POWER 50 2025: Kiri Martin & Nic Kelly (2Day FM)

BACKGROUND CHECK:

Kiri Martin and Nic Kelly are effectively the pairing that Australian music needed to breathe life back into commercial radio. While Kiri's work in the broadcasting world goes back almost two decades, it's peppered with myriad stations and locations under the Southern Cross Austereo banner, including Music Director roles at SeaFM, The FOX in Melbourne, and 2Day FM Sydney, and most recently, a Senior Music Director title across the Hit Network.

Kelly, meanwhile, has been an announcer, presenter, and blogger, working his way up from founding the Project U blog, to having a label with EMI and bouncing between radio gigs before getting his big break hosting the national flagship music show The Hot Hits since its return in 2023. A true music fan, Kelly is never backwards about coming forwards for Australian music and, along with Kiri, has been a strong advocate and shepherd of the new 2Day FM music format.

THE YEAR IN AUSTRALIAN MUSIC:

Spearheading 2Day FM's tag of 'The Hits, Before They Hit,' this year saw Martin and the wider team adopt a new outlook for the station as they pledged to ensure a greater spotlight on local content. With Kelly a key on-air advocate (along with Seany B), the shake-up saw the team playing more new music and more Australian music, becoming Australia’s first metro station to break the shackles of thinking that CHR is a dirty word. 

With the highest Australian music quota of any commercial counterpart, the station is proudly waving the local flag.

THE MUSIC SPEAKS:

It’s hard to overstate just how huge a commercial station doubling down on new Australian music is in 2025. The greater Australian music industry has been told for years that new music doesn’t rate and for the conviction of a station to stand behind Australian pop music shouldn’t be as exciting as it is. 

The industry has long wished for more opportunities on commercial radio. Now we’ve got one, thanks to the advocacy of music champions like Kiri and Nic, so let’s double down on the artist support. 2026 is shaping up to be good for Australian music on radio, with Nova upping the profile of musician and fan Maddy Rowe and ARN bringing across Smallzy with a music focus, but it was 2Day FM that broke the drought.