Dan Anstey is preparing to farewell Brisbane breakfast radio and relocate his family to Sydney after securing a permanent role with Nine, joining Weekend Today as co-host while continuing to present weather on the weekday Today program from 2027.
The appointment also means leaving Brisbane, the listeners who have shared his mornings and a Triple M breakfast role alongside Greg “Marto” Martin and Margaux Parker.
Under the new arrangement, Anstey will present weather on Today from Monday to Wednesday, before joining Alison Piotrowski and Lizzie Pearl on Weekend Today.
The move also means leaving Brisbane behind, with Anstey, his wife and their two young children preparing to establish a new home in Sydney in the new year.
Speaking exclusively to TV Blackbox ahead of the announcement, Anstey admitted the decision represented a considerable change for his family, but said the opportunity to secure a permanent position with Nine was too good to turn down.
Yeah, not the first time, but I’m just excited for the opportunity, I guess.
Very grateful that there’s any interest in me at all, let alone from the Today show.
So, yeah, it’s a pinch-yourself opportunity.
Got to do it.
Despite his enthusiasm, Anstey acknowledged the upheaval that comes with relocating a young family, particularly after building a career that has taken him through several Australian cities.
He credited his wife with supporting another major change in their lives, joking that he has a habit of disrupting the family’s routine just as they become settled.
Every five years or so, for whatever reason, when we get comfortable, I just up and destroy our lives and make some bizarre decision based on just an inkling of a good feeling about something.
So I’m very much hoping this one lasts more than five years.
But I don’t know what I did to deserve her support, but I’ll be eternally grateful.
A bittersweet farewell to Brisbane radio
For Anstey, the decision also means stepping away from a medium that has occupied much of his professional life.
Anstey joined Triple M Brisbane breakfast in 2022, after six years at the Gold Coast’s Sea FM. His earlier radio work included Nova in Brisbane, Hughesy & Kate at Melbourne’s Nova 100, and Fifi & Dave at Fox FM.
Although television has increasingly become part of his working week, Anstey said leaving radio would be difficult, particularly because of the relationships he has established with listeners.
It’s a very intimate medium in that the people that listen to the show — and I’ve got to know quite a few of them over the journey here in Brisbane and the other shows I’ve done — they really, really feel like they know you because you share so much on air.
Triple M is a fairly genuine and authentic network.
We really do just telegraph exactly who we are.
So it’s not really an assumption that they know us.
They actually do know us.
He said the connection between breakfast radio presenters and their audiences was particularly evident when meeting listeners away from the studio.
When we go to events with these people, we’re getting to know them, as in my co-hosts and I, as we meet them.
But they know plenty about us.
And I kind of really love that intimacy.
So that’ll be something that’s hard to let go of.
While his television commitments will become his primary focus, Anstey has not entirely ruled out returning to radio for occasional appearances.
There’s nothing like radio, so that’ll be a little bit sad.
But hopefully I can do little bits and pieces here, should the Today show permit, maybe pop up on fill-in stints or get my little fix every now and then, even though the Today show will be my primary focus.
The departure also brings an end to his time living in Brisbane, although he insists his sporting loyalties will remain unchanged.
With a brother-in-law already encouraging him to embrace New South Wales teams, Anstey was adamant that relocating south would not alter his allegiances.
I will remain staunchly, incredibly staunchly, a Brisbane Lions supporter and Queensland and Broncos.
A family move that almost became a schoolyard exclusive
One of the more entertaining aspects of the relocation has been how Anstey’s children responded to the news.
He told TV Blackbox that he and his wife wanted their children to feel involved in the decision, despite the adults ultimately having the final say.
After discussing the move as a family, the children agreed to keep the news confidential until their father could make a formal announcement.
That arrangement lasted less than a day.
According to Anstey, his son Augie decided the family’s relocation would make an excellent subject for a classroom show-and-share session.
What had happened, we found out from his teachers, is he’d stood up in front of the whole class for show and share.
He didn’t have anything.
We forgot to give them something.
So he stood up in front of the whole class and he said, “Good morning, kindy. Me and my family are moving to Sydney. Any questions?”
The family discovered the announcement had already circulated when another parent contacted Anstey’s wife to ask about their impending departure.
Anstey joked that his son may have been responsible for the news escaping before the official announcement.
So I reckon that’s possibly how the news leaked out, I think.
My son might be the mole in the operation.
The best of both worlds at Today
The new television arrangement gives Anstey an unusual combination of responsibilities, dividing his working week between travelling around Australia to present weather and hosting a national breakfast television program from the studio.
Having first joined Today in December 2021, he has spent the past five years balancing his television commitments with weekday breakfast radio.
The workload has been substantial, but Anstey said the differences between the two mediums helped keep him interested.
Even though they’re in the same family, they’re so different.
And I think that’s what keeps me going.
Doing one feels like a break from the other and vice versa.
If it was, like, seven days a week of television or seven days a week of radio, I think that would be untenable.
But because they feel like a break from each other, that makes it something that I can sustain long term.
His new role offers a similar contrast, allowing him to continue the travel and audience interaction he enjoys as a weather presenter while taking on the demands of live studio hosting.
Anstey revealed that the proposal from Nine’s Director of Morning Television, Steven Burling, came as a welcome surprise.
When Burlo suggested that to me, to do three days of weather and two days of hosting, I nearly fell off my chair.
I just didn’t think it was anything they would ever consider because I love the weather so much for the reasons I mentioned before.
You get to get a bit of your personality across.
I get to get out to all kinds of interesting places around Australia and meet all these interesting people.
The weather role has taken him to locations and events he would otherwise be unlikely to experience, from opera performances in the outback to a 24-hour Pilates challenge.
He said the unpredictable nature of those assignments was part of their appeal.
That’s what I love so much about weather, just meeting people, talking to people, hearing their stories.
I just love Australians and I love Australia.
And it’s such a great way to get to see Australia because I don’t plan it, right?
I just get told where I’m going.
However, the travelling can also be demanding when balancing work with family responsibilities.
Anstey said combining weather presenting with studio hosting would allow him to retain the aspects of television he enjoys most.
I really love the challenge of hosting because the way I describe hosting to people is that you don’t happen to the hosting.
The hosting happens to you.
It’s not a job that you do.
It happens to you.
It’s so full on and so intense.
And I love that challenge.
Joining a new Weekend Today team
While Anstey has previously filled in as a host on Today, his permanent appointment to Weekend Today will bring additional responsibility, particularly when handling the program’s news coverage.
He said he was looking forward to working closely with Alison Piotrowski and Lizzie Pearl, whose experience he expects to draw upon as he settles into the position.
I’m going to lean very heavily on Ali and Lizzie for that side of the job.
They are wonderful, those two.
They’re such unbelievable professionals.
They’ll help me.
They’ll hold my hand through the early days until I kind of find my feet, I think.
So I’m very happy to be working with those two.
He also acknowledged the support of Michael Atkinson, who has been hosting on the program and will take on a sports presenting role.
I’ve done some fill-in stints from time to time.
Atko’s been amazing as well, the current host.
And he’s going to do a great job on sport too, so big shoes to fill there.
The appointment comes as Nine establishes its broader Today presenting lineup, with Anstey joining Sylvia Jeffreys, Tom Steinfort, Jayne Azzopardi, Michael Atkinson, Richard Wilkins and Renee Bargh.
Anstey said he was encouraged by the flexibility of the presenting team, with various members able to move between hosting, news and other duties across the seven-day schedule.
It just feels good to be part of a team with Tom and Sylvia.
I know that there’s kind of this idea that the Today show could flow across all seven days and we could all be kind of Swiss Army knives.
Jayne’s there and Jayne can host, Jayne can do news, and Sylvia can do the same.
Tom is a mad Richmond Tigers supporter, so he can do sport if he has to.
He hopes that approach will help establish a consistent team across both programs.
It just feels exciting to be part of this group of people that can all fill in and all help each other out and we can all get through it together.
And hopefully we’re around together for a really long time.
Nine welcomes permanent appointment
Nine’s Director of Morning Television, Steven Burling, said Anstey had become a familiar presence across both programs during his years working with the network.
Dan is a familiar and much-loved face to audiences through his hosting and weather presenting on both programs over the past four years.
He is one of the sharpest and most exciting talents out there and we’re lucky to have him as a permanent part of the team from next year.
Anstey also expressed his enthusiasm for the opportunity to work across both programs.
I feel like a kid in a candy store who got to choose my two favourite lollies.
This truly is the best of both worlds – getting out with our viewers when presenting weather and then joining Ali and Lizzie in studio bringing the latest news, sport and entertainment each weekend.
I can’t wait to be part of it all, and am pumped for what 2027 holds!
For Anstey, the next chapter will mean exchanging the familiar surroundings of a Brisbane radio studio for a combination of national television hosting and travel, while establishing a new home with his family.
It is a substantial change after years of balancing radio and television, but one he approaches with considerable enthusiasm.
Asked about becoming part of the new-look Today team, he remained characteristically modest about his place in the lineup.
Ridiculous to think that I’m part of it.
I’ll never quite believe it, but I’m just happy that it’s happening.
I’ll just hold on for dear life and learn as much as I can.
For now, that means saying goodbye to the Triple M Brisbane breakfast audience, preparing the family’s move and taking on a television role that combines the road with the studio. He hopes to carry the connection built in radio into the next stage of his work at Nine.
