Radio 6PR stalwart Tod Johnston will return to weekday presenting in a major reshuffle at the talkback station that will see it return to its four-shift daytime schedule.
Johnston’s return to 6PR in the 12pm to 3pm afternoon shift comes amid a major shake-up at its AM rival, with the revelation on Friday that ABC Radio Perth would move to the FM band next year.
Tod Johnston will return to 6PR weekdays.
Johnston will replace Perth Live’s Oliver Peterson, who wrapped his final shift with 6PR last week in preparation to replace the ABC’s Gary Adshead on the national broadcaster’s Drive show next year.
Johnston’s evening show on 6PR – owned by Nine Entertainment, also the owner of this masthead – was unceremoniously axed in October last year alongside afternoons host Julie-anne Sprague as part of major scheduling changes that scrapped the afternoon shift in favour of three longer breakfast, morning and drive shows.
6PR will return to the four-show format next year, with a drive show host yet to be announced.
Johnston, who had been doing weekend shifts in the interim, told 6PR’s breakfast program he was excited to be back.
“I’ll be pretty honest, I was bit devastated when everything happened and the wheels fell off, and then to get the opportunity to come back and do some weekend work and fill in – beauty bottler, loved it and still loving it,” he said.
“All of a sudden, I get a phone call from the boss, and he sort of said, ‘Would you like to?’ And I went, ‘Yeah, I’d like to do it.’ Am I excited? Yeah, you bet.”
However, Johnston foreshadowed he wouldn’t be a “hard-hitting” journalist along the lines of Peterson.
“You blokes sort of know that world and the radio world, I like to do things a bit differently,” he said.
“So will I be the hard-hitting journo? That’s not in my game plan, but I want to have some fun, and I think that 6PR listeners want to have a bit of a laugh as well.”
6PR content manager Brad Pottinger said Johnston was exactly what the city needed in the afternoon.
“Tod is a cornerstone of our refreshed 2026 lineup and with more live and local announcements to come, 2026 is shaping as a big one for 6PR,” he said.
The station’s new drive host is expected to be announced next week.
Next year will open up a fresh battleground for the ABC, which announced on Friday it was moving to the FM band after 102 years as an AM station.
The decision was made after the Australian Communications and Media Authority varied radio licence plans in the state.
ABC managing director Hugh Marks said the broadcaster was aware of the challenges of AM reception in Perth.
“With FM, audiences can enjoy richer sound and more reliable broadcasts, ensuring they stay connected to the programs they love,” he said.
FM radio has a higher bandwidth for data, but cannot be transmitted over longer distances meaning better sound quality in a smaller area, whereas AM radio can be broadcast over much longer distances, but the audio quality is worse.
The ABC will still broadcast over the AM band in regional WA.
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