After more than 25 years inside Australian radio, Wade Kingsley is launching a new podcast designed to fill what he sees as a widening gap in how the industry talks about itself.
Set to debut in mid-January 2026, The Quarter Hour will deliver concise 15-minute episodes focused exclusively on radio news from Australia and overseas, deliberately sitting between straight reporting and long-form commentary.
Kingsley told Mediaweek the idea had been brewing for months, driven by a sense that radio has plenty of headlines but not enough space to properly unpack them.
There is, he said, a clear gap between straight news reporting and longer-form analysis of what is really happening inside the industry.
Not competing, refocusing
Kingsley is already well known to the industry as the co-host of Game Changers Radio, a podcast that has become required listening for many radio executives.
He is careful to position The Quarter Hour not as a rival, but as a return to a different lane altogether.
“The Game Changers Radio podcast has been a runaway success amongst the Australian radio industry. It’s firmly in the opinion space now, and I think that’s a good place for it,” he said.
“With The Quarter Hour I’m going to be single-focused on news about radio, and this will be from anywhere in the world. So I’m not competing with Game Changers, I’m pretty much returning to what I always wanted to do out of school, which was journalism.”
(On a side note, Kingsley, the world of journalism would welcome you with open arms.)
That distinction extends to how stories are handled.
“A good contrast is Game Changers will talk about what Kyle [Sandilands] has said, whereas I’d want to talk to Kyle directly,” Kingsley said.
“I find first-person interviews fascinating as a listener, and I think the creative challenge of talking about a topic in 15 minutes is going to keep me focused on what matters.”
Fast, focused and social-first
The Quarter Hour will launch as a weekly podcast, with flexibility to scale up when the news cycle demands it.
Each episode will focus on a single story and its implications for people working across radio, from programmers and talent to sales teams and agency buyers.
“To me, it’s the conversation about the news that is interesting,” Kingsley said.
“Something has just been announced, so let’s have the first conversation about it. Not hot takes – but let’s talk about the why behind the what. Episodes will be weekly to start with, but will respond to news as it breaks.”
The format itself is being built for modern consumption habits.
“I’m also very much thinking of this as a visual and social first pod,” he said. “I’ll be streaming each episode to all social platforms. It will have a ‘watch it now or listen later’ type feel.”
Radio, not everything audio
Kingsley points to the recent Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) Audio ID launch as an example of the kind of story The Quarter Hour is designed to unpack properly.
“To me, there was a really solid announcement, but the follow-up conversation was a bit mixed. I was thinking that this is a significant announcement, and it means something to everyone working in radio.”
Drawing on experience on both the radio and agency sides, Kingsley said these moments matter.
“I’ve worked in radio and agency side, so I get how important this is to allow radio to better compete with the global platforms. If I were up and running, then I would have asked CRA CEO Lizzie Young and an agency buyer to both come on and said, ‘tell us why this is important to local media jobs’.”
Importantly, The Quarter Hour will stay tightly defined.
“The Quarter Hour will be 100% about radio,” Kingsley said.
“I’m going to have a separate podcast for the audio creator space (i.e. podcasting), but more on that in the new year as I launch my broader podcasting business.”
For an industry navigating structural change, tighter economics and increasing competition from global platforms, The Quarter Hour is positioning itself as a focused, disciplined place to pause, listen and actually talk through what the news means.