From radio life to celebrant life: A most rewarding journey

When I began researching this story, I must admit I was taken aback by the sheer number of radio people who’ve gone on to become celebrants. Suffice to say, it’s a lot. And I’ve really only scratched the surface.

This week we saw B105 breakfast announcer Abby Coleman – a registered celebrant – marry 25 couples as part of a mass wedding event in Brisbane.

The presentation and organisation skills honed in radio can be well suited to the job of conducting a wedding or funeral.

A radio journalist of two decades, Kerrie Turner’s foray into the world of weddings was borne out of frustration.

She tells Radio Today “Whenever my husband and I would go to a wedding, I remember watching the celebrant more than the couple. I would find myself cringing when they didn’t speak confidently or clearly, and don’t get me started on the wedding where the celebrant got the bride’s name wrong!! Each time I would say to Mark ‘Surely it can’t be that hard?’”

“He suggested that I look into what is required to become a celebrant.”

“In 2017, I started studying my Certificate IV in celebrancy while I was working full time at ARN Adelaide, enjoying being mum to a toddler, and growing my second baby.”

“Looking back, I’m not sure how I found the time, but I did, and my final assignment was submitted in early 2018.”

“Once I knew I had passed everything, I applied with the Attorney General’s Department in Canberra to become a Registered Civil Marriage Celebrant. It was deemed I was a ‘fit and proper person’ and my registration came through in early July 2018.”

Initially thinking the job would be nothing more than a fun side hustle, Kerrie hadn’t bargained on the incredible rush she felt when she performed her first ceremony.

“I made the huge decision to resign from my role with ARN, and at the end of 2020 I finished up. Very quickly the offer of casual work with the 5AA newsroom presented itself, allowing me to still get my radio fix.”

Kerrie agrees the radio presentation skills certainly come in handy.

“I had a photographer at a ceremony earlier this year come up to me afterwards and say ‘Your voice is so nice to listen to. It was like I had the radio on.’ I politely smiled and thanked her!”

Promising ceremonies that aren’t ‘stiff and boring,’ former 3XY announcer Greg Evans has presided over the nuptials of hundreds of couples.

He told me on the Food Bytes podcast that becoming a wedding celebrant wasn’t something he planned.

“All my life, all I ever wanted to do was be a radio announcer. When I was twelve, I used to talk into saucepans under the bedclothes. But having completed a wonderful radio career and having some great luck in television, one of my friends – Kevin ‘Bloody’ Wilson actually – got me involved with being a marriage celebrant.”

It transpired that Wilson’s daughter – a huge fan of Greg’s TV show Perfect Match – was getting married in Nashville, then flying to Australia the week after for a repeat celebration. Wilson asked Greg to host the ceremony in Perth.

It proved a turning point in Greg’s life.

When former triple j presenter Rosie Beaton found herself out of a job after a round of redundancies at the ABC, she, too, took the marriage celebrant route.

On Cathrine Mahoney’s So, I Quit My Day Job podcast, Rosie says “I had to kind of think, well – there IS life outside the ABC. I’d learnt some amazing skills. I had a break for six months and then I looked up how to study to be a celebrant.”

“It was challenging because you have to learn a lot of legislation. People think you just turn up and say ‘I do.’”

Armed with a “motherlode of folders,” it took nine months of study, a subsequent exam – and the ability to show proof that she’s an upstanding citizen – before Rosie was officially declared a celebrant.

“I am so glad I did it, because I love road trips. A lot of couples like to get married with green hills behind them. One day I was in my car and I’m like ‘Look at this. This is so beautiful.’

Rosie’s first wedding gig was in Canberra, where she was celebrant at the marriage of an old triple j friend.

Brooke Lingard – former breakfast show producer at Perth’s Mix 94.5 – is also a marriage celebrant.

“I absolutely love love. I love getting couples questionnaires back and sitting down with a cup of tea, crying and laughing as I read through it.”

The role of a funeral celebrant is a complex one, requiring professionalism and respect balanced with empathy and care.

Former 3KZ Melbourne News Director Michael Lynch devised and led more than 2,400 funeral and memorial services over a period of 22 years.

He tells Radio Today that turning fifty was something of a watershed moment in his life.

“It was on that day in December 1997 that after 30 years as a radio announcer/journalist, I felt in desperate need of a change in career direction.”

As it happened, the planets aligned.

Melbourne funeral company Tobin Brothers was in the process of developing secular ‘life centred services’ and – in tandem with that plan – was keen to employ an in-house celebrant.

“Tobin Brothers believed that the skills I had acquired as a broadcast journalist – writing, interviewing and presenting – would be those I could successfully draw upon as a celebrant.”

Michael sees the role of a funeral celebrant as to akin to writing someone’s biography. A meaningful tribute, which must avoid glib or cliched references to the loss of loved ones.

“I often found composing the opening words of a eulogy to be quite challenging. This was because eulogising the life of a 96-year-old person – who may have suffered Alzheimer’s Disease for the previous ten years and had ceased to recognise loved ones for the past five – was vastly different to leading a service for a teenager who had taken his or her own life.”

“In the former case, there existed an ultimate inevitability and in many cases the grieving process had taken place long before physical death had occurred.”

“In the latter however, there was often no sign, no indication that anything was wrong, which would leave devastated parents with so many unanswered questions and even a misplaced sense of guilt.”

“There were of course many other occasions when I was privileged to lead quite joyous funeral services that could truly be called celebrations of life.”

A standout memory for Michael was the service he conducted for a 60 year old man with Down Syndrome who had told his family that the only songs he wanted played at his funeral service were those by Judith Durham and The Seekers.

Former 96.5 Wave FM announcer Adam Straney had a friend ask him to preside at a funeral, as the celebrants the family normally used weren’t available.

He tells Radio Today “So I officiate the funeral service after meeting the family and having a few laughs with them, and after sh***ing myself whilst writing the service, I realised it’s not that bad, and people loved the ‘real celebration’ created around an end of life service.”

“It was essentially that day that I thought ‘I’ll do this full time’ and started studies to become an authorised civil marriage celebrant too.”

“8 years later, I’ve never been busier with both funerals and weddings.”

“Using the power of voice and story is what radio is all about, that’s what draws me to sometimes drive a 9 hours round trip for a great love story and of course the connection that you make with people is second to none.”

In a phone chat with former 2WS and 2UE announcer and now retired funeral celebrant Pete Graham, it was immediately clear to me that Pete is a man who cares and feels deeply, hence his commitment to capturing the individual qualities of loved ones who’ve passed.

Pete once said “I’ve heard of people turning up at cemeteries where there are three chapels, going to the wrong one and not realising they’re in the wrong chapel service.”

“I always made it my point that – no matter where you are in that service – it is about that person.”

Steve Mummery – former Content Director at Perth’s Mix 94.5 – has been a funeral and marriage celebrant since 2017.

“I love taking the journey towards marriage with my couples and celebrating lives lost of loved ones,” he says.

Shawn Cosgrove, Jane Clifton, Bryan Martin – the list of radio celebrants goes on.

As Michael Lynch notes, life works in mysterious ways.

“It’s often said that ‘everything happens for a reason’ – and looking back on my rewarding careers as a broadcaster and funeral celebrant – I believe it does.”

Photo credits: Kerrie Turner kt weddings: Fiona at www.twotellatale.com.au, www.chasingevephotography.com and Facebook.

Brooke Lingard Married by Brooke photo credit: James Simmons Photography.