Comedian Tom Ballard has quit JJJ’s Breakfast program to focus on his comedy career in 2014. Ballard has been at the station for 7 years.
In a statement on the ABC’s website Ballard said;
“For the past four years I’ve been paid to wake up with one of my best friends in the whole world, talk s***, wear zentai suits, laugh at my dad, drink instant coffee and play good music. It’s been the sweetest of gigs, but I feel like now’s the right time for me to try new things, focus on my high-brow and searing stand up (i.e. dick jokes) and endeavour to annoy Australia via other mediums.
“Plus I always said that if Melissa Doyle was no longer on my breakfast TV screen, I’d have no choice but to quit.”
Ballard took over the Breakfast slot alongside colleague Alex Dyson in 2010, at the time Ballard was just 17 and many people questioned if the pair were up to the job of a national breakfast program, but they proved their critics wrong, while also silencing criticism that the national youth network rarely has any youthful presenters.
Ballard and Dyson’s career began on Victorian community radio, before they took over JJJ’s overnight slot. After a year of late nights they were given the weekend breakfast show before being upgraded to the station’s flagship program. Dyson will remain at JJJ.
Previous hosts of the Triple J’s Breakfast have included Maynard F# Crabbes, Jay and The Doctor, Myf Marhurst, Adam Spencer, Robbie Buck, Paul McDermott, Mikey Robins, Helen Razor, The Sandman, Wil Anderson, Marieke Hardy.
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