10 Years in Radio, How Time Flies!

Hit93.5 Dubbo Breakfast

I’m convinced it was only yesterday I strolled through the doors of StarFM Dubbo for my very first Black Betty Cruiser Shift.

It was May 2008 and it was all about Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. At 21 years of age this was the highlight of my existence. Ali & Dazza were the Breakfast show at the time and I was in PURE AWE that I’d got to meet them.

Everything was larger than life itself. A friend of a friend put me in touch with Damian Willoughby. He was the CD and he’d won so many ACRAS he didn’t know what to do with them all! I knew he was my man to learn from. After all radio was the one and only thing I’d ever wanted to do.

Gone were the days of that 10 year old kid playing mums requests of Shania Twain through our old FM baby monitor. I even soldered a signal booster onto the circuit board using the family TV Ariel as an antenna. No joke, it worked. I was a pirate radio operator.

By day I was selling phones for Optus, By night I was managing a local pizza shop and by early mornings I was giving away free stuff and pre-recording a workday shift that would play while I was at my other jobs.

You can do just about anything when you’re 21 and I was living off 4-5 hours sleep every night. But I didn’t care, I was working the best job in the world.

At the time afternoons in Dubbo were networked. I wanted to be on air so bad I told them I’d do it for free. It was a win-win as I gained valuable experience and the station got local content.

One day while giving away the freebies and playing hide and seek from the usual daily punters when two gentlemen approached the cruiser. I didn’t think anything of it until later when the general manager pulled me into his office and said I’d just given freebies to the company CEO Rhys Holleran and his right hand man Tim Devenport. Apparently they we’re impressed. Unknown to me this moment defend my career.

After 18 months of volunteering myself as a workday announcer a decision was made from upper management. As no positions had become available during that time and all of a sudden a role was created. And as of today Dubbo still has a LOCAL workday afternoons announcer.

10 years later and honestly… Radio has given me some crazy opportunities over the last 10 years, I’ve been nominated and won multiple ACRAS, I’ve worked (& Broadcast) right across Australia. I’ve interviewed some of the biggest artists on Earth like Joel Madden & Usher. It’s opened doors across different forms of Media.

From working with one of the biggest voice agencies in the UK, hosting major events like concerts and even the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, NRL Games, working alongside major broadcast companies on my own TV show including Foxtel, National Geographic Channel, TVNZ, A&E among many others.

But MOST INPORTANTLY! Radio has ALWAYS been FUN. And honestly it’s been the backbone through everything I’ve done so far and those skills I’ve learnt have been paramount to what is possible in the industry (and others) when you apply yourself.

Here’s to 10 years in radio… It’s been a BLAST!!!

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Bin Tang
11 May 2018 - 7:29 am

I love gangs of youth

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