Sonya Feldhoff
Sonya Feldhoff is a longtime ABC Radio Adelaide presenter whose coverage blends community storytelling with arts and culture, including music, nostalgia and the city’s changing social history. Her work stands out for the way she uses live radio conversations and feature pieces to connect listeners with the people behind local institutions, creative projects and everyday experiences.
Community stories and cultural memory
Feldhoff frequently highlights local stories that sit at the intersection of nostalgia, place and popular culture. In her piece on nostalgic Magic Mountain signage exciting memorabilia fans, she focuses on how a much-loved entertainment venue lives on through rescued signs and the collectors who preserve them, treating the story as part of the region’s cultural memory rather than simple event coverage. Her radio programs regularly surface similar threads, inviting guests who can speak to how institutions, campaigns or creative work shape community identity over time. This emphasis on memory and meaning gives her coverage a reflective tone even when the topic is light-hearted.
Live radio conversations across news and everyday life
Across more than three decades in radio, Feldhoff has moved between roles as journalist and presenter, and now works in a format built around live conversations. On ABC Radio Adelaide she co-hosts Breakfast with Jules Schiller, where interviews range from breaking news to everyday listener experiences. Her on-air discussions with guests include topics such as severe storm damage to local shopping centres, public policy debates with senior officials like the police commissioner, and community campaigns around issues like wildlife protection. The through-line is her ability to anchor these conversations in clear, accessible questions while giving space for guests to explain context and consequences.
Arts, writers and creative work
Feldhoff’s coverage gives sustained attention to writers, artists and creative professionals, often through extended live broadcasts. She has fronted ABC Radio Adelaide Afternoons and continues to take programs on the road to major cultural events, such as broadcasting live from Writers’ Week and interviewing authors about new work and ideas. She treats these segments as chances to explore the creative process and the social themes that underpin books, performances and artistic projects, rather than simply promoting events. This focus sits alongside her broader interest in music and entertainment, where she uses nostalgic artefacts, venues and performances as entry points into discussions of how culture evolves over time.
Long-term radio craft and audience rapport
Having worked in radio for more than 30 years, Feldhoff draws on experience as a reporter, producer, newsreader and presenter to shape her current programs. Her style relies on steady, conversational interviewing and an evident comfort moving between serious topics and lighter moments within the same show. ABC promotions and social posts around her work highlight the loyalty of her audience and the way she brings listeners into the conversation, whether through phone calls, texts or recurring on-air segments. That craft shows in her ability to make complex topics—such as government policy, public health or legal issues—feel approachable while still grounded in factual reporting.
Public affairs and institutional accountability
Alongside community and cultural stories, Feldhoff regularly engages with public affairs and institutional decision-making on air. Interviews with figures such as the Police Commissioner and senior government ministers cover topics ranging from law enforcement oversight to foreign policy decisions, including recognition of states and international conflicts. In these conversations she balances a calm tone with direct questioning, focusing on practical impacts for listeners: how policy changes affect daily life, what accountability mechanisms exist, and what options are available to the public. Her programs also feature advocates and subject-matter experts who comment on issues like environmental protection and public health, reinforcing the show’s role as a forum where institutions are expected to explain and justify their choices.
4 more music journalists.
Abby Webster
Abby Webster zeroes in on the storytelling side of contemporary pop, writing for Billboard about how songs build worlds around K-pop groups, fictional pop stars and ambitious soundtracks. She covers K-pop projects through close, song-by-song features, like her track-by-track piece with SEVENTEEN’s Vernon and The 8 on their EP ‘V8,’ and fan-centered lists such as “7 Best Moments from BTS’ Long-Awaited Return.” She treats soundtracks and fictional acts with the same rigor, mapping the inspirations behind “The Vampire Lestat” soundtrack and profiling in-universe groups like HUNTR/X and Saja Boys as if they were chart acts. Through Chart Beat stories on projects like “KPop Demon Hunters,” she connects these releases to industry strategy, global fandom, and the business systems that turn pop narratives into durable IP.
Alex Suskind
Alex Suskind is a freelance writer and editor who covers music with concise news stories and curated release lists. He focuses on new songs, album roundups, and archival access, from Carly Rae Jepsen’s “On Wires” to Neil Young opening his full catalog to residents of Greenland. His reporting stays close to the release cycle and foregrounds the core hook of each story. He has written for Pitchfork and has freelance work in Vulture, The Guardian, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic. He also covers broader arts and culture, but his music beat is built around what is newly out now or newly available.
Ali Shutler
Ali Shutler links chart pop, alternative music and fan culture with the ways songs move through festivals, streaming platforms and games. He is a freelance culture journalist specialising in music, writing news and features for NME and other music and culture titles. He covers breakout chart acts, legacy artists whose catalogues are resurfacing, and how audiences rediscover songs via TikTok, streaming or in‑game soundtracks. His reporting on streaming-era pop and live festival moments tracks virality, catalog access and fan behaviour as part of the story of a track. He also examines music, gaming and visual art crossovers, treating game soundtracks and artist-led campaigns as part of a wider cultural map. Alongside this, he profiles emerging chart artists for outlets including The Telegraph, Vice, The Independent, Dork and Upset, focusing on early-career trajectories and fan culture.
Annette Sharp
Annette Sharp is a veteran gossip and entertainment columnist known for direct, opinion-led coverage of celebrity power struggles and reputational crises across television and the music industry. She now writes high-profile columns for the masthead, after a decade on a well-read gossip column and a move to News Corp in 2008. Her real beat is the friction between public image and behind-the-scenes behaviour on flagship TV programs, including breakfast shows, reality formats and other long-running franchises. She focuses on who drives conflicts, who is exposed and who benefits, using ratings history, production decisions and industry mechanics as context. Sharp covers on-air personalities, executives, advisers and musicians, treating television and music as workplaces with competing egos, contracts and alliances, and blending reporting, media commentary and critique in a narrative column format.