Wilko & Courts to take over Ned & Josh FM104.7 breakfast slot

Less than a week after popular duo Ned & Josh were unceremoniously dumped from the HIT104.7 Breakfast Show, with no explanation, a new pair are being dropped in their place.

Wilko & Courts, aka Courtenay Kneen and Neil Wilcock, will be returning to the airwaves in January, after a two-year absence from the network.

According to an official statement, Wilko & Courts "dominated" the network's afternoon Drive program for three years, "where they consistently held top spot".

Also in the statement, Kneen said she was excited to be returning to Canberra after two years away.

"I feel confident Canberrans will love Wilko and Courts as much, if not more, on our return to the airwaves," she said.

Wilcock told The Canberra Times he was still digesting the news.

"It came out of the blue," he said of Wednesday's announcement.

"It wasn't something I thought I'd be doing next year."

He said he had been freelancing and doing voiceover work, and hadn't yet mapped out what came next.

But now he and close friend Kneen were nutting out how they would approach their new gig come January.

He was cagey as to how it felt to be stepping into a space left by undeniably popular duo Ned & Josh, but said it was "like every show that ends it run.

"You hope people will like what you've got," he said.

"It's funny, every show works really differently, and this is an ensemble show."

He said the breakfast slot was all about having fun, even though in many ways it was the most important slot of the day.

'You're breaking news first, and getting it out there before everyone else," he said.

But he said he and Kneen had always been able to riff off each other easily, both on air and off.

"It's like when you hang out with you friend and just literally talk about things forever," he said.

"We complement each other but we're also very different.

"But it's all about doing what you can to entertain each other."

He said the pair's mantra would be the same as it had always been.

"We've already started talking about how we'll do it, and how we'll keep having fun," he said.

"We've had a really heavy few years, the cost of living is high, you don't know what's going to happen in America - we want to make sure people don't feel weighed down.

"The breakfast show is a bit of escapism, especially for the Canberra audience, which has so many APS workers, and then there are the lifers who've been here forever.

"It's a really diverse market, and HIT104.7 has a broad demographic."

He said radio had changed dramatically since he began his career 20 years ago in Alice Springs, when he was just 17.

"We didn't even really use the internet back then for content, and now it's so fast-paced," he said.

"I loved how Canberra is community-based - so many other stations don't have that anymore."

Their immediate predecessors, Ned Breward and Josh Torney, were also heavy hitters, steering one of Canberra's most-listened-to breakfast shows since taking over the slot in late 2018.

And just weeks ago, the pair were up against some of the biggest names in radio at the Australian Commercial Radio and Audio Awards in Sydney.

The breakfast hosts were nominated in the category of best podcast by a radio show, competing against the likes of Kylie Sandilands and Jackie O, Marty Sheargold and Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones.

Their nominated podcast, Ned & Josh: Express from the US, was recorded while they were on holiday in the United States last year.

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But AmplifyCBR, which runs the HIT104.7 and MIX106.3, abruptly pulled the pair off air, with Friday October 27 being their last show.

Reports that Breward and Torney were sacked without warning or explanation remain unconfirmed, although station general manager Craig Wagstaff maintained the network had followed "normal procedures and protocols".