Meet Adam Connelly, the man behind the mic

Adam Connelly, content director of 5MU and Power FM and co-host of the 5MU breakfast show Adam and Jennie, is smart, funny and quick.

After 21 years in radio, he’s learnt from some radio greats.

He’s also brought a lot of smiles to listeners, with a positivity that can be partly traced to an unlikely source: Oprah Winfrey.

Positive energy and fun are such a distinctive part of Adam Connelly and Jennie Lenman’s breakfast show that it’s even been immortalised in novels by Léonie Kelsall.

In Kelsall’s new novel, The Path through the Coojong Trees, a character called Hamish “insisted that only Adam and Jennie were capable of such honest enthusiasm that early in the morning and the 5MU radio hosts’ mood was contagious, so he hit the radio before he hit the iced coffee”.

In an even stranger case of art imitating life – followed by life imitating art right back – one of Kelsall’s characters, Sam from The Willow Tree Wharf (2023), listened to the “unfailingly cheerful” Up and Adam, the breakfast show’s former name, so the show’s tagline then became “the unfailingly cheerful Up and Adam”.

But before Connelly became unfailingly cheerful doing radio – his true vocation – he made do with some jobs that were pretty light on cheer.

Originally from Sydney, his first career move was to complete a chemistry degree.

He didn’t like it.

He then worked in two jobs that weren’t exactly carnival: as a debt collector and in a morgue.

His chemistry degree meant he even assisted with autopsies.

He also did some more enjoyable gigs as a juggler, magician and comedian.

But these weren’t steady earners, so he landed on the relatively stable career of radio.

“Radio was never something I thought you could do,” Connelly says.

“Like, it wasn’t even a job anyone ever talked about doing, growing up in western Sydney.”

Connelly proceeded to study at the Australian Radio School of Sydney, known then as the Max Rowley Media Academy.

It was an inspired choice.

As a kid, he had loved radio; and although music loomed large for young Connelly, what appealed most to him was radio comedy.

He’d grown up listening to Sydney radio, which he describes as “a real golden era”, with larrikin comedian Doug Mulray being a particular hero. 

“My obsession was comedy records and tapes and videos and things like that,” Connelly says.

“I started listening to things my dad had liked that I didn’t quite understand in the day, the Rodney Rude and things.”

He later found his own flavour of radio funny guys, such as Mick Molloy.

“Tony Martin and Mick Molloy really changed the way people spoke on the radio,” Connelly says, “and made it a whole production, and I’ve always loved that.”

After finishing radio school, Connelly sent out demo cassettes to various stations and decided to take the first job he was offered – and he was true to his word.

“I got a phone call from 8HA in Alice Springs on the Wednesday, and I started work on the Monday – just packed everything up and flew off.”

Connelly found his time in the Alice both wonderful and a tad surreal.

“Alice Springs is an island most of the time,” he says, “surrounded by sand, really, and distance.

“So everything inside that town is way more important than it would be if it had adjoining towns.

“And to that, we kind of became ‘celebritied’ a bit in the town.

“Everyone knew who we were and listened.

“We had quite an audience.”

Connelly came to understand how odd the Alice Springs celebrity effect was during an event at Lasseters Casino.

“I was at a function, and these cricketing stars were all out on the deck of the casino,” he says.

“My co-host was Michael, who went by ‘Krusty’, because he had big, wavy hair like Krusty the Clown.

“And these two young men walked by – you know, Jason Gillespie and Darren Lehmann and these cricket stars – and went, ‘My god. That’s Adam and Krusty!’

“We’re like, ‘You really need a plane ticket to go and see the world.’”

Continue reading in the spring 2025 edition of Murraylands Life magazine.

Where to get your copy of Murraylands Life magazine

The spring 2025 edition of Murraylands Life magazine will be available at more than 110 newsagents, supermarkets, hotels, service stations, accommodation providers and other outlets around the region from this Friday, September 12.

Click here to find out where you can pick up your free copy at Callington, Coonalpyn, Karoonda, Lameroo, Mannum, Monarto, Murray Bridge, Mypolonga, Pinnaroo, Tailem Bend or Wellington.

Copies may take a few extra days to reach some locations.

If you can’t find a copy at your local pick-up point, let us know by emailing murraylandslife@gmail.com – we’ll circle back to top up supplies as required.

Alternatively, subscribe to Murraylands Life magazine at murraybridgenews.square.site and we’ll post our next four editions direct to you for the cost of postage and handling.

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• More information: Visit www.murraylands.life or email jane@murraybridge.news.