Why Troy Ellis is one of the best-loved radio show anchors in the biz

On-air, he’s at the top of his game. One of the best radio show anchors in the biz.

Off-air, Troy Ellis is as down to earth as anyone could be.

Throughout his 30-year radio career, Troy’s easygoing nature has endeared him to many, many people.

Broad Radio founder and former Fox FM and Gold 104.3 colleague Jo Stanley is one of them.

“He is the kindest, most genuine and supportive person,” Stanley tells Radio Today. “I consider him one of my dearest friends. A beautiful, beautiful man.”

Troy also holds a special place in the heart of Patrina Jones from Gold 104.3’s The Christian O’Connell Show.

“Once in a while, if you’re really lucky, your path crosses with someone who is salt of the earth and an all-round divine human being,” she says. “That is Troy Ellis. Not just a former colleague over the decades, but one of those who becomes a very special friend.”

Today, alongside Marty Sheargold and Will Ralston, Troy gets back behind the mic – doing what he does best – as The Marty Sheargold Show returns on the Triple M network for 2025.

As Troy tells Radio Today, joining the program when it first launched as a Breakfast show four years ago was a major career highlight.

“We got to do something really special and build a brand new show for Triple M Melbourne.”

Sheargold’s vision was to create a program that was different from anything else.

Now airing nationally from 3pm and also as a podcast, Troy says “It’s loose, it’s loud, it’s in your face sometimes, and it’s very funny,”

Sheargold wanted the show to have a ‘clubhouse’ kind of vibe.

“You only need to listen to it for a little while to ‘get it,’ but once you get it, you’re in,” says Troy.

Troy says it’s the first radio show he’s worked on with such a high level of ongoing interaction and tangible engagement with individual listeners through social media.

And with fewer traditional radio rules, the show’s daily podcast allows some edgier content from time to time.

“Podcasting and radio broadcasting are different, but they complement each other very well if you get it right and can leverage the individual strengths of each platform,” says Troy.

Growing up on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, listening to the D Generation ignited Troy’s interest in radio as a career.

Whilst supportive of his ambition, Troy’s parents advised him to study for a ‘proper job’ first, so he enrolled in a Bachelor of Business degree.

While at uni, he joined the Student Radio Association (SRA-FM). This led him to legendary youth station Hitz FM during early 90s.

Along with Simon Diaz – who went on to achieve success at Smooth FM – Troy also honed his skills at 3RPP FM, the local community station in Mornington.

Completing his degree at the age of 21, Troy wasn’t interested in joining the corporate world. So, he pulled together a demo tape and sent it out to program directors at ten different radio stations around the country.

Two job offers arrived on the same day. One was from a radio station in Townsville. The other was from Grant Johnstone of Wangaratta’s 3NE, in Victoria’s north-east.

Being just a couple of hours’ drive up the freeway, the Wangaratta gig held more appeal. And so began Troy’s commercial radio adventure, as the weekday Drive presenter on 3NE.

“I actually beat SCA Chief Content Officer Dave Cameron to that job,” Troy laughs. “But he’s now my boss, so I guess he wins!”

Johnstone – now ACE Radio’s Chief Marketing Officer – tells Radio Today “From day one, Troy had an energy and drive that was truly unstoppable. He was always going to be an immense success.”

“He obviously had a great sound on-air and was brilliant working with listeners. But it was the fact that Troy is a genuinely decent person that made him such a great member of our team.”

Soon enough, Troy was back in Melbourne, working with the Black Thunders and on the Hot 30 Countdown with Ugly Phil and Jackie O at Fox FM in 1994.

One day, Troy and his street team colleague Stick Mareebo were sent to meet iconic English pop group Take That at Melbourne Airport, with a view to doing a live cross on-air.

The band’s flight arrival details were meant to be top secret. But somehow, word got out.

“When we arrived, there seemed to be about 10,000 screaming fans packed into the tiny Qantas terminal gates to see Gary Barlow and Robbie Williams run off the plane into the general public arrivals area,” Troy remembers.

“It was absolute chaos in a confined space. I’ve never heard or seen anything like it since.”

“I think we had a formal complaint sent to the radio station from Melbourne Airport.”

Troy went on to work alongside Matt Tilley (pictured above with Troy and Marty Sheargold) and Tracy Bartram, anchoring the top-rating Tracy & Matt in the Morning Breakfast show.

A standout memory was being on air for six hours on the morning of the September 11 attacks.

“It was incredibly confronting,” says Troy. “Our Program Director Brian Ford wanted us to extend beyond 9am, and we went through to midday, talking to Australians in New York, trying to somehow reflect the enormity of what was happening half a world away.”

“It changed the way FM radio covered major news events within content shows from then on.”

A ten-year stint as part of Fox FM’s Matt & Jo Breakfast show  would follow, during which the team gave away some unforgettable prizes.

“One morning on St Kilda Beach, a listener won one million dollars for digging a polystyrene replica of her head out of the sand,” says Troy.

There was no shortage of classic celebrity dummy spits, either.

“Joel and Benji Madden from Good Charlotte walked out of an on-air chat after I dumped something they said,” Troy recalls. “In fact, we counted 14 celebrities over the ten years who said they’d never speak to us again!”

“Troy just kept the ship afloat,” Stanley remembers. “It’s so easy to be side-by-side with him and supported by him.”

In 2013, on The Matt and Jo Show, something far more personal and unexpected happened.

“We did a segment that called for honesty, and listeners had the chance to get involved and ask whatever they wanted of Matt, Jo, or myself,” Troy explains.

“A caller asked me if I was gay, and I answered yes.”

“While it had never been a secret at work or in my life, I’d just never made it an issue that was front and centre on air.”

“But it was a very liberating moment – to be honest so publicly and to have such great support for ‘coming out,’ not only from The Fox team, but also from our audience.”

Throughout Troy’s radio career, legendary Take 40 Australia host Barry Bissell has always been a supportive and encouraging presence.

“Not only does he remain a very dear friend, but I got to work with him and learn from him for seven years while he was at The Fox,” says Troy.

The role of a radio show anchor has been likened to watching a duck glide across a lake. It seems effortless. What we don’t see is its legs paddling furiously beneath the surface.

Steer the ship, shine the light on the comedic talent and let them fly has long been Troy’s motto.

It’s certainly served him well.

Triple M’s The Marty Sheargold Show with Marty Sheargold, Troy Ellis and Will Ralston returns today (Monday, January 20). The show airs nationwide on Triple M from 3pm–4pm, in NSW and Queensland from 4pm–6pm, and is also available to stream on LiSTNR.