Radio Music Legend Brent James Exits 4BC

There are few music history brains in the world quite like Brent James, making the news this week of his redundancy by Nine Radio’s 4BC even more disappointing for the two industries his career has straddled for over four decades.

There are few people in Australia more respected for their music knowledge than James and even fewer that understand the nuances of localism, both in radio and music. He’s the guy you wouldn’t want to argue with over whether a song was a bigger hit in Adelaide or Brisbane in the 60s. He’s the guy that remembers the local Aussie artists of the 70s when so many have been relegated to faint memories in a pre-internet era.

It’s that passion and nerdy dedication to his craft that was the secret sauce 4KQ used to become one of the world’s most successful AM music formats. Brisbane listeners KNEW that the playlisting was something special and something specifically for them. Something quite valuable in modern radio as it valiantly tries to compete with streaming playlists to create something unique and local. No algorithm could ever beat the brain of Brent James.

Throughout his multi-decade career in radio, James also worked on the ‘other side of the fence’, becoming one of the most sought after CD compilation compilers for record companies including Sony Music across the 90s and 00s. Creating albums like the commercially successful Living In The 70s collection through to his multi-volume Australian pop series, James carefully chronicled often obscure Australian hits alongside the bigger tracks of the time, creating enjoyable, but historically important time capsules that listeners lapped up.

He had two stints at 4KQ, firstly from 1988 to 1998 and then again from 2002 to 2022, being interrupted by the sale of the beloved station to SEN which resulted in the end of the road. James was picked up along with the legendary breakfast team of Laurel, Gary and Mark, creating a music-based breakfast show and sprinking some music across the day on the traditionally talk station.

James also took over the Saturday night shift Saturday Night Live which also aired in Sydney on 2GB, taking his pioneering Jukebox Saturday Night format from 4KQ and tweaking it with party favourites, deep cuts, music chat and listener calls. Despite the shows’ popularity, 4BC has more recently moved the format back more in line with its national counterparts, with music now confined to the breakfast show. James confirmed to TheMusic that the redundancy did not come as a surprise.

Throughout James’ tenure at 4KQ, despite its budget and relegation to the AM band, 4KQ punched far above its weight, with James proud of his large part of the stations’ success.

“I do treasure for what we achieved with an AM music station on a truly local basis,” he told TheMusic. “I think the two times 4KQ hit # 1 in the 90s and even more so more recently when it tied with Nova at # 1 were highlights. Just a strong consistant localised brand it was for so long, that with it's growth in recent years thanks to digital platforms was a bonus. All part of local radio history now, the world moves on.”

James is now looking forward to his first holiday since 2019 before seeing what the future brings. In a world where we’re constantly told that music is inevitably going global and radio is inevitably going national, Brent James is the quiet achiever who is quite literally proves to both industries, that when there’s a commercial will for local, there’s an audience for it.