Erin Phillips uses first Mix 102.3 Breakfast show to ‘thank’ Jodie Oddy

Mix 102.3’s new recruit, Erin Phillips, used her first show on air to pay tribute to the woman she is replacing, long-serving former host Jodie Oddy.

Phillips became Oddy’s permanent replacement this year, transforming the Jodie & Soda Breakfast show on Adelaide’s Mix 102.3 into the Erin Phillips & Soda For Breakfast show.

Oddy’s departure was sudden, with many listeners not expecting the change, and she was not afforded the opportunity to say goodbye on-air.

Australian Radio Network (ARN) has consistently said it can’t comment on the nature of or reasons for the departure due to confidentiality, and Oddy has since revealed she will be heard on-air on Nova from next week for a short stint with Ben & Liam.

On the first day of the Erin Phillips & Soda For Breakfast show, it was new host Phillips, rather than Oddy’s former on-air partner Mark ‘Soda’ Soderstrom, who brought up the elephant in the room.

“I wanted to take this moment to send Jodie a message. I want to say to Jodie, ‘thank you’. Thank you for 13 wonderful years on air and allowing listeners like me into your life, which you did fantastically. I want to say a massive thank you for showing women that you can actually have a full-time profession while raising kids – and she raised four kids, which is incredible while holding this job, getting up at 4am every morning. And just thank you for being the best, because she was, and she was a trail blazer,” Phillips said in her monologue.

Phillips said she was a long-time fan of the show and the station, and is well aware of the incredible legacy of Oddy.

“This show has been something that I’ve grown up and been a part of and it’s been an absolute privilege. So to be given this role after Jodie who has been here and did a fantastic job – I’m just so incredibly grateful.”

This, she said, also leads to intense pressure, noting that replacing Oddy under the circumstances had spurred some negative listener feedback.

“People ask me ‘Are you nervous to fill in the role of Jodie Oddy?’ Absolutely. I wouldn’t even be human if I wasn’t nervous. I’m actually shitting myself to be perfectly honest.

“And I know there are people out there that don’t like change. I’ve read the Facebook comments. They’re in front of me. ‘Erin Phillips doesn’t have a journalism degree. Why should she be on air?’ ‘Erin Phillips is boring. She’s monotoned. She doesn’t know what she’s doing. She’s this. She’s that.’ And I get it. I’ve read comments where people have even said online ‘Why is it Erin Phillips & Soda? She doesn’t deserve to be first.’ Well, firstly, I don’t make those decisions. I just saw something in front of me [and was asked] ‘Do you like this? Tick or cross.’ And I’m like ‘Well what am I comparing it to?'”

All she asks, she said, is for listeners to “give the show a go”.

“Wake up with Soda and I, and have some bloody great fun, a lot of laughs, I’m sure, and I promise I will work my butt off to be great, just like Jodie was,” she said.

Radio Today asked ARN why it was Phillips who paid tribute to the departed Oddy, rather than her former on-air partner, Soda. ARN said it was something Phillips wanted to address on her first day on air.