1000 down, more to come

Five years of early starts, clocking up over 1000 shows… and not a bad spot to do it from either. Dave Peter and Jason Shipston call Mackay home and last week they clocked up a milestone on SEA FM, something which is a bit of rarity these days in regional markets.

SEA FM’s Jay & Dave are now the longest running breakfast show around Mackay and The Whitsunday’s, we caught with Dave Peters for quick chat.

1000 shows… well done, so when did you guys start together on SEA FM in Mackay?

We have been together for 5 years, which tends to be a rarity in regional markets :).

Can you pick a best bit of over the years?

I think there’s too many to nail it down to just 1 best bit. We’re always coming up with noisemakers that have never been tried before, which are more often than not focused on things that are happening locally.

We challenged a 13 year old golfer who sunk a hole in one to see if we could do the same while doing the show from the par 3, 8^th hole at Mackay Golf Club (we both came damn close – both within half a metre), we won the pumpkin scone division at the Sarina Show (don’t ask us how, we’re still not sure what happened there), and even when I hit 40 we had a “mid-life crisis week,” which involved a prostate exam live on air (I’m not sure, but I think that’s a first for Australian Radio – happy to be corrected though).

A big highlight for me was getting to see the massive amount of support from the Mackay Community when Jay came out while interviewing Bob Katter – it was a big thing for him to do, to take that leap into the unknown. The response from Mackay to be behind him was nothing short of extraordinary.

Then there was Seth. A young kid who had a heart of gold, even though it was defective. He was given only a couple of years to live, he’d defied the odds (and still going strong)…. When we interviewed him in the studio with his mother (camera crews and the journo’s in the studio as well), his only wish in life was to make sure his mum was happy….. I don’t normally tear up, but this kid had every single person in the studio grabbing the Kleenex – then we sent him up to Townsville to run the Cowboys out onto the field!

To celebrate your 1000^th show, you took your show on the road from the back of a ute… who’s  idea was that and how did it go?

The idea was from a conversation Jay had with our tech a couple of years ago, which was brought up again when we were looking at how to invite the listeners to be a part of the show. With the new OB unit, it gave us that flexibility to jump in the promo car, be chauffeured around and do the entire show while visiting locations suggested by listeners…. From local landmarks to even walking into someone’s house and waking up their teenage daughter! Went off without a hitch, which was fantastic.

Final question….  the best part of living in Mackay & Whitsundays?

Are you serious? I worked in nightclubs in Sydney for 20 years, and as much as I will visit Sydney, this place is just paradise. The weather (no winters are nice), the people, the fact you can holiday at home basically! The only drawback I have is you can’t surf all too often (I haven’t been back at the beach when a Bull Shark was spotted, then the next day a Croc)… As far as locations to work go, this has to be up there in the top 10 around the world!