'We're not going anywhere': Ned and Josh commit to Canberra and launch a new podcast

The Ned & Josh Podcast will be Canberra's first daily podcast show with five episodes a week set to be streamed.

The first episode drops on Wednesday.

The pair were blindsided after they were unceremoniously dropped from hosting the breakfast show on FM 104.7 after six years on-air.

They unwittingly broadcast their final show on October 27, only to be told afterwards by AmplifyCBR management that they no longer had jobs at the station.

This week, ahead of the podcast launch, Josh and Ned said they had gone through a lot of soul-searching since then, but were always committed to staying in Canberra, even though they had had job offers from interstate.

"My family's in Canberra now. This is home. I love it. I'm not going anywhere," Josh said.

"Carrie, my partner and her two boys, this is their home, so this is my home. So that's pretty much how I look at it. And Ned's got a dog."

Ned did have a laugh at that, but said, seriously, they believed they had a loyal following in Canberra.

"I think we built up such a rapport with the audience that it doesn't feel like we're even close to done," Ned said.

"We feel like we've still got so much left to do, especially in Canberra, that leaving the audience would feel stranger than leaving, to be honest."

Josh and Ned were not given a chance to return to air to say goodbye to their listeners on Hit 104.7.

Since then, they say they have been given more clarity on their axing from the station management.

"They said they wanted to go in a different direction and we confirmed in the meeting, which was important to us, that there was no wrongdoing and it wasn't a performance thing, it was just a change in direction for the station," Josh said.

"We understand that is radio but the way it was done, was probably, in my opinion, was pretty unnecessary. It didn't need to be so painful."

Ned agreed.

"In radio, you don't make a decision like changing the breakfast show overnight," he said.

"So to know that someone knew and maybe could have told us has been a bit of a mental hurdle to get over."

Ned said they had asked AmplifyCBR management for a chance to say goodbye to their listeners "to give us and Canberra a little bit of closure" but were denied that opportunity.

"That's what hurt pretty significantly, because we had such a strong relationship with the audience and shared personal parts of our lives with them, as they had with us," Ned said.

Wilko and Courts, aka Courtenay Kneen and Neil Wilcock, will start as the new hosts of breakfast on 104.7 in January, after a two-year absence from the network

Josh said it had been "very strange" not to be heading into the Gungahlin studios of Hit 104.7 early every weekday morning.

"That was every day, Monday to Friday, driving down that street, doing that show for Canberra," he said.

"And for the next Monday, to be gone? I mean, sleeping in is pretty decent but I've been doing that job [in radio] since I was 16 years old so it's taken a lot for me to understand it's not going to be the way I'll be earning a living going forward."

Ned, originally from Tasmania, said "it hasn't felt real for a very long time".

"Teaching my brain to relax, but also don't relax because you're unemployed. A lot of mental aerobics over the last few weeks which has actually been quite hard."

The pair said they got through their traumatic axing with the support of family and friends.

"I would also say there is a sizeable group in Canberra that is very behind us," Josh said.

"They have come from all corners of the community - the business community, everywhere. It's been amazing to hear from people how much we meant to them."

Now less than six weeks after that turbulent day, the two friends are back, delivering their podcast, saying the opportunity to reframe their show for a new and expanded audience - and on a new platform - was too good to resist.

"I must admit, we were pretty shattered when it happened so the initial thing was we didn't even want to see a microphone again," Josh said.

"But we got to a point where 'No, this brings us so much joy and we enjoy being creative in this way and now we can do it without interference, in the way we want to do it'. It was an opportunity too good to miss."

The boys are starting small, but dreaming big, hoping the podcast becomes a job.

"We've turned my apartment into a studio and we're going to be recording pretty much every day," Josh said.

"We're looking to keep it as current and fresh as it could be and release it within 10 hours of it being recorded, that's the plan.

"I think it will have a very heavy Canberra focus. It's going to be very similar to the radio show. That's the kind of thing we love talking about and doing."

Ned says the podcast will be "a slice of life".

"Like, 'What's going on?'," he said.

"Things that are going on in the news, things that are going on in Canberra, things that are going in with us."

And maybe it'll take off, they hope.

"We'd love business partners to become involved," Josh said.

"We've already had some lovely indications that they might be able to be involved."

Australia has now overtaken the US as the biggest podcast-listening nation in the world and those aged 18-34 are now equally likely to listen to a podcast as watch TV or turn on the radio.

The pair have had recent success in the format with their Ned & Josh Express from the US podcast a finalist at the 2023 Commercial Radio Awards.

Josh, who is originally from Melbourne, said he was excited about stepping out of the confines of traditional media and flexing some more of the irreverent creativity the pair is well known for.

"In traditional media you are shackled by a range of factors from time to competing interests so we're looking forward to having the opportunity to focus squarely on quality content," he said.

"In the end, that focus will deliver a more engaging show delivered in a way that our audience can access when and how it suits them".

It's the light at the end of the tunnel after Ned said their self-confidence had been "rocked massively" by being let go from Hit 104.7.

"You think, 'Is there something wrong with me?' or 'Do I even still have it?' Which has been really, really scary. As Josh said he's been doing this since he was 16, I've been doing it since I was 19," Ned said.

"I need to remind myself this isn't what I do for a living anymore but that connection with the audience doesn't have to go anywhere."

And their own relationship has been galvanised by what they've been through together.

"I don't think our friendship has ever been stronger. We're brothers," Josh said.

The Ned and Josh Podcast will launch on all platforms on Wednesday, with new episodes uploaded daily Monday to Friday.