After 32 years of hosting The Music Show on ABC Radio National, Andrew Ford OAM has announced his departure from the program.
Since February 1995, Ford has presented The Music Show, drawing on his wide-ranging experience in the music industry as a composer, writer, and broadcaster.
He’s interviewed musicians, composers and performers across all genres – from Australia and the world stage – including Tom Jones, k.d. lang, Willie Nelson, Chrissy Amplett, Smokey Robinson, Lou Reed, and many others, bringing their stories to Australian audiences.
In 2016, he was presented with the Medal of the Order of Australia for his contributions to music in Australia, from his work on ABC Radio National to his work as a composer and author.
Ford finishes up with The Music Show at the end of the year. The program will return in 2027 with a new presenter, who will be announced later this year.
While Ford admitted that he’ll miss The Music Show, he shared that it’s now time to fully focus on composition.
In a statement, he said composing requires “long, uninterrupted stretches of time,” and he’s found it “harder each week” to pull himself away from composing work and go back to The Music Show. So, the time has come “to pick a lane,” he said.
“From the end of the year, I’ll be a full-time composer. Maybe there’ll be some new books, too,” he added.
Discussing the impact of The Music Show, Ford commented that it’s beloved because he always takes music fans seriously.
“The Music Show gets technical, whether about the ornamentation in Irish fiddling, the bass lines in stride piano or the canonical structures of Renaissance polyphony, and the more technical we get, the more the listeners like it,” he shared.
He continued, “This also works for our guests. Musicians, especially the famous ones, are often not used to being asked deeply about their music. I’ve always felt it helped that I am another musician asking questions about music. It puts people at ease.”
Check out a snippet of The Music Show below.
ABC Director Audio Ben Latimer added that Ford brought a combination of “intelligence, warmth, and a rare depth of musical understanding” to The Music Show.
“Andrew has made The Music Show one of the great meeting places for musicians and music lovers,” Latimer said.
He continued, “For more than three decades he has brought intelligence, warmth and a rare depth of musical understanding to conversations across genres and generations. We wish him all the very best as he steps away from the program, although I suspect he will be no less busy.”
