commercial radio for its ratings-driven focus.
