“I feel honoured and lucky:” Nathan Morris celebrates 20 years on air at Perth’s Nova 93.7

He’s dined with the PM at The Lodge, he’s stared down a delivery from Aussie Test bowler Mitch Marsh … he’s even created an iconic sausage roll.

Now, Nathan Morris is adding to his impressive list of achievements.

Today he celebrates 20 years on air as part of Nova 97.3’s top-rating Nathan, Nat & Shaun Breakfast show in Perth.

“It sort of snuck up on me,” Nathan tells Radio Today.

“I feel really honoured and lucky, to be honest.”

It’s a world away from his days growing up in Kalgoorlie.

“Back then, parenting was very relaxed. We could leave at 7 in the morning and come back at 9 at night and no-one even blinked an eye!”

Nathan’s childhood days were spent building cubby houses in mine shafts, selecting movies at the local Blockbuster Video store and riding bikes on mounds of mine waste known as ‘the slime dump.’

Plucked from obscurity, Nathan endeared himself to TV audiences in 2002 as a housemate on Big Brother series 2.

Radio wasn’t even on his radar.

“There was no game plan. I didn’t even think I would be in Big Brother until I was cast in that.”

Having seen contestants from the first Big Brother season move into media roles, the household grapevine was buzzing.

“I remember one of the housemates saying ‘That person’s gonna get this gig, and I reckon you’ll get this gig,’” says Nathan.

“I didn’t know anything about the media landscape, but I did know enough to say ‘There isn’t room in the Australian media for 16 new people. You guys are deluded if you think we’re going to come out of here and get something.’”

“And especially me, at the time, 20 years ago, being gay.”

“I would not even have thought I’d be hosting a radio show, because when I started in radio, I’m pretty sure there was no openly gay Breakfast host in the market. It was a thing that hadn’t been done – because you didn’t know if it was going to ostracise the audience or not.”

When he got out of the house, Nathan knocked back most of the roles he was offered, from getting involved with clothing brands to TV opportunities.

“I thought: I haven’t earned that. So I said no to everything.”

Instead, he took on small media and MC roles, earning his stripes, before Nova Perth invited him to take part in a promotion.

Later, he was offered the Nova Brekky gig.

But others were encouraging him to pursue a TV career.

Nathan sought advice from then Big Brother host, Gretel Killeen.

“She said ‘Nathan, I’m telling you right now, if you can get a radio gig, I would take that over everything else.’”

“She said ‘TV is a very fickle industry. Whereas with radio, they’ll let you grow.’”

It proved to be solid advice.

20 years on, he’s part of a Breakfast radio line up that’s consistently rated #1 in Perth since 2017.

And having spent so many mornings together, it’s hardly surprising that Nathan and co-hosts Nat Locke and Shaun McManus have come to know each other very well.

“I think the best thing about our team is the lack of competitiveness between us,” says Nathan.

“No-one wants to be the one ‘star.’ All we want to do is create a really great product for people in the morning to listen to,” Nathan says.

Nathan says the team has two main rules for radio success. One: Make sure the show is done for the listener and two: Be authentic.

“Listeners can smell bullshit a mile away.”

From giving away a house to ticking off his bucket list dream of riding a Penny Farthing bicycle, there have been countless highlights over the journey.

But a world record attempt – involving a bunch of randy rabbits – certainly stands out in his memory.

Having watched Hollywood actor Cameron Diaz set a world record by snuggling in a hammock with 48 bunnies, Nathan decided he could top that.

“I thought ’48 bunnies isn’t much.’ So I ended up organising more. I got in a hammock. There were 50 or 51 bunnies on top of me.”

The bunnies did what bunnies do.

“That wasn’t a good thing to be part of … being underneath a bunny orgy.”

The day Marriage Equality was voted in was the first time Nathan has cried on air.

“The thing that got me really emotional that day was watching these families and suddenly seeing these kids’ faces light up with joy and their parents’ faces light up with joy.”

“That’s one of my proudest things about being on air. Being gay and getting a job where, at the start, it would have been a very big risk for Nova to put someone (like me) as a host on a Breakfast radio show.”

“And then for me to be on air this long, and for the entire time, for it not to be an issue, or even a point of difference.”

“Our show’s just normal. It’s not ‘the show with the gay guy.’ It’s just our show.”

“What that does to normalise a gay person – in a position like this – and hear them every day … sometimes I wonder what that’s done for a lot of gay kids that are growing up, thinking ‘Oh, there’s someone who’s got a job that I could do, and it’s not even an issue.’”

“I think it’s really great to be able to normalise that.”

And as the Nova Perth team pops the corks for his special milestone today, Nathan can’t wait to see what future adventures await.