Jack Laurence: Hughesy knows the sex of my unborn child & I don’t

For over 12 years I’ve been working in the radio industry on several shows around the country.

Over the past 18 months I’ve been the anchor for the Hughesy and Kate Drive Show on the Hit Network and we know that the one thing you need plenty of when working on a daily radio show is content!

Every single day our job is to fill two hours of a show with entertaining content for people to listen to and connect with on their daily commute. Hughesy and Kate have been running this show for so many years that it truly is a well-oiled machine, they’re content magnets but inevitably being a member of the team means content is going to be coming from your own personal life. However, recently I found myself wondering, is there a point where you can cross the line in the search of content?

A few months ago, the wife and I found out our lives were about to get flipped upside down with the impending arrival of a mini version of ourselves! Of course, we’re both super excited and I couldn’t wait to tell Hughesy and Kate.

They were both over the moon with the news and inevitably the question came up, “When can we announce it on air?”

We weren’t quite out of the ‘Danger Zone’ and me, being a professional worrier, wanted to wait for all the all clear and make sure mini us had all the necessary limbs attached.

I did tell the guys my news very early, maybe too early, because Hughesy asked me almost daily, “So can we do the baby news this week?”

“Got the results back yet?”

“Are we doing your baby news today?”

Eventually, we got all the clear from all relevant parties and we announced the baby news on air. But it wasn’t enough to just say “Jack’s having a baby!” I mean, that’s lovely but really, who gives a shit about the bloke who says 13 12 16 having a baby? It needed a little extra oomph! We needed to involve our listeners.

It just so happened that the wife and I were having a small disagreement about whether to find out the sex before the bub was born. I 100% wanted to know. I needed to know!!! but sadly, my wife didn’t. A solution was presented by Hughsey and Kate.

“Ok let’s ask the people what you should do and you have to go with the audience decision.” Of course, I cleared this with the wife, she’s old-hat at sharing our life on radio and understands the need for content so she was happy to be on board.

As the calls came in, the people came back with a resounding NO, much to my disgust. But that was it, the decision was made.

Sadly, my woes didn’t end there. The following week our GP called to let us know the Harmony gender test results were in. I picked up the envelope which contained the 99.8% accurate results for the sex of our baby. I must have stared at this envelope from every angle known to man, trying to ‘accidently’ see if I could spot Male or Female but I had no joy.

When I got to work I announced the utter pain I was in, holding onto this envelope. Without skipping a beat Kate said “Do you want Hughesy to open it?” and as soon as Hughesy walked in he said, “Do you want me to know?”

Just imagine this from your perspective. You’ve been working with someone for just over a year. You get along well, you like each other but your families aren’t doing weekend BBQs. You’re not catching up with them on a Sunday for a game of golf or swapping friendship bracelets. You’re workmates.

Now imagine one of the biggest moments in your life. You’re having your first child and nobody knows the sex of the baby, not you, not your best friends, not your parents. Nobody. Yet you rock up to work one-day and see ‘Jimmy’ by the water cooler, hand him a sealed envelope and say, “Here you go mate. For your eyes only! Don’t tell anyone.”

Would you do that? No, you bloody wouldn’t. It’s insane. So, am I going to do it? You bet I am! It makes great content.

So that’s how it’s come to be that the man I used to watch every night on The Project and go and see doing stand-up now knows more about my unborn child than I do. We do however have a five thousand dollar wager just in case he slips up! Now I just need to think up some creative ways to make him crack.

Any suggestions?