Gold FM's Brendan 'Jonesey' Jones offers to work for FREE after shock axing
And the popular radio host has revealed he would have 'worked for free' for a rival network if negotiations did not go his way.
From next year, Jones and co-host Amanda Keller will be presenting their long-running show in the drive time slot.
Taking over from the pair will be Gold 104.3 star Christian O'Connell, whose Melbourne breakfast show will be expanded to Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Sydney.
Speaking about being forced to leave his breakfast show after 20 years, Jones told News.com.au he was 'taken aback'.
After management announced that Jones and Keller would get a network show, the 57-year-old radio star said he assumed it would be a breakfast program.
Jones said he told management at ARN, 'No, we can't do that.'
According to the publication, Jones and Keller will sign a new deal with ARN for a whopping $2 million and $2.5 million, respectively.
Insiders say that the price is too high for Triple M, which has long courted the pair.
'When I said ''If they (ARN) try and make us take a pay cut, we could go to Triple M or 2 Day for free … just to win.''' he said.
Amanda said ''Hang on Mr Negotiator." Luckily, it never got to that point.
'The opportunity to be a national show is a big deal.
'I get where management says you can't have two shows coming out of Sydney and into Melbourne. That would be crazy. I came around to it. It's a bit of a head game this business.'
Inside Mail reported last month that Gold FM 104.3 star O'Connell has made no secret of his ambitions to expand his live breakfast audience beyond Melbourne.
His show is already syndicated at night across the rest of the network.
Meanwhile, Jones and Keller reluctantly confirmed their move from breakfast to drive last Friday.
The radio hosts addressed the news on their FM show on Friday morning, saying they would drag their listeners 'kicking and screaming' to the drive slot with them.
'You and I have some big news. We have re-signed here at Gold. I don't want to say "but", but it's "and"—there are going to be some changes,' Amanda, 63, said.
'Brendan and I are going to go to the drive shift... We could have stayed doing breakfast for years. We've never fought the hours.'
'We've spent 20 years with you guys. And this is the thing. We're going to drag you kicking and screaming with us to drive,' she continued.
'We've spent every morning with you guys for 20 years, and now we're going to spend time with you later in the day. We're really excited about that.'
Amanda went on to say: 'As long as you guys come with us and listen to us in drive, all is right with the world.'
Daily Mail's Inside Mail exclusively broke the news of a change on Wednesday when a source revealed there were big moves being made at ARN — you can read the details here.
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